Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin

It is Prelim exams tomorrow but the thought would not stop me from distressing after spending the weekends memorizing tons of account titles for a quiz in Accounting yesterday.  And how did I distress?  By reading a book.

I just purchased this morning Bob Ong's newest book Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin.  And just like his other books, Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin is witty, vivid in the portrayal of Philippine culture and bloody-honest (yet you won't mind) with every page pinched with tons of humor.

A snapshot for Twitter.  It's me reading the book.

Lumayo Ka Man Sa Akin.  From the cover, you know
what to expect.

The book is Bob Ong's ninth book and it deliberately talks about the state of Philippine movie and drama, often described, explicitly or implicitly, as highly commercialized.  In page 166, a character said that Filipino movies are known to be of good quality but the downtrend started when businessmen/ movie producers/ filmmakers (negosyanteng mamemelikula) thought of earning much by producing movies that are trash.

The book is written following a script format and is divided into three parts which are presented as a film within a film (ala Shake, Rattle, and Roll or Three...Extreme).  The first part is titled Bala sa Bala, Kamao sa Kamao, Satsat sa Satsat and is basically aimed towards action movies with slight inference as to how crappy our comedy movies are.  Shake, Shaker, and Shakest is the book's second part and talks about our horror films, being more visual, or sensory, and appealing to the masses despite lack of a good plot.  The third part, which is my total favorite, is Asawa ni Marie, and is about the state of Philippine Drama.

I finished the book in four hours and it was a great read, with me laughing throughout the reading process. The imagery the book creates is clear and the references to actual events and scenarios are totally evident. You can actually imagine the scenes as well as the scenarios we see in TV. The depiction of the typical formula used by Filipino movie makers is very poignant and straightforward. While the side comments on Philippine society is brutally honest but never offensive.

In a way, I agree with the book's overall impression.  Pinoy movies and dramas are becoming the same old lame story.  If not, we become cover versions of other movies.  The movies that gross the highest are the ones that does not really have a good storyline while the ones that are actually sensible are the very movies that are not patronized.  I don't know what went wrong with all our scriptwriters that they barely think outside the box.  What I see is predictable and overused.  Gasgas if I say it in Tagalog.

Overall, Lumayo Ka Man Sa Akin impressed me to the nines.  If you find the book comedic, then you are dead wrong because it talks with utmost sense and seriousness.  If you find it serious, then you are dead wrong because it is filled with humor only Bob Ong and his conversational, relatable writing aesthetic could do.  It is a perfect example of everything in one, something most Filipino movies hardly achieve.