Tag Archives: Kiko

Dinig Sana Kita (If I Knew What You Said)

Rating: [rate 5.0]

Dinig Sana KitaThe film is a love story between a Deaf boy who loves to dance and a troubled rocker girl who abuses her hearing. One lives in the world of solitude and silence, the other in noise and fear. Crossing paths in a Baguio camp that mixes Deaf and hearing kids, both find that they have more in common with each other including a love for music.

DINIG SANA KITA is the first Filipino film to have a Deaf Actor in a Lead role. Romalito Mallari is a Deaf performer that has played several stage productions as actor and/or dancer. It also features several Deaf actors in the cast and ensemble.

Written, directed and produced by: Mike Sandejas
Cast: Zoe Sandejas, Romalito Mallari, Robert Seña, Lorenzo Mara, Mica Torre, Adrianna Agcaoili, Cherrie Velarde-Mactal

I’m not much of a movie-watcher, and I’m not really one to watch independent films for the fun of it. Truth be told, I never really cared about Cinemalaya, even if a friend was part of the production team for one of the movies (Pepot Artista, if you want to know). I’m just not adventurous with movies, period.

So I wasn’t really planning on catching any of the Cinemalaya films for 2009. It wasn’t until my best friend Toni convinced me to watch Dinig Sana Kita. I’ve read about this through Yam’s blog, and then when Toni invited me, I decided to watch the trailer and then I wanted to watch it. But it wasn’t the kind of “I should watch this or else!”…I would have been perfectly fine not to watch it if I did not get the chance, especially since we ran out of tickets on its last day of showing in CCP. But Toni was persistent and he got us tickets for UP Cineastes showing of the Cinemalaya films and I found myself trooping to UP yesterday to watch this oh-so-popular film.

And I’m glad I did.

Dinig Sana Kita (If I Knew What You Said) is a very unique movie — firstly because of the deaf factor. Romalito Mallari is very good, and it’s interesting to know that he’s also really deaf-mute and that he has a lot in common with the character he plays. The two characters, Kiko and Nina, looks like two people from the opposite sides of the spectrum: Kiko, as mentioned is deaf, and Nina is a misunderstood/troubled rocker girl who tries to lose herself her ipods and her band. After a threat of expulsion from Nina’s school she was sent to a Deaf Encounter camp, where she meets and eventually befriends Kiko.

At first I thought that it would be a typical love story, where they meet, disagree and eventually fall in love, but surprisingly, it wasn’t. Though they did fall in love, it wasn’t because they fell at first sight — it was because they became friends first and learned to reach out to each other despite their differences. The love angle is not really the main focus of the film, but in Kiko and Nina’s interactions and also in the people around them.

There wasn’t one part of the film that I wasn’t entertained. I was amused and awed, I laughed and I cried (I didn’t expect to, really, but the end of the film just really had me in tears). It was a very good film, one that I’d really want to watch all over again and even get a DVD once it’s out. This is the kind of story that I wish I had written. :P

Other notes on the film:

  • I thought I would be bored with the sequences where the only conversation happening were just sign language, but I wasn’t. I suddenly remembered the days when we’d have participants from SpED during our youth camps and we’d all learn sign language to talk to them, or they’d teach us how to sign our names. :D Memories. :D
  • Every time I see Robert Seña, I can’t help but think of Colonel Salvi in Noli at Fili Dekada 2000. Haha I’m sorry. His role in that play just stuck to me. :))
  • There were English subtitles all through out the film, even with the song numbers, so we got to see the English translations of the songs. Can I just say that the Filipino lyrics were just more beautiful than the English translation? It’s just more…haunting and sincere. I think I just had a new found appreciation of our language. :)

Dinig Sana Kita will be showing in Robinson’s Galleria Indiesine (sp?) starting August 26 to September 1. Be sure to catch it on those dates, and I promise you won’t regret it. :D I’m definitely watching it again. :D

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