Marie Angelica Ponce

1. Polytechnic University of the Philippines
College of Communication
Department of Communication Research
FINAL PAPER
COMMUNICATION THEORIES AND MODELS
“CINEMA ONE ORIGINALS”
Submitted by:
Marie Angelica Ponce
BACR 2-1

2. WOMAN OF THE RUINS
Woman of the ruins was one of the six films showed by Cinema One in the Cinema One
Originals Film Festival 2013. The story is a little confusing, in my opinion, because it has so much
to tell. At first, it appeared to be like a story about horror considering that the setting of the film
looked like an isolated island, something that most horror stories have as setting; but in reality, the
genre of the movie is drama. The story revolved around Maria, a character played by Alessandra De
Rossi, and how she and the other inhabitants of that place live there. In the film, Maria was
presumed to be dead by her husband, Pasyon (a character portrayed by Arthur Acuña) and the other
inhabitants of the island but she returned seven years after with no memory of her own identity.
Because of her loss of memory, Sabel (a woman who has hidden feelings for Pasyon) aided her in
doing her chores. In the end, Sabel and Maria were gang raped by unknown group of men and in
result to this, Sabel committed suicide by jumping off a cliff and dragging Maria and Pasyon’s son
with her. Maria got pregnant but gave birth to a dead baby, devastated she jumped off the cliff too
(the same cliff where her son and Sabel jumped) and Pasyon followed her. The movie ended as
Pasyon and Maria both drowned in the sea while hugging each other.
During the film, there were several theories that appeared; one of these is the Uncertainty
Reduction Theory, this theory is present throughout the movie, wherein Maria and Sabel ended up
being ‘like’ best friends from being perfect strangers. Another is the Attribution Theory; this theory
was shown during the scene where Maria’s husband, Pasyon, and the other inhabitants were trying to
explain Maria’s behavior, concluding that maybe she really is not Maria because she can’t even
remember her own husband. And lastly is the Cognitive Dissonance, this theory is present in the
scene wherein, Pasyon keeps on telling himself and Maria that he is only hurting her because of the
way she behaves even though he knows that it is not right.

3. BLUE BUSTAMANTE
Blue Bustamante is one of the movie entries in the Cinema one Originals Film Festival
2013, it is actually the movie I liked the most because it does not have sexual scenes or morbid
ones. The story of the movie features the reality amongst OFWs or Overseas Filipino Workers,
and although it features the hardships that OFWs around the world face, the story’s approach was
still light and humorous.
The story of the film revolves around George “Blue” Bustamante, a character portrayed
by Joem Bascon, who went to Japan to be able to provide for his family, to give them a better life
and future. He was supposed to work as an engineer but was not accepted and in result he ended
up as a stuntman in a certain child-oriented show, Force Five, wherein he played the role of Blue
Force who, along with the other forces, fights for justice and for the greater good. George was
ashamed of his job so he decided not to tell his wife, Juniper, and so he lied that he is working as
an engineer instead.
One of the theories that I have encountered while watching the film was Interpersonal
Deception theory, this theory was shown throughout the movie, during the scenes wherein
George had to lie to his wife Juniper, a character played by Dimples Romana, that he is working
as an engineer even though he is a stuntman in Japan. Another theory was the Attribution theory,
this was shown when Roger, George’s friend and fellow OFW worker, made conclusions as to
why Ayumi, a Japanese girl whom George offered his jacket to, gave George a basket full of
bread that she made herself; and he keep on telling that the only reason Ayumi would bother
doing what she did is because she likes George. And lastly is the scene wherein George offered
Ayumi to eat dinner in a Filipino restaurant and they keep on talking to each other although they
do not understand each other, there was this scene wherein Ayumi saw George’s wedding ring
and was really dumbfounded that he’s married already because she thought or rather assumed
that George is single and they could get married – this scene is most likely an example of
Expectancy Violation theory.

4. SHIFT
Another movie entry that was shown in the Cinema One Originals Film Festival 2013
was the movie Shift, in this movie the story revolved around the character Estela Alano and
Trevor, both call center agents who works in the same team. Estela Alano, a character portrayed
by Yeng Constantino, is a ‘tomboyish’ woman who aspires to be a renowned photographer,
composer and singer in the future although she majored in Sociology and is currently working in
a call center agency. She reasoned out that she is working in a call center because she is saving
money to achieve her dreams. In the film, she met Trevor (a character portrayed by Felix Roco),
a gay call center agent, who happens to work in the same company she is currently working at
and is actually in the same team she’s in. Estela and Trevor got along well, they became closer as
days go by and so she fell for him despite his gender identity and assumed that Trevor feels the
same for her but it turned out that she gave wrong perceptions to Trevor’s actions and words. In
the end, Trevor and Estela had a confrontation at their company party and Estela admitted that
she loves him and the final scene was the scene wherein Estela was asked as to how she could
imagine herself five years from now. The movie was open-ended, literally leaving the audience
hanging and letting the audience draw their own conclusion as to how it is suppose to end.
One of the theories that were present in this film was Attribution theory, it was shown
during the scenes where Trevor broke up with his boyfriend and told Estela that he won’t be
having one for a while although later on, he told her that he think he has found ‘the one’ and so
Estela assumed that he was referring to her and that he has fallen for her too like how she fell for
him; but it turned out later on that Trevor was actually referring to another person, a man, this of
course shocked Estela and made her very disappointed – this is an example of Expectancy
Violation Theory. And lastly is the Interpersonal Deception theory; after finding out the truth,
Estela started avoiding Trevor and when Trevor asked her why is she behaving like that and if
she’s avoiding him, she just answered that she’s busy.

5. GANITO KAMI NOON, PAANO KAYO NGAYON?
The film “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon” is a is filmed during the
70's. The film was directed by Eddie Romero and was starred by Christopher De Leon, Eddie
Garcia and Gloria Diaz - some of the actors we look up to because of their contribution to the
entertainment industry, and actors we call veterans. The film is one of those films which were
digitally restored version of the film by the ABS-CBN Archives and Central Digital Lab.
The film features the life of the different people from different classes in our society; the
alta sociedad or the rich, the middle class and the low class - commonly known as Indios. The
film depicts the simplicity of life and how peaceful it is in the rural areas of our country and how
different it is from the life here in Manila, how complicated life in this place is despite the
developed and progressive reputation it has. The film revolved around the character of Nicolas
'Kulas' Ocampo (played by Christopher De Leon), it showed how simple his life used to be and
how it changed when he met Padre Gil Concuera.
The movie and its characters, specifically Kulas, is a representation of Filipinos during
the Spanish period; Filipinos who were referred to as Indios in their own country. De Leon
portrayed Kulas' character as a man with good heart and naive - a subtle translation of the
Filipino word 'mang-mang', a characteristic of most Filipinos during the Spanish Era - the mere
reason why we were enslaved by those Spaniards.
I think the theory that evidently appeared throughout the whole film was the Elaboration
Likelihood theory because the characters in the film act the way they do because of gratitude,
because they have to, because the society dictates it, because there's no other way or simply
because they want to.