Kun Maupay man it Panahon (Whether the Weather Is Fine) is abrasive and frank. It’s full of characters who don’t tiptoe around when expressing their emotions. A young Waray-Filipino woman, Andrea (Rans Rifol) tells her friend Miguel (Daniel Padilla) that she thought he died during Haiyan or Yolanda, a typhoon that devastated Eastern Philippines.
The film, then covers the converging and diverging paths of those two friends as well as Miguel’s mother Norma (Charo Santos-Concio), a religious woman looking for her ex.
This film makes it evident that director Carlos Francisco Manatad is a hard worker, dedicating time to depict just how much destruction Yolanda caused. The art direction mixes is to die for. There’s probably a mix of CG here which shows up seamlessly.
Although yes, there is showiness at play here. A cynical yet valid view of this is that this is a Filipino version of Durnirk. Norma walks around Tacloban with her mission, the director decorating that scene with what seems like humanity’s worst.
Norma and Miguel take up a lot of screen time here, and they work better either by themselves or as foreground. Yes, all three belong in this film, especially Padilla, who is half-Waray himself. But putting these three next to born and bred Waray makes it obvious that they’re actors.
Nonetheless, the film mostly succeeds in portraying human dysfunction after a disaster. Viewers see how difficult orderliness is. There’s also the occasional musical number that feel, simultaneously, intentionally ridiculous and emotionally poignant.
- Release Date: 9/14/2021
