Author Topic: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)  (Read 4112 times)

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Offline keating

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Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« on: Apr 23, 2007 at 07:39 PM »
Topel Lee goes mainstream with a new horror flick called OUIJA. His follow-up to the YAYA episode of SRR 8. The underwater cemetery in Camiguin where they shot is something new in this film.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2007 at 03:04 AM by Zubiri! »

Offline Centurion Obama

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2007 at 03:04 AM »
This will probably be my favorite Pinoy movie of the year.  Good on ya, Topel.
Free Burma pa rin!

Offline keating

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2007 at 07:48 AM »
The Cinemalaya entries are pretty good also, joey.

Offline Centurion Obama

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2007 at 11:59 AM »
I never know what's good at Cinemalaya kasi until I actually see them.
Free Burma pa rin!

Offline keating

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #4 on: Jun 27, 2007 at 07:58 PM »
Saw the trailer. Impressive.

The shot at the underwater cemetery in Camiguin was so awesome!
« Last Edit: Jun 27, 2007 at 07:59 PM by keating »

Offline Centurion Obama

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #5 on: Jun 27, 2007 at 11:24 PM »
where'd ya see the trailer?  and can we watch it anywhere online?
« Last Edit: Jun 28, 2007 at 12:04 AM by Zubiri! »
Free Burma pa rin!

Offline keating

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #6 on: Jun 28, 2007 at 11:50 AM »
It was shown when I saw BLACKOUT in the theatre, joey. I'll keep an eye on youtube.com.

Offline Centurion Obama

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #7 on: Jun 28, 2007 at 03:40 PM »
durn, sana they show it with transformers!
Free Burma pa rin!

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #8 on: Jun 28, 2007 at 07:05 PM »
« Last Edit: Jun 28, 2007 at 07:09 PM by Zubiri! »
Free Burma pa rin!

Offline keating

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #9 on: Jun 28, 2007 at 07:37 PM »
That was so fast, joey!  :D

Offline Centurion Obama

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #10 on: Jul 22, 2007 at 10:05 AM »
Malapit na!
Free Burma pa rin!

Offline Centurion Obama

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Not quite.
« Reply #11 on: Jul 29, 2007 at 06:04 PM »
I voted with my feet. :(

The movie did not quite live up to the expectations for the movie.  Oh well, maybe the next Shake, Rattle and Roll will be better.
Free Burma pa rin!

Offline thegoodbyeguy

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #12 on: Jul 29, 2007 at 08:07 PM »


      I wonder how did they earn the Grade of A by the Cinema Evaluation Board? Technical aspect, perhaps?

Offline oggsmoggs

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #13 on: Jul 29, 2007 at 08:25 PM »
Horrible movie.

Offline allanmandy

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #14 on: Jul 30, 2007 at 02:23 PM »
Saw this last Friday. IMHO, Feng Shui and Sukob were much better and scarier than this. Not scary at all for me (although almost everyone was screaming, out of fright or anticipation of fright, in the screening I was in). Maybe I've become immune from watching so many thrillers. The only two things I loved about this movie are the cinematography and Iza Calzado's performance.


Offline Quitacet

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #15 on: Jul 30, 2007 at 03:38 PM »
I watched this last night. Our local cinema is packed with people (half of them were kids) and most of them were screaming too.

I would've fallen asleep watching this if not for the screams.

IT's another "ghost-hair-floating-white dress-ek-ek" type of movie and continues the trend began by the Ring in horror movies.


I agree with the poster above that Sukob and Feng Shui are better.

One thing I liked about the movie is the locations where they shot it.

Offline X44

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #16 on: Aug 01, 2007 at 10:53 PM »
I liked when the ghost comes out of the dress and when it contorts and I like the part where everybody in the plane disappears and I wish they had pushed that a bit.

Not Topel's best work, I agree.
« Last Edit: Aug 01, 2007 at 10:54 PM by X44 »

Offline oggsmoggs

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #17 on: Aug 02, 2007 at 01:56 AM »
I liked when the ghost comes out of the dress and when it contorts and I like the part where everybody in the plane disappears and I wish they had pushed that a bit.

