Kinatay

In Kinatay we go from everyday chaotic, but joyful everyday life and take a trip deep into its mafia controlled cynical underbelly. It is disgusting and sobering, but realistically depicted and therefore has a potential to shock people into disgust. The hope then is that this disgust can inspire a change in attitudes and ultimately fight this mafia instead of feeding it. That's far-fetched though.

The movie in itself makes you feel like part of the action with hand-held cameras instead of cinematic abstractions. This is its strong point as well as what takes away some of the tension too. Some sections are just too long and dwelling. Supposedly the actions, reactions and (lack of them) can this way play around in our mind so that we build tension inside ourselves, but I ended up getting bored at times.

Most of the scenes are incoherent. The main plot is the brutality done to the girl, that's it, movie concluded. Just wasted my time watching this crap.

After reading reviews of Kinatay, I decided to watch the film, but it was so rare I can't find it in the internet. Luckily, I found it in a CD shop in a mall and bought it.

The first scenes had a feeling of ordinary life in the shanties of urban Philippines, displaying the bouncy/cheerful personality of Filipinos. However, the ordinary setting takes an abrupt turn upon the start of the mid-section of the movie, where the dark ambiance begin to ooze.

The actors, as aided by unconventional found-footage style camera angles, really did well in making the scenes appear so natural, so as to make the viewer really believe he is an invisible spectator on the actual site. The eerie background music was minimal and effectively placed in scenes that actually require it, enhancing the psychological effect on the viewer.

The flow doesn't hurry in switching scenes. It maintains a slow pace, even until the ending, which is so unconventional but effective. At the end, it leaves the viewer "hanging" because its ending can only offer implications.

What makes the movie really stand out is the sheer natural attitude the characters portray for an extremely brutal and insane act, as viewed by a direct witness. As an indie film, it is not expected to have a spectacular production value, so there would be scenes that are so dark and silent (or both at the same time), and others used to commercial movies might find it boring and lame. If you want something dark and psychologically affecting because it shows how "natural" a grisly act is, then this film should be in your list.

I registered in IMDb only to express how blatantly stupid, boring and overall waste of time is this movie. Cannot recall ever seeing something so bad. As it was pointed out by some other reviewers many scenes are useless and unusually long. For example 4-5 men taking a leak together - 1 minute. What an expressionism.

Kinatay is a slow moving movie, it even makes you question what you are watching, the movie literally introduces you to the streets of the Philippines and shows the terrible nature of the Philippines, you witness the state of consent brought by social life and the movie seemed to me to have a realistic atmosphere, but we watched the character who was in inertia. That's how life is. The continuation and the dinner scene were quite scary, it was like a nihilistic production that reminds you of life between extinction and creation. Kinatay officially pushes the ethical boundaries, the movie can make you angry in this regard, but I think it is the best among the movies that can anger you. Actors They acted realistically and a different event emerged with the atmosphere of the Philippines, but I think the movie could have worked better and could have been opened to the public. I felt the atmosphere was missing while watching the movie, but despite that, Kinatay is a production that I found interesting with its wild nature. That's why I wasn't harsh when giving a score.