AN UNQUIET PLACE

[LOCAL FICTION]
By: Clare Houston
High on the plateau, evening crept across the sky. Swallows pitched and
swung through the air, and a small breeze lifted the grasses, sending a
ripple across the surface of the reservoir. The breeze shivered through
the grey leaves of the old gums, and gently picked up the skirts of a
woman carrying buckets across the flat ground. A fabric kappa hid her
hair, its floppy brim obscuring her face. Her tattered skirts brushed the
tops of buttoned boots, their soles gaping with each step. The tin buckets
were heavy. The handles cut into her blistered hands, causing her to
wince as she walked, her bony shoulders taking the strain. On the slope
below the plateau, Alistair’s herd of bluebook looked up from their
grazing and the male snorted a warning. The woman placed her buckets
on the ground, side by side. Bending low, as if ducking through a low
door, she disappeared.
LOCAL FOOD VERSUS GLOBALIZATION
[LOCAL ESSAY]
By: Francesco Saverio

Food products of giant multinational corporations such as McDonald’s

have huge impacts on people’s food preference since fast food became
so popular and is familiar all over the world that people’s food
preference are often set by their eating experience of the fast food in
their childhood. For some people, the fast-food tastes become the
standards. On the other hand, more high-graded restaurants that serve
local specialties with the local ingredients receive stars on the Michelin
and other restaurant guides for gourmands. There seem two different
standards on food formed by globalized fast food and traditional local
cuisines among people. They guarantee that the food is safe to eat.
Culture including recipes, manners, rules, habits, rituals, and taboos has
developed general consensus on food based on its principles and
customs.
THE GOLDEN RIFF CHRONICLES

[LOCAL FANTASY]

By; Purple_Porpoise

Waldorf Wox was as Mroothian boys come-his neighbors had this to say when
a stranger came around asking if they noticed anything odd about the child.
They said it partly out of a sense of loyalty but also because it was the truth.
Waldorf Wox seemed indistinguishable from all the other lanky, bronze-
skinned and black-haired boys who walked with a slouching gait and had a
penchant for cussing.

What the neighbors didn’t know- and what Waldorf Wox never told them- was
that he was, indeed, something of an oddball.

For one, has was death allergic to prunes. And just how many other
Mroothians were allergic to prunes? Zero. Everyone ate prunes for breakfast,
lunch and dinner and if there was enough they it for midnight snack.

CINDERELLA
 [LOCAL DRAMA]
By: Thercharl

Once upon a time there was a young beautiful girl named Cinderella.
Cinderella had two ugly sisters who were very cruel to her. They made her do
all the work. The two ugly sisters were invited to the Prince’s Ball at the
palace. Cinderella wished that she could go too, but instead her stepmother
gave her a lots of work to do. Suddenly a fairy appeared “ I am your fairy
godmother” she told Cinderella.

She waved her magic wand and Cinderella’s rags turned into a beautiful
dress. On her feet were sparkling glass slippers. The fairy Godmother turned
a pumpkin into an amazing coach. Then she turned some mice into horses.
“Have fun” she said to Cinderella but be back at midnight or else. The Prince
danced every dance with Cinderella. When the clock struck at twelve,
Cinderella suddenly remember.

STILL LIFE, BRIEF ENCOUNTER

[LOCAL MELODRAMA]
By: Noel Coward

Noel Coward’s heartbreaking drama Still Life, Brief Encounter,

tells the story of two people who seemed destined to be
unhappy. In the film, a leading role and married woman, Laura
Jesson, encounters a doctor, Alec Harvey, in a train station.
They decide to meet once in a week at the same station. Soon
they begin to feel delighted in each other’s company and share
everything. Eventually they come to realize that they are
in love with each other. Their realization, however, leads to a
tragic notion that they cannot leave their families, which finally
ends up in unrequited love, with their lives doomed into
despondency.

THE ADVENTURE OF JUAN

[LOCAL FAIRYTALE]
By: Mabel Cook Cole

Juan was always getting into trouble. He was a lazy boy, and more than that,
he did not have good sense. When he tried to do things, he made such
dreadful mistakes that he might better not have tried.

