Blurbs and Saving Sally

I'm reposting excerpts from something I've written for a friend's thesis, which chronicles the production of an independent animated Filipino film Saving Sally. It has a simple but well thought-out story, wonderfully-rendered visuals, and an (ongoing) production period so bloody that all of the young artists involved in this collective project probably deserve a state citation for slugging it out the way they did, with nothing but guts, hard work, talent, and vision.

THE CITY OF MONSTERS

Marty's home is a white, wooden house topped by a makeshift antenna, a tiny speck in a city reeking of dilapidation, untoward happenings, desolate labyrinths of spoiled dreams and secrets. The city is populated by the monsters in Marty's mind: grotesque creatures on the MRT, lurking in the houses of the rich and poor alike, smirking on shiny, brightly-lit billboards, eyeing groceries in the neighborhood convenience stores, even lumbering aboard decade-old jeepneys.

There is something fantastic in the way this film renders realities and metaphors: how it (rather faithfully) portrays Metro Manila as a pre-apocalyptic enigma on the verge of closing shop, and how Marty exteriorizes his subjectivities and personal opinions of people around him into images seen and drawn. Loonies are allowed to let themselves be, and are not chained to straitjackets in some mental colony. Ogres, freaks and dickheads are portrayed for what they are: plainly, without frills, make-up or cosmetic surgery.

WHEN MARTY MET SALLY

Everybody's heart bleeds for the underdog. Which is probably why, while reeling from the death grip of a high school bully, Marty is suddenly saved by a mysterious girl who hands him a calling card and a list of items to be procured: a dozen capsules of Counter-Consti and laxatives, a roll of film, and one peso.

And salvation has a name: Sally.

SALLY

Artist, inventor, mercenary.

Her calling card tries to sum it all up but cloaks her quaint contradictions instead. Sally, who abhors bullies but gets a kick out of sneaking up on people and scaring the bejeezus out of them. Sally, the tough, beautiful girl with a nerdy laugh. Sally, Marty's sun-bathed savior and muse who lives in a desolate house atop a cliff. Sally, who invents gadgets and robots to conjure solutions to her woes. Sally, who carries the entire weight of the world by doing head stands.

There's a sadness behind Sally's smile, and only Marty knows why. Sally immerses herself in cranking out a bewildering array of totally useless and mundane machines in her garage: wet plate blowers, lens-contracting glasses to see in the dark, Chore Machines, and other things which should supposedly make her miserable life easier but which could also blow up in her face. Sally's quirky top secret projects are her way of coping with realities she'd rather not confront. Probably because she doesn't want to be saved in the first place.

Find out more at www.savingsally.com.