Kinatay Sa UP Film Center

No, this is not a gruesome article lifted from a grubby tabloid. This is about the gruesome antics of these moral pundits supposedly appointed by our government.



I read in JZ’s blog that MTRCB has issued a preventive suspension order against UP and the UP Film Center to prevent the screening of Kinatay on July 30. Kinatay is an indie flick that wowed the Cannes crowd and nabbed the Best Director (for Brillante Mendoza) from under Quentin Tarantino and Ang Lee’s noses.

A big what?!?!

It is the year 2009 and it feels like 1984, the year immortalized by George Orwell in his classic dystopian book (from which the TV franchise Big Brother was based).



This MTRCB anomaly is a long-standing debate. I remember back in college, MTRCB was being thrown rotten tomatoes for giving an X rating to multi-awarded films like Belle Epoque, The Piano and Schindler’s List. This became the topic of our term paper in Communication II. We uncovered a lot of articles on the laughable directives set by MTRCB and the consequent petition for its abolition (which is rightful, as we concluded). Our teacher liked our topic/paper so much that he asked for copies of all the articles we used. Which is fine with us because he gave us the ever-elusive 1.0 grade (naks). I have a weird feeling he used them for his books which I often see in the Filipiniana section of the bookstore.

MTRCB fed my urge to be an investigative journalist back then and I vowed that they will be the victim of my first expose.

I hate censorship, especially the misguided one. It insults the intelligence of the people. It makes us all Neanderthals, wherein we will go around and rape each other at the sight of two boobs, instead of only one. Yes, that was the rule. One boob and you’re R-18, two boobs and you’re X. If you do the math... two pairs of boobs will make an XXX.



The irony is that MTRCB only exists to contradict and ridicule itself. Because when they "X" a movie, it makes the movie so controversial that half the population wants to watch it (in turn, the film producers actually adore the MTRCB for giving them free publicity). And in this day and age, there are a lot of means to do that.

I understand the need to censor TV shows for the sake of our kids. But for movies, an R-18 rating for a movie with reasonable sex and gore could have been enough. Or are they saying that even Filipinos 18 and above do not practice prudence and personal judgement? Tsk, tsk...the trappings of being a predominantly Catholic country.

An eye opener to the MTRCB: if a kid wants to watch porn and gore, he can just go to the nearest street corner selling pirated CDs. Or go online. He doesn’t have to go to the UP Film Center and pay 150 pesos to satisfy his raging hormones.

That makes the MTRCB such a big joke.