Ulan

Ulan is a welcome treat to Filipino audiences who are looking for a new flavor on their usual local flicks as it mixes magic realism with romance. It is really beguiling. Backed-up by an extraordinary story and great screenplay, driven by solid direction and storytelling by Irene Villamor, amazing performance by Nadine Lustre and mesmerizing visuals by Neil Daza, the result is a peculiar yet hauntingly beautiful, and a fullfilling movie experience like no other. Poetic cinema at it's finest.

Bittersweet romance. Ulan shows, not just fantasies, but the reality of finding and losing love.

What I like most in the movie is the nostalgia it brings - the childhood that most Filipino kids have. It built Maya's character through the supertitious beliefs she was taught by her grandmother while growing up. The same beliefs she then held on as she went on with her life - her career and love life.

Maya (Nadine Lustre) is your typical protagonist, but in a good way. She is the girl who craves romance, who is fearless in seeking it, and is brave to accept and move on from the pain it brings. On the other hand, Peter's character (Carlo Aquino) left you with the hardest question to answer - choosing between the calling to serve and the woman you love.

Overall, the movie is pure passion, mystery, and art. The ending is tragic but nonetheless makes you want to fall and stay in love.

Bittersweet romance. Ulan shows, not just fantasies, but the reality of finding and losing love.

What I like most in the movie is the nostalgia it brings - the childhood that most Filipino kids have. It built Maya's character through the supertitious beliefs she was taught by her grandmother while growing up. The same beliefs she then held on as she went on with her life - her career and love life.

Maya (Nadine Lustre) is your typical protagonist, but in a good way. She is the girl who craves romance, who is fearless in seeking it, and is brave to accept and move on from the pain it brings. On the other hand, Peter's character (Carlo Aquino) left you with the hardest question to answer - choosing between the calling to serve and the woman you love.

Overall, the movie is pure passion, mystery, and art. The ending is tragic but nonetheless makes you want to fall or stay in love.

Ulan is not a romance movie. It is about love but it is against love. It is anti-romance. But it is romantic. It was grounded in truth and yet steeped in the supernatural that wound itself so intricately with the reality of the story. The film benefits from such a rich appreciation of magical realism which gave meaning to what otherwise would be a disorienting narrative flow. Magic and folklore are embedded in Maya's childhood, which I think speaks of a need to reconcile what is seemingly a conflicting reality with the stories we are told, and which to us, speaks just as much truth as anything science could explain.

The film was first presented as your not so typical love story, but falls under these minor segues that adds mythology and historical Philippine beliefs into the mix, which leaves the audience begging for more. The mixture of Philippine superstition and its symbolic portrayal through the films animation provokes the audience to keep on wondering how the film would all tie up together. The sequencing of the film was also a breath of fresh air in contrast to your run of the mill box office hits, which effectively captures the interest of the audience as the unravel the mysteries that the film has to offer one sequence at a time. To limit the film only to one genre would be to disregard the brilliance of the film of how not only was it able to incorporate romance into the film, but to actually complement it with thriller and horror elements, likening it to a happy accident. What is most compelling in this film is the political satire that it was able to discreetly insert while progressing the story of the film but somehow being able to integrate into the minds of the audience, the impact of the environment in this country. Finally, the personification of Philippine myths is what makes this film stand out as it brought out a sense of humanity as to the imagination of our Filipino ancestry that we are able to appreciate it more vividly than we would usually like. All in all, the film prides itself in the substance and the message that it seeks to convey to the audience and urges them to look beyond the surface and see the collateral beauty in the world