La Visa Loca

La Visa Loca, this is my first time to watch this really funny film by Robin Padilla and Ruffa Mae Quinto and other famous artists. It is a funny movie but it is not all laughs because it displays also some facts of life that can be found in our country the Philippines. First of all, the first scene is that two foreigners are being offered by kids “male” or “female”, at first, I though “male” or “female” people like prostitutes but it was then revealed there that the “male” and or “female” was really crabs! The movie was really really really funny as the story progresses but it had a corresponding “reality” fact! Many facts of typical Filipino life were the beliefs.


Before I enumerate and describe one of those things, I am going to talk about the characters, the main character is Jess Huson who is played by Robin Padilla. I think he is a taxi driver who was then hired by foreigners to help them shoot a documentary film for their T.V. program entitled “planet strange”. Now there was a typical Filipino belief which I think was influenced by foreigners, American to be exact, that we must strive for a greener field and that “greener field” is in America!—The Land of Milk and Honey!


Maybe, that is why many Filipinos go there and seek job opportunities rather than here in our own country. Many job seekers go there like nurses, programmers, doctors, teachers etc go there and apply their talents that is why maybe we are not progressing because, those people were born and raise here but will go there. Jess Huson wants to go in the United States to seek a better life and be with his girlfriend, he is one of those people but he was rejected by the US embassy because of his inability to speak and understand the English language.

As the story progressed, Jess seemed to thrive hard to get out of the country by seeking help from the foreigners. Many things happened which ended on him being crucified at the cross which symbolizes his sacrifice and utmost dedication in going out of the country which makes me think that almost all of the characters in the story can be considered as stereotype. Jess (a typical Filipino who wants to go and work abroad), Mang Sancho (a desperate Father who depends on his son for being alive)”, the guy who cheated the foreigners who is supposed to be crucified and many more.

Now, this comedy film has a message to their viewers. For me, I think the message is that “happiness is not dependent on how much money you can give to your family or how great your job is but rather be happy”. One can be happy even if the salary of the breadwinner is really not that high but it can also be base on your loved ones because what is the use of these luxurious items when you can’t share it with someone. That is why, I thought of a famous saying to match my theory, it is: “No man is an Island”.

In comparison of the characters, I would now compare Jess and Jess’ girlfriend (Sorry, I forgot the name) to the story “The Tale of the Spinster and Peter Pan”. Jess can be considered the opposite or counter part of the “peter pan” because Jess is “maginoo” and or “magalang” in women while Jess’ Girlfriend can be said, for me as kinda like same to her because they are both lovable and can maybe be said as lovable.

About our Philippine Literature class, I can say that this course helped me in knowing myself better. I am a person who has no patience in reading and comprehending but this course taught me that reading is not really boring but a silent entertainment which runs on the imagination of the person. Our teacher did an excellent job handling us. She makes sure that her class is doing their jobs reading and understanding many stories. She just does not discuss the story but she asks for our opinion and relates it with different stuff that is why I can say that she made this reading class not boring but a good one!

Smaller and Smaller Circles

This short story-- No, its more like a novelette for me... lol! Now going back to the story, this is more like a crime fiction kind of story. It started when father Emil discovered a body of a boy. Actually, the kids informed father Emil. At first, I was not really that interested in this kind of story because honestly, I have really no interest in this kind of mystery story because my patience is really not that long when it comes to mysteries and other related stuff but I had no choice but to read then upon reading it, my interest in the story begins to build up because the mysteries in the story is starting to make me ask many questions and craving for answers in the story.

So anyways, going back to the discussion of the story, the story was held somewhere in a dumpsite in Manila, let’s say Payatas to be exact, while the time can be said as most recent because of the logic in detective stuff like CSI. I think this CSI or the logic thinking developed in the early 90’s. The story was about serial killings that were happening in Payatas. There were 8 victims in the story, which were children. The faces of the victims, the heart, and the genitals of the victims were taken out by the serial killer. We now know that it was father emil who first discovered the body of that small boy.

Then he asked for the help of two other priests who is: Father Jerome who is a Psychologist, it can be said that he investigates on maybe why the killer have done the crime like what motivated him/her and the other priest Father Saenz who performs autopsies. While the story moved on, they became closer and closer in finding out who the serial killer is, and at the end they found out who when they saw the hearts and genitals of the children in the refrigerator of the dentist named Alex Carlos.

There were signs and symbols present in the story. At first, when our teacher assigned this story to me: “smaller and smaller circles”, I had a picture in my mind like getting and getting there. It means that as you progress, the mystery gets smaller and smaller, that is what the circle symbolizes for me. Well, on the content of the story, I feel a little disappointed because the story is like a little predictable when it comes to the review of the usual crime fictions story that my classmates and my teacher tells us but the author is good when he made me puzzled that I read the story to satisfy my curiosity.