Dear Mr. Alvin B.

Yapan, When I heard the name of your movie Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa, the first impression that I had was it was about how someone breakthroughs his/her inability to dance, but after viewing it, I was revealed to its deeper meaning. Was the movie inspired by Wong Karwais In the Mood for Love? It seemed as you had used much dim lighting and employed characters well-constrained to their individual inner conflict. The repetition of parallel scenes in which your characters often meet was also observable especially the part involving the staircase to the dance studio. Another possible influence that I saw was on the narrative development. Like Kar-Wais, it started from isolation of a character (Marlon) to a shared moment with another character (Dennis) which then leads to their search for clarity. For me, your movie was successful in performing its intended function (as what I presumed from the details that I knew about you). First, it was able to create a space where a text (an object, a character, or a scene) is not enclosed to a single representation and therefore, can give different meanings to its viewers (who uses different narrative and cultural codes). This was especially in the latter scenes where Karen burst in tears and most evidently when tears roll on Marlons face as the dance ended. I knew that you had written stories wherein the narrator is blinded either or both literally and figuratively, and in your movie, you were able to blind us into believing that something is with Marlon and Dennis, missing focus on more significant events and characters (Karen). The movie was open-ended, just like your stories, which achieved the same results. This effect was also forged by plays on temporal order and frequency (as some events happened seemingly longer or simultaneous, not giving attention on how long is the time in between their occurrences). Second, since you were able to create ambiguity, you have easily liberated your characters from the usual beliefs particularly on romantic relationships which in the movie,

transcended social status (student-teacher), age (young-old), gender (male-male). I just cannot find any connection with you using feminist poetry to depict gay relationship, except if you also aimed to transcend feminist ideas into a unisexual dimension, where feminist thoughts applies to all gender. Third, since I knew that you were real-life literature professor, you undoubtedly personified the most important character in the story (for me) which is the teacher, Karen. According to you, the writer is not blind but actually sees everything and is faced with the different sides that he cannot choose from which to favor since choosing is all but part of the conflict. Karen appeared to me as the writer of the story, the one who knows what happens, the one who is not attached to the events, the one who is more dedicated to the art, and the one who does not need to choose, which makes her very indispensable. For me, the story was about how Karen wrote the love for poetic dance in her apprentices, Marlon and Dennis, which was also your goal as a literature teacher, to instill that love which the body already knows, but the mind is unwilling. In the process, your movie served as another space for attracting students to share this kind of love for literature. By combining different arts literature (in the form of poems), music (in the form of songs), dance, and performance arts (in the form of acting and dialogue), you were able to establish a contemporary classroom on which you, in the form of Karen, are teacher. Truly yours, Mart Merwin C. Magboo HUM3 V Group 10 2010-54137 Reference: Hindi Bulag ang Manunulat: Panayam kay Alvin B. Yapan. saibangsalita.wordpress.com. n.p., 6 Jun. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2011. Wright, Elizabeth. Wong Kar-Wai. sensesofcinema.com. n.p., 15 Dec. 2010. Web. 25 Sept. 2011.