His family grew very impatient with him, scolding and beating him whenever
he did anything wrong. One day his mother, who was almost discouraged
with him, gave him a bolo and sent him to the forest, for she thought he could
at least cut firewood. Juan walked leisurely along, contemplating some means
of escape. At last he came to a tree that seemed easy to cut, and then he drew
his long knife and prepared to work.

Now it happened that this was a magic tree and it said to Juan:

“If you do not cut me I will give you a goat that shakes silver from its
whiskers.”

BAHAY KUBO
 [LOCAL FOLKSONG]
By: Felipe DeLeon

Bahay kubo, kahit munti,

ang halaman duon ay sari-sari.
Singkamas at talong,
Sigarilyas at mani.
Sitaw, bataw, patani.
Kundol, patola, upo't kalabasa.
At saka meron pa,
Labanos, mustasa.
Sibuyas, kamatis,
Bawang at luya.
Sa paligid-ligid ay puno ng linga.

THE STORY OF PINA

[LOCAL FOLKTALE]
By: Felix Mago Miguel
  
Pinang was a beautiful but lazy girl. One day, her mother got sick and asked
her to cook food for them. Having never really done anything around the
house, Pinang refused at first. She finally relented through her mother’s
insistent shouting, but had trouble finding the ladle. Frustrated, Pinang’s
mother wished a hundred eyes to grow on her for being so lazy. After this,
Pinang was never seen again. A strange yellow fruit with a hundred eyes,
however, was soon found growing in their backyard.

Like all folk tales, the story of the piña has several versions. According to
Ong, the popular version is didactic or moralistic – “that’s what you get for
being lazy and unmotivated.” Tahanan’s version has Pinang doing her best,
but her mother just assumed that she was being lazy again.

KIDNAPPED BY THE GODS

[LOCAL SCIENCE FICTION]
By: Arnel Ma. Salgado

“They walked finally going into their chamber whence the Time Diffusing
Machine was positioned.

‘Go now!’ Captain Schmidt commanded.

Without a second, Evan Louis stepped forward thriving to a single flat form
with a fiberglass walls.
Atop him was the device that could transfer him to light in order to wend the
universe with pervasive space.” – from Kidnapped by the Gods by Arnel M.
Salgado

However, one feels about where Salgado fits in Philippine Literature — if he

does at all (perhaps he is our equivalent of Henry Darger), all his works are
certainly singular and entertaining. Kidnapped by the Gods is definitely no
exception. However, it’s somewhat distressing that this is one of the only
Science Fiction works the country produced in an era that also
created Jurassic Park.
THE MYSTERIOUS TEENAGER FROM THE ROAD

[LOCAL HORROR]

By; Yam Laranas

Yam Laranas is one of the top names working in Philippine

horror, and in his 2011 film The Road, he directed a pre-
AlDub Alden Richards to play a mysterious teenager who
ultimately turns out to be the one your mother warned you
about. It's very off-putting to see a good-natured, nice-looking
guy start attacking young girls, and Richards pulls it off so
terrifyingly and convincingly that it's hard to see him turning
into the heartthrob that he is today. Disaffected and emotionless,
Richards' teenager from The Road sends shivers down your
spine in the most unsettling way.

TRUMP VERSUS THE GOVERNMENT

 [FOREIGN ESSAY]

By: Elliot Abrams

As he reaches the halfway mark of his first term, President Donald Trump
is finding the vast U.S. government to be both an instrument of and a
frequent barrier to the implementation of policies that he desires. Reflecting
on his frustrations, he might be amused by an old anecdote about the
struggles of one of his predecessors. As the diplomat Charles Frankel
recalled in his memoir, a White House visitor once presented a proposal to
President John F. Kennedy. “That’s a first-rate idea,” Kennedy said. “Now
we must see whether we can get the government to accept it.”