Not Topel's best work, I agree.

Yeah, that was a good trick... I just wished the film was subtler (we really dont need 3 scares per minute; and Topel's Yaya in Shake, Rattle and Roll was brilliant until we saw the mananangal --- so he works better with subtlety than hardcore scaring). Iza Calzado is good, huh?

Offline X44

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #18 on: Aug 02, 2007 at 03:21 AM »
Iza? Oh yeah. I  liked the young girl, too. And Jolina I specially liked. Understated. Juday was a little too
 . . .diva-ish for me. Agree about the subtlety. The J-Horror it wants to emulate worked on slow burn and subtlety (as they have been since the time of Kwaidan I guess). And enough with the longhaired girls, I say. Not writing Topel off ,though. His work's - - - Dilim, Nak Nang, Yaya - - - almost always fun to watch. This had its moments. Very few of them,unfortunately, were scary. Except for the plane thing.
« Last Edit: Aug 02, 2007 at 03:22 AM by X44 »

Offline deweyfinn

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #19 on: Aug 03, 2007 at 06:01 PM »
Horrible movie.

I can't believe this piece of crap outgrossed daw the likes of Ratatouille & The Simpsons Movie locally.

Haven't seen it though...I haven't even seen any local film on the big screen since "Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros".

The rat who wanted to be a chef roared at the Philippine box-office as Disney/Pixar's RATATOUILLE grossed a scrumptious Php28.9 million in it's 5-day opening weekend (July 25 to 29), becoming the No. 1 Hollywood movie of the week. This was announced today by Victor R. Cabrera, general manager of Columbia Pictures which distributed the film.

RATATOUILLE's opening figure is the 2nd biggest bow ever for a Pixar title, bested only by 2004's THE INCREDIBLES (Php32.1 million) but ahead of 2006's CARS and 2003's FINDING NEMO.

A highly-recommended family entertainment, the animated feature received a General Audiences rating from the Movie & Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB). In the U.S., the Hollywood Reporter ranked it as the No. 1 best-reviewed film so far this year.

BOX-OFFICE BREAKDOWN: TOP CINEMAS
...TriNoma -- Php1.53 million
...Power Plant -- Php1.34 million
...Glorietta 4 -- Php1.26 million
...SM North EDSA -- Php1.06 million
...Greenbelt 3 -- Php1.02 million
...SM Megamall -- Php997,779
...Shang Cineplex -- Php985,001
...Eastwood -- Php974,249
...Gateway -- Php903,636
...Alabang Town Center -- Php789,027
...Festival Mall -- Php734,931
...SM Mall of Asia -- Php702,507
...Robinson's Ermita -- Php589,383
...Greenhills -- Php575,380
...Glorietta 1 -- Php571,579
...SM San Lazaro -- Php529,621
...Robinson's Galleria -- Php518,868
...Sta. Lucia East -- Php430,608
...Market! Market! -- Php413,471
...SM Clark -- Php393,253

Directed by Academy Award-winner Brad Bird, RATATOUILLE is the most original comedy of the year about one of the most unlikely friendship's imaginable. The film's protagonist is a rat named Remy who dares to dream the impossible dream of becoming a gourmet chef in a five-star French restaurant. Together with a down-and-out garbage boy named, Linguini, the pair carves their own imaginative path to becoming the greatest chef in Paris.

Still playing across the Philippines, RATATOUILLE is distributed by Buena Vista International through Columbia Pictures.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/intl/philippines/?yr=2007&wk=30&p=.htm

Oh dear....

Offline X44

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #20 on: Aug 03, 2007 at 06:34 PM »
On the other hand, though, it's always good to see a local film (and better a Topel film than, say, a Mark Reyes one)  beat a foreign one  - -- specially a Hollywood one - - -at the box office.

You only wish it were a crappier Hollywood film it beat and not the two Hollywood films this year that seem to be meant to be watched with your brains switched on. Haven't seen both so I wouldn't know.

And you only wish it would happen more often. 

