A kid had to face the world in his own animated version and conquer life's biggest monster. ANI (The Harvest) It's as if a child's imagination is a safe haven, a place where the world is a playground for all the possibilities the mind could think of. And even the tight and humble space called home, situated on a busy Metro could not hinder the inquisitive headspace of a young Mithi (played by Zyren Dela Cruz), a boy who accomplishes the day by playing with his colorful toy robots that perform a vital role in his imaginary narrative. With a loving father and a mother that sings him a self-assuring lullaby, Mithi is blissfully unaware of the harsh reality. But life decided to toy with his fate, and Mithi's perfect little world is now showing its cracks, putting his vulnerability to the test and slowly depriving him of his happiness he thought would last forever. And through his eyes, the world suddenly transforms itself into a menacing monster. Set in a lush
A girl, once hindered by a childhood embarrassment, left the islands of Bantayan to break out of her shell and chase her dreams on a foreign land.
Indak
Every beat of the drum, thumping, slowly fading in as it harmoniously blends with the heartbeat of some group of people, competing for an international dance championship, while the camera swerves from room to room, capturing their faces brimming with excitement and nervousness. Dancers representing their respective countries, boasting their tightly choreographed moves yet grooving to the same tune of victory.
But for Jen (Nadine Lustre), a tourist guide who came from the remote islands of Bantayan, the competition is more than just winning or the lofty recognition or the anticipated prize money. For her, it's a sense of fulfillment. An personal battle of bursting out of her shell and becoming the person who she wants to be. An empowering and great premise, or at least the movie tried so hard to become. And yet, for some odd reason, despite its interesting motivations, sublimed by plenty gorgeous shots of their setting, the movie fails to find its footing, awkwardly jerking to an off-beat track rather than swinging to the right choreography.
The movie is great, great at making stupid decisions, on forced conflicts that was resolved so quick and convenient, as if it didn't matter at all, hence removing the satisfying feeling of surpassing a challenge especially when a financial issue was on their plate masquerading as an obstacle but was merely whisked away by a Scratch-It lottery jackpot. And because the movie doesn't take its time, or even bother caring at all, these accomplishments felt thin and unearned.
Sam Concepcion also stars in this film and as a love interest to Nadine but thanks to the movie's poor attempt at storytelling, he failed to establish a connection and believable romantic chemistry with his partner and oftentimes going for the typical cheesy route to force this so-called "love team", failed to promote an interesting backstory for his character, and as a result, failed to elevate himself as an actor.
This movie also loves to submerge itself with poetic narration through Nadine's voice, as she explains her journey, questions her choices and the changes that happened since becoming a member of the group. But what are these changes she is talking about? It was so out of touch on what it wants to accomplish and was so focused on making their actors too perfect, hot and beautiful on screen that they forgot to add scenes that will justify the said narrations and for the most part it felt like the movie was so adamant at making up something over nothing, fluffing the sequences with unconvincing words that doesn't mean anything at all. The entire time, Nadine's character was so clueless about what she's doing and funny enough, the film itself is exactly like that, clueless.
They didn't even bother casting actual Indians or Thais or Koreans in that final dance-off to represent the groups, probably for budgetary reasons, but whatever the reason may be, it sure does cheapen the experience and made the film even downright foolish.
Indak is a dance musical drama, a genre that the film made sure you won't forget by opening the act with a flash mob style dance performance, followed by a solo dance from Nadine, and a couple of lines until you find yourself looking at another dance performance as if it wasn't a movie anymore but a glorified set of music videos.
For what is worth, at least the dance performances themselves were good and the songs that they used were modern OPM bops which was a nice addition to the rather awful film itself.
Let's Be Reel
They say judge a film for their own merits, but Indak is one of those that require an honest opinion from others before going in. Like a clumsy dancer with two left feet, Indak stumbles — a film that was supposed to make you move your feet yet ironically made you yawn involuntarily.
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