The distinction between the president and the government is not

a product of the Trump era, but it has become one of the
administration’s defining characteristics. Rhetorically, the
president has often squarely rejected the U.S. foreign policy
consensus of recent decades. He has questioned the United
States’ commitment to allies in Asia and Europe, fumed about
U.S. wars in the Middle East, and lauded the leaders of
Washington’s geopolitical rivals. But speeches are one thing and
official action is another. Although Trump’s pronouncements
have ruffled feathers, his administration’s policy has been
marked more by continuity than by change. The United States
remains in NATO, thousands of U.S. troops are still deployed
throughout the Middle East, and Washington is pursuing a hard
line against China and Russia.
 The Kite Runner
[FOREIGN FICTION

By: Khaled Hosseini

“It may be unfair, but what happens in a few days, sometimes

even a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime."
Amir is the son of a wealthy Kabul merchant, a member of the
ruling caste of Pashtuns. Hassan, his servant and constant
companion, is a Hazara, a despised and impoverished caste.
Their uncommon bond is torn by Amir's choice to abandon his
friend amidst the increasing ethnic, religious, and political
tensions of the dying years of the Afghan monarchy, wrenching
them far apart. But so strong is the bond between the two boys
that Amir journeys back to a distant world, to try to right past
wrongs against the only true friend he ever had.
The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship
between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The
Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is
in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of
reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption;
and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love,
their sacrifices, their lies.
A sweeping story of family, love, and friendship told against the
devastating backdrop of the history of Afghanistan over the last
thirty years, The Kite Runner is an unusual and powerful novel
that has become a beloved, one-of-a-kind classic.

Incendies (2011)
[FOREIGN DRAMA]
By: Denis Villeneuve

A movie which will catch you from the first second, with one of
the best movie beginnings of all time, up until its outstanding
end. It is a slow-burning and calm film with nonetheless a very
powerful impact. Incendies is guaranteed to be one of those
movies you will never forget. The story is about Jeanne and
Simon who, to fulfill their mother’s last wishes, must journey to
her birthplace in an unnamed Middle-Eastern country. There
they discover her tragic and sad past life, and unveil a deeply
disturbing secret which will change their lives forever. The
movie contains a series of flashbacks telling the story of the
mother, Nawal Marwan, while the rest is from the viewpoint of
her children.
The Fellowship of the Ring
[FOREIGN FANTASY]
 By: J.R.R. Tolkien

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to
bring them all and in the darkeness bind them.In ancient times
the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and
Sauron, The Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his
own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring
was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-
earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the
hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.In a sleepy village
in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an
immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to
his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey
across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the
Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.
 Jack and the Beanstalk
[FOREIGN FAIRYTALE]
By: Benjamin Tabart

Jack and his mother are the picture of poverty. They're starving
and can't afford to eat or tend to the farm. Even the family
goldfish is literally nothing but bones. Jack decides to sell the
cow at the market. He is about to sell it to a butcher, but a
stranger convinces him to buy magic beans instead. Jack's feels
that he was cheated and punishes him for being so gullible. She
throws the beans out the window where they are watered
overnight by rain. In the morning, a tall vine has grown into the
clouds. Jack climbs the beanstalk and encounters a giant and his
giantess wife, who means to eat Jack. Jack narrowly escapes the
wrath of the couple and takes with him the giant's treasures: a
magical harp and a hen that lays eggs filled with coins.
Emotion Pictures: International Melodrama
 [FOREIGN MELODRAMA]
By: Florence Almozini
When many of us think about movie melodramas, the first
names that come to mind are titans of Hollywood’s golden age,
directors (Douglas Sirk, Nicholas Ray, Vincente Minnelli,
George Cukor) and stars (Lillian Gish, Joan Crawford, Bette
Davis) alike. But the melodrama is by no means a distinctly
American or mid-century genre, having laid its roots during the
silent era (in the work of D. W. Griffith, Erich von Stroheim, F.
W. Murnau) before flowering in Japan (Kenji Mizoguchi, Mikio
Naruse), Italy (Pier Paolo Pasolini, Federico Fellini), England
(David Lean), and elsewhere. Indeed, the careers of many key
filmmakers of modern cinema have been predicated on radical
reinterpretations of the form, as in the work of Rainer Werner
Fassbinder, Pedro Almodóvar, Todd Haynes, Leos Carax, Lars
von Trier, Wong Kar Wai, and Guy Maddin. This series pays
tribute to the genre that boldly endeavored to put emotion on
screen in its purest form, featuring classics from the silent era
and Hollywood’s Golden Age to major mid-century films from
around the world to modern dramas and subversive postmodern
incarnations. Bring tissues.
Why the sun and the moon live in the sky
[FOREIGN FOLKTALE]
By: African Folktale