Like all the time.
« Last Edit: Aug 03, 2007 at 06:36 PM by X44 »

Offline oggsmoggs

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #21 on: Aug 03, 2007 at 08:26 PM »
On the other hand, though, it's always good to see a local film (and better a Topel film than, say, a Mark Reyes one)  beat a foreign one  - -- specially a Hollywood one - - -at the box office.

You only wish it were a crappier Hollywood film it beat and not the two Hollywood films this year that seem to be meant to be watched with your brains switched on. Haven't seen both so I wouldn't know.

And you only wish it would happen more often. 

Like all the time.

I agree. A while ago, I saw a man change his mind to watch OSS 117 when the nice ticket lady told him that it's in French (and it has subtitles). That, I understand. What I can't understand is when we always think twice before watching a Filipino movie (as if the burden to prove quality belongs to Filipino films; and no such burden is required of Hollywood films).

Offline allanmandy

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #22 on: Aug 03, 2007 at 11:31 PM »
Actually, OSS 117 is quite a good spy comedy film. But if that man based his decision on it being a foreign film, I guess you're right.


Offline keating

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #23 on: Aug 03, 2007 at 11:36 PM »
During the 70's and mid 80's, the ratio was 4:1 regarding a Filipino movie against a Hollywood flick and people would flock to see the Pinoy movies and see the theatre jampacked!

Now its the opposite, you can really call it a blessing if a Filipino film beat a Hollywood flick at the box-office. Sort of a miracle, actually.

What went wrong? Piracy, taxes and the colonial mentality that they imposed to us. Its sad when I congratulated Jim Libiran at the CCP.....sayang 3 pages lang yung Cinemalaya thread bro, told him, I kept on drumbeating it while the other thread reach 26 pages. And he only smiled at me.
« Last Edit: Aug 03, 2007 at 11:50 PM by keating »

Offline X44

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #24 on: Aug 04, 2007 at 01:52 AM »
I don't really think piracy has anything to do with it, keats, more the colonial mentality most of us never fully outgrew or got cured of - - -and it is a disease, mind, this sense of subservience and false validation to and through the Americans. It's right there, even in the way we gossip- - - Bradgelina is in, Ryan and Juday is baduy. And it's a sad thing.You don't really see the same thing happening with OPM, though. Least I don't think so. So maybe there's hope - - -or maybe that just makes it sadder.

Oggs is right, why should the onus for quality be on Filipino movies alone? But then again we do live in a moviegoing society where  how a  movie will sound on your DTS Dolby Super THX BlueRay  home theater system has actually become an active criterion for what makes a movie good. How pathetic can you get and how can a Filipino movie possibly compete in that universe?

Offline deweyfinn

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #25 on: Aug 04, 2007 at 10:57 AM »
I don't really think piracy has anything to do with it, keats, more the colonial mentality most of us never fully outgrew or got cured of - - -and it is a disease, mind, this sense of subservience and false validation to and through the Americans. It's right there, even in the way we gossip- - - Bradgelina is in, Ryan and Juday is baduy. And it's a sad thing.You don't really see the same thing happening with OPM, though. Least I don't think so. So maybe there's hope - - -or maybe that just makes it sadder.

Oggs is right, why should the onus for quality be on Filipino movies alone? But then again we do live in a moviegoing society where  how a  movie will sound on your DTS Dolby Super THX BlueRay  home theater system has actually become an active criterion for what makes a movie good. How pathetic can you get and how can a Filipino movie possibly compete in that universe?

Well...to be fair, I myself am rather guilty of that colonial mentaility, but that's because I'm pretty fed up with the star-making machinery that turns no-talents into local celebs.  Sure, it's a bit heartening yet saddening that two well-received Hollywood offerings would be trounced at the box-office by a local flick, but you have to consider that Pinoys haven't seen Jolina Magdangal grace the screens for quite some time (good thing on her part), and that local audiences - the superstitious lot they are - just can't turn down a ghost story no matter how silly (pardon my bias - horror was never my cup of tea, so not even a team of wild horses can drag me to see Ouija). 

