Films are probably the most accessible art form. Like music, moving pictures can deliver messages across a diverse audience. They transcend age, race, gender, and social status. Films or movies can bring together people and help establish or strengthen relationships. You may remember how the recent local production of the life of General Antonio Luna had reawaken nationalism among Filipinos. Whether you’re looking for inspiration or to simply decompress on a weekend, watching a good movie is time well-spent. Why not invite your friends for a condo sleepover? The more, the merrier, right?
Condo living in the Philippines is increasingly popular among professional millennials and young families. The strategic locations of DMCI Properties allow urbanites to attend to their daily responsibilities while living a well-rounded lifestyle. By traveling to places with ease, you can have time for fitness and relaxation, socialization, and other endeavors that drive you. Condo living is changing the urban lifestyle.
What to do in the coming long weekends? Plan a movie night/sleepover in your condo home. This is a cool change to your usual dine-outs. Public places during the yuletide season are too crowded for comfort anyway. Check out these movie ideas for your barkada sleepover.
Some flick pick guidelines
There are films that are not for barkada movie nights. Unless your friends are serious movie fans who focus on each scene, you should skip art films or those that involve lengthy dialogues. Classics like Citizen Kane and Kramer vs. Kramer are made for solo viewing, so are films with graphic intimate scenes. You should also veer away from movies with serious political undertones and those that can be depressing. Schindler’s List is a masterpiece but it can leave the entire gang sobbing for hours.
This doesn’t mean that you’re left with poor flick picks. Prepare a choice of three movies: an action-thriller, comedy, and animation. You can vote for one or watch all. Before anything else, remember to legally acquire the titles. The following film recommendations are available via streaming services.
Studio Ghibli’s feel-good productions
The secret in a successful movie night is the choice of movies to enchant your guests. To avoid spoilers, find films that no one in your group has seen yet. Also, set a no-wifi rule to prevent anybody from checking the synopsis on Wikipedia.
Studio Ghibli’s most popular film is the Oscars awardee Spirited Away. Chances are, everyone in your barkada has already seen it (if not, what have you been doing with your life?). Good thing Hayao Miyazaki and his team has a long list of well-made choices for you. Studio Ghibli’s critically acclaimed animated films are nothing like Disney’s and Pixar’s. Its productions are made for adults that kids can tolerate. The top picks for you are: Princess Mononoke, Grave of the Fireflies, and Only Yesterday.
Makoto Shinkai’s animated tearjerkers
Do you know that some of the best love stories are animated? This just proves that good filmmaking is less in the casting and more on the scriptwriting. Makoto Shinkai is a Japanese animator, manga artist, and director known for Your Name, currently the highest-grossing anime film of all time. Shinkai has a gift of telling real-life adult problems in a medium commonly for children: animation. 5 Centimeters Per Second is a three-part romantic drama film released in 2007. In a nutshell, it’s about a man’s journey to love that sparked in his teens and aimed to find closure in his adult years. 5 Centimeters Per Second is a movie about the “one that got away” at its finest. Also, each scene is an eye candy! Other Shinkai productions you should see include The Garden of Words and Voices of a Distant Star.
Bong Joon-ho’s heart-stopping thrillers
When it comes to thrillers, South Korean filmmakers are experts. Bong Joon-ho is the man behind the recent Netflix film Okja and the top-grossing sci-fi Snowpiercer. Bong is a multi-awarded director who has a knack for gut-wrenching action and dark humor: perfect for a barkada movie night. The Host was released in 2006 starring one of the most familiar Korean actors of this era, Song Kang-ho. The film is about a science experiment gone wrong, a monster kidnapping a man’s child, and lots of heart-stopping action scenes. Don’t forget to warn your friends to keep their screams under control. You can also check out Memories of Murders and Mother.
Na Hong-jin’s twisted horrors
Hollywood slashers have always been a staple in movie nights. You’ve been enduring them for so long, you know exactly how each story ends by merely looking at the movie poster. You deserve more than B movies. Level up your entertainment choices this time around.
Na Hong-jin is responsible for the award-winning The Chaser and The Yellow Sea. But for your movie night, Na gives you The Wailing. This 2016 film takes you to rural South Korea where the police department faces a series of mysterious killings and diseases. Watch out for the mesmerizing scenes of shamans performing rituals. This is not your usual horror flick in which you can anticipate, more or less, the next victim. No one in your gang will guess the real monster, or if there’s even one.
Jun’ichi Mori’s slice-of-life
Do you want a good film that can allow you to discuss about condo design ideas and recipes without missing the plot? Little Forest is that charming slice-of-life movie that you’ve never heard of. This Japanese production consists of two movies and four chapters: Little Forest: Summer/Autumn and Little Forest: Winter/Spring. It follows the life of farmer Ichiko, a strong-willed young woman, who provides for herself after recent failures in her relationships. She explains, as narrator, how she plants, harvests, and cooks her food in amazing detail as if you’re watching a documentary or a cooking show. It’s a foodie’s dream movie. Jun’ichi Mori presents the breathtaking beauty of rural Japan and allure of self-sufficiency. Little Forest subtly explores the inner struggles of its heroine while keeping its audience enchanted with every frame.
Tarantino’s certified cool action thrillers
If your friends are not keen on watching with subtitles, you have an endless selection of English-language films. Quentin Tarantino may as well be crowned the king of movie nights. His works including Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill have earned a cult following over the years. But your friends have probably seen these a couple of times already. You can pitch Grindhouse: Death Proof, an action thriller about a stuntman who murders women in his “death-proof” car. In an unexpected twist of events, the killing stuntman, played by Kurt Russell, met a well-known character named “Karma.” Another reason to see this movie is the soundtrack. Tarantino is known for his tasteful choice of music. You may also want to check out Sin City, which Tarantino is a special guest director.
The Wachowskis’ life-changing films
The Wachowskis became household names after their highly successful The Matrix series. The siblings were also the brains behind V for Vendetta and Sense8. Their controversial Cloud Atlas is a sci-fi film based on a novel of the same name. The movie received polarizing reactions. The critics didn’t like it but the viewing public loved it. Cloud Atlas is about “an exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future, as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.” That’s the most you should know about this gem. Watch it with your barkada. You will not regret it.
Charlie Brooker’s standalone science fictions
There is an abundance of thought-provoking films and TV shows today. So it’s safe to say that it’s your fault if you’ve wasted time on a poorly-made production. Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror is a science fiction anthology series available on Netflix. Currently, it has three series and a total of 13 standalone episodes. Every episode is a cinematic masterpiece with a generic theme: new technologies. The average running time is 44 to 89 minutes. You can choose a couple for your barkada movie night. Some of the top picks include Nosedive, Men Against Fire and the Emmy awardee San Junipero.
Lino Brocka’s acclaimed works
The 70s and early 80s are considered the Golden Age of Philippine Cinema. Explore the greatness of one of the greatest Filipino artists, Lino Brocka. Brocka was posthumously given the distinction of National Artist For Film. He received awards locally and abroad. His masterpieces portrayed Filipino sensibilities, serious struggles, and simple victories, and other themes every Pinoy is directly or indirectly familiar with. Some of his noteworthy works include Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang (1974), Insiang (1976) and Jaguar (1979).
You’ve got more than enough film choices for your movie night. All you need to do now is to plan easy-to-prepare refreshments, come up with an ad hoc small condo design for your viewing space, and confirm the attendance of your esteemed guests. Enjoy!
