Talisay Trees at Moalboal's Old San Juan Nepomuceno Parish Church

This brings back old memories of seemingly endless summer days spent biking, climbing up trees, playing in the water.... Summer afternoons were for catechism classes and Flores de Mayo novena prayers at the old San Juan Nepomuceno Parish Church in Moalboal, Cebu. You can see part of its facade to the extreme left of this picture. Today, the facade is all that remains of this church -- a 100-year-old remnant of the past and a testament to my youth. The new church building stands a few steps away.

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Moview Review: The Lady Shogun and Her Men

I've heard about this story for sometime now. The Japanese title is Ooku , which refers to the chamber in the shogun's castle where all the women of the shogun's harem are kept. However, Yoshinaga Fumi's manga, on which this movie is adapted, adds a twist: the shogun is a woman and beautiful men fill her harem. THE STORY In the year 1716 Japan, most of the men have died from a deadly disease that only affects men, resulting in their population dwindling to as much as 1/4 of the total population of women. Consequently, women fill in the traditional roles of men, performing hard labor, managing businesses and running government while men are pampered, protected and allowed only to indulge in light entertainment. In this nonexistent Japan lives Mizuno Yunoshin (Kazunari Ninomiya), a teenager from an impoverished samurai class family. He likes fencing and his childhood friend, O-Nobu (Horikita Maki), but because of his family's financial status (O-Nobu is a daugh...

Word for the Day: Acquiescence

I made my first court appearance today. A pretty simple case and it was a hearing on a motion. The funny thing is, I wasn't in the least bit nervous even though I ought to have been. Maybe because today wasn't a particularly busy court day in that sala. Fewer people, lesser spectators to any bloopers I might have committed. I was trying hard not to look too neophyte but it's impossible when there's only so many litigation lawyers in Cebu. According to one experienced lawyer acquaintance, you're bound to know, if not their names, then their faces in the long run. Our case was the first one called and I think that from the first few words out of my mouth ("Good morning, Your Honor. I am Atty. Bleep in collaboration with Atty. Bleep and Atty. Bleep, appearing for the defendants, Your Honor."), they already figured out I was new. Old-timers no longer feel the need to introduce themselves to the court since court personnel and the judge already know them. ...

Movie Review: In The Mood for Love

So I finally got around to watching this movie. I’ve always wanted to ever since I saw 2046 , which got its hype from the fact that it starred both Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li , two of China‘s hottest international stars. But ultimately for me, it was Tony Leung ’s performance that pulled the movie through. His and Wong Kar-wai ’s genius for film-making. Indeed, where else can you find an entire reel of film devoted to wisps of swirling cigarette smoke? Or of five seconds of the camera gazing at a hand splayed on the banister of a hotel stairway? I’ve seen movies that use the camera as an effective tool to create mood or dynamism but I have never seen it used as part of the senses quite like in Wong’s movies. To Wong Kar-wai, the camera is his eye, nose, ears and hands, and by extension, ours . Imagine yourself coming upon a room for the first time and finding yourself noticing, not the room in perspective, but the details, the tiny everyday things that seem mundane and insignificant, ...

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