Now, if only we can turn out slapstick comedies and action flicks (oh I dearly miss the bad ol' days of the adobo westerns) that can duplicate the same feat...to paraphrase an old saying, one swallow doesn't make a summer make, so thts should spark new hope for local filmmakers in general

Offline X44

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #26 on: Aug 04, 2007 at 11:10 AM »
Well...to be fair, I myself am rather guilty of that colonial mentaility, but that's because I'm pretty fed up with the star-making machinery that turns no-talents into local celebs.  Sure, it's a bit heartening yet saddening that two well-received Hollywood offerings would be trounced at the box-office by a local flick, but you have to consider that Pinoys haven't seen Jolina Magdangal grace the screens for quite some time (good thing on her part), and that local audiences - the superstitious lot they are - just can't turn down a ghost story no matter how silly (pardon my bias - horror was never my cup of tea, so not even a team of wild horses can drag me to see Ouija). 

Now, if only we can turn out slapstick comedies and action flicks (oh I dearly miss the bad ol' days of the adobo westerns) that can duplicate the same feat...to paraphrase an old saying, one swallow doesn't make a summer make, so thts should spark new hope for local filmmakers in general

So was I, as far as colonial mentality was concerned . And my now in-remission aversion to local films used to be based on the same reasons  - - starmaking machinery, no-talents  stars, etc. but then it struck me that Hollywood was no different what with all their young hot stars and very little of them can actually act a peep and their obsessions with celebrity dirt and gossip: Anna Nicole, Paris, Britney,etc.. E!News Weekly (did I get it right? ) and all their showbiz shows are just The Buzz with better-looking hosts although nowhere near as annoying as look-at-me-I-have-good-diction-and-like-Maya-Angelou-therefore-I'm-better-than-all-of-you Boy Abunda.

But I agree, diversity is everything and while I like horror a lot it would be good to see some good local and commercial comedies , adobo westerns, dramas  etc. Pop cinema should be as healthy as indie cinema if the industry's to thrive, I always thought.
« Last Edit: Aug 04, 2007 at 01:18 PM by X44 »

Offline keating

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #27 on: Aug 04, 2007 at 12:29 PM »
I don't really think piracy has anything to do with it, keats, more the colonial mentality most of us never fully outgrew or got cured of - - -and it is a disease, mind, this sense of subservience and false validation to and through the Americans. It's right there, even in the way we gossip- - - Bradgelina is in, Ryan and Juday is baduy. And it's a sad thing.You don't really see the same thing happening with OPM, though. Least I don't think so. So maybe there's hope - - -or maybe that just makes it sadder.

Oggs is right, why should the onus for quality be on Filipino movies alone? But then again we do live in a moviegoing society where  how a  movie will sound on your DTS Dolby Super THX BlueRay  home theater system has actually become an active criterion for what makes a movie good. How pathetic can you get and how can a Filipino movie possibly compete in that universe?

You're actually right, X. We never outgrew that colonial mentality thing, whoever left us that legacy, I spit on his grave. I think piracy still holds a small fraction on what we are experiencing now, the death of Philippine Cinema but Hollywood is there, still thriving and making a profit killing.

That's another sad thing what oggs said, walang DTS or THX ang Pinoy movies that makes us low quality.  ;D

I don't know man, but my Tita who resides now in the U.S. hiyang-hiya lagi if she watch Pinoy movies, lousy, you get colds among the characters, all crying out loud, unsymphatetic characters and all that, blah, blah, blah.

« Last Edit: Aug 04, 2007 at 12:48 PM by keating »

Offline allanmandy

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #28 on: Aug 08, 2007 at 04:05 PM »
I read in The Philippine Star that GMA is already planning a sequel to this, starring Juday and Jolens, with cameos by Iza and Rhian, and will be shot abroad.

« Last Edit: Aug 08, 2007 at 04:06 PM by allanmandy »

Offline Quitacet

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Re: Topel Lee's OUIJA (July 25, 2007)
« Reply #29 on: Aug 08, 2007 at 04:35 PM »
I read in The Philippine Star that GMA is already planning a sequel to this, starring Juday and Jolens, with cameos by Iza and Rhian, and will be shot abroad.



Yup, stuill showing sa sinehan ang film pero nagpaplano na ng Part Two. Sa ibang bansa daw yata ang setting ng sequel.