Many years ago, the sun and water were great friends, and they
both lived on the earth together. The sun very often used to visit
the water, but the water never returned the visits. At last the sun
asked the water why he never visited. The water replied that the
sun's house was not big enough, and that if he came with all his
people, he would drive the sun out of his home. The water then
said, "If you want me to visit you, you will have to build a very
large house. But I warn you that it will have to be very large, as
my people are numerous and take up a lot of room". The sun
promised to build a very large house, and soon afterwards, he
returned home to his wife, the moon, who greeted him with a
broad smile.The sun told the moon what he had promised the
water, and the next day, they began building a large house to
entertain the water and all his people.When it was completed,
the sun asked the water to come and visit him. When the water
arrived, one of his people called out to the sun, and asked him
whether it would be safe for the water to enter, and the sun
answered, "Yes, tell my friend to come in."The water began to
flow in, followed by the fish and all the other water
animals.Very soon, the water was knee-deep in the house, so he
asked the sun if it was still safe, and the sun again said, "Yes,"
so more of them came in.When the water was at the level of a
man's head, the water said to the sun, "Do you want more of my
people to come?"Not knowing any better, the sun and the moon
both said, "Yes,". More and more of the water's people came in,
until the sun and the moon had to sit on top of the roofThe water
once again asked the sun if it was still okay to keep coming in.
The sun and moon answered yes, so more and more of the
water's people came in.The water soon overflowed the top of the
roof, and the sun and the moon were forced to go up into the
sky. ..and they have been there ever since.
 We Are What We Are” (2010)
[FOREIGN HORROR]
By: Eric Kohn
Horror filmmakers ruthlessly mine for metaphor, often at the
expense of credibility. The tricky balance in the Mexican
cannibal drama “We Are What We Are” (“Somos lo que hay”)
pairs a conventional family unit with the ludicrously grotesque
to chilling and absurd effect. Writer-director Jorge Michel
Grau’s feature debut has the goriest signifier for underclass
strife this side of George Romero’s “Land of the Dead,” but
Grau smartly eschews satire for emotional legitimacy. Rather
than a subversive treat, “We Are What We Are” aims for a
darkly realistic note and finds it. Jim Mickle’s 2013 remake
channels the same premise into an impressive dreamlike thriller,
but Grau’s movie has a stronger element of desperation, one that
resonates beyond the limitations of its gory premise.
 Metropolis
[FOREIGN SCIENCE FICTION]

By: Fritz Lang

The silent film is regarded as a pioneering science-fiction movie,

being among the first feature-length movies of that genre.
Filming took place over 17 months in 1925–26 at a cost of over
five million Reichsmarks. Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban
dystopia and follows the attempts of Freder, the wealthy son of
the city master, and Maria, a saintly figure to the workers, to
overcome the vast gulf separating the classes in their city and
bring the workers together with Joh Fredersen, the city master.
The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title: "The
Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the He

A Begging I Will Go
[FOREIGN FOLKSONG]
By: Marked By Great Size
Of all the trades in England, a-beggin' is the best
For when a beggar's tired, You can lay him down to rest.
And a-begging I will go, a-begging I will go. (x2)
I got a pocket for me oatmeal, and another for me rye.
I got a bottle by me side to drink when I am dry.
And a-begging I will go, a-begging I will go. (x2)
I got patches on me cloak, and black patch on me knee.
When you come to take me home, I'll drink as well as thee.
And a-begging I will go, a-begging I will go. (x2)