Republic of the Philippines

KANANGA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL

Senior High School
Población Kananga, Leyte

Reading and Writing Skills

Reaction Paper
No.1

Sardeña, Jellyn B. Mr. Angel

Cabrera
XI- Perseverance Subject
Teacher

TAYA (2013) - A Cinemalaya short film

 By: Adi Bontuyan & Francis Beltejar

I. Introduction

Taya by Adi Bontuyan and Francis Beltejar (2013), is a

film about Junjun, a 12 years old boy, who is a new resident
in his new found home. Unaware about the condition of his
residence, he learns how to play the different traditional
games through his new set of friends. Highlighting how kids
have created their own little world through the likes of
bangsak, target, and patintero, the film subtly conceals an
underlying message that mirrors a harsh reality far from the
knowledge of these youngster. Taya captivated me with how
it metaphorically portrayed truth within society. It opened
my eyes to how people, regardless of age, are all “player” in
their own battles in the game of life. What made it more
special was that the film’s duration was only eight minutes.

II. Body
 Personally, I am a big fan of our local games so I was
intrigued about the video, so watched the video several
times. What’s so good about this film was that our games
and happenings in life have a lot in common. Let’s take the
game bangsak for example. As stated in the video, the word
“bang” represents the sound of a gunshot and the word
“sak” is derived from the word saksak or knife stab. While
the children were explaining the rules of the game to Junjun,
there were scene of a police officer looking for a criminal
and they run around the circles waiting for the opportunity
to knockdown or defeat each other down. After the clip of
children playing bangsak, the next clip portrays police
officer in the dark, and shooting at people who are
presumably criminals. The contrast between bangsak and
such event completely shock and caught my attention,
especially when the sound of a shooting gun intervenes
between two clips. From there, I was slightly convinced that
bangsak originated from the quarrel of the police officers
ang the criminals. Where the criminals hide and police
chase. But aside from this, two more games, patintero and
target, have also been compared to chaotic events. The film
portrays
patintero as a mirror to the behavior of people in rallies. As
patintero involves children surpassing other playmates who
block their way to other end, a clip of the people being
blocked by the police officers with their shield followed the
clip of children playing patintero. For target, the game
involves collecting rocks, and throwing it at distant cans.
Target on the other hand is another representation of our
issues here in our country. Target is a game to see who’s the
best at aiming cans or anything that can be knockdown.
Whenever there are misunderstanding between the people
and the government, the police take care and prevents
citizens from doing any unnecessary actions. However,
since we Filipinos are sometimes stubborn, we fight with
all our might by throwing rocks, aiming at the police for
blocking the way and such thus resulting to injuries.
As Junjun and his friends were playing, the demolition
team interrupts them. A series of flashbacks of their games
such as Langit Lupa, Mataya-taya, Tagu-taguan, Agawan
Base as their houses were all being demolished. Watching
and knowing that these things happen in real life made me
reflect on my decisions - that I should never, ever resort to
violence. Due to the happenings in our country such as extra
– judicial killings, it seemed to me that we are playing a
matter of life and death.

III. Conclusion
A year later, Junjun and his friends continued to play
their games with the destroyed houses as their playground.
Life goes on but the trace and marks of the past can never be
erased.
Adi Bontuyan has a unique way to relay his works to
his viewers. Even I was amazed by how he was able to
connect our traditional games in our real life. All I can say,
that TAYA will remain as one of the hidden gems of the
Philippine cinema, as a unique approach was taken by the
director when trying to envision his story.