Nestle Kasambuhay Habambuhay Films free essay sample

Sine Kasambahay started with the short film – â€Å"The Howl and the Fussyket† which showcased a family coming together for a declamation contest. With the drive to win, the mother tried to help her son (who had a â€Å"p and f† defect) in preparing for the competition by hiring a call-center agent and a stage actor to train him. It is really inspiring to see a mother so supportive of his son (even with his â€Å"p and f† defect). This is what can be called positive parenting. She was very careful with how she talked to her son, asking him if he really wanted to go through the contest. Filipino mothers are expected to be like this. They are the ones who stay at home to tend to the children, giving them all the support, love, care and attention that they need. Seeing Dennis Padilla (the dad) turn off his webcam while listening to his son’s speech showed the â€Å"Bahala ka na diyan. † attitude of Filipino fathers – leaving all family matters to their wives. Maybe because they are the ones tired at work, the bulk of the problems at home are handled by the mothers. In this short film, Eugene Domingo (the mom) showed the mothers in the modern times – a working mom. Even with a job, she never failed to support her children saying she will take a leave (and even forcing her daughter to go to the program) just to watch his son in the declamation contest. A lot of Filipino mothers are already working. This new trend sometimes eats the time of parents, especially mothers, for their children. When they arrive home, they are just too tired to attend to them. This film showed that it is possible to be there for them even if one parent is an OFW and another is also working. It also proved that families can be together (even if one is another country) through the use of technology. Another film in the collection, â€Å"Sali Salita† came in contrast with â€Å"The Howl and the Fussyket. † â€Å"Sali Salita† (a personal favorite) is about a mother who writes children’s storybooks but could not find time to create stories with her son. His grandfather provided the attention that the child needed, which the mom cannot provide. They filled up a can of milk with words, which they use to create (through their wild imagination) a tale of heroes fighting villains. In the end, the hero just needed a secret weapon – a mom showering his child love and attention. Also a story of a working mother, this film provided the audience with the reality of how busy mothers can be. One could see a neglected son acting up when he is with his yaya. When he tried apologizing to his mom for breaking her laptop, she did not seem to accept the apology. Instead she called, probably her publisher, apologizing to him. When in fact, in my opinion, she should be apologizing to her son for her negligence. Parents might say that they are working hard for the welfare of their children, providing them more than their basic physical needs but forgetting about their basic emotional needs. Needs that are very essential to a child’s development. Thank God for the arrival of the child’s grandfather, showering him with all the attention that he needed. In true â€Å"Kuya Bogie† style, they created a tale of Josh as the hero saving the queen (his mother) from the evil COMPUTER. Their story is basically the projection of what the child was feeling – he was fighting against the computer, which symbolized his mom’s work,. Work , which was engulfing his mom in its world where he was practically left out of the picture. Often in Filipino families, the grandparents are the ones who are showering their grandchildren with material things to the point of spoiling them. I usually see this scenario in my class. Lola or lolo is the one attending the Parent-Teacher Conference because the parents are just too busy with their work. One student told me that his lola pays for all their trips abroad. She is the one feeling sad when her grandson does not do well in school. â€Å"How about mommy? Where is she? â€Å" I asked. â€Å"Always on the phone. † Since a lot of Filipino women are joining the workforce, the children often find themselves in the care of their grandparents. There are pros and cons in this set-up. The good thing is the children are not just left with the yayas or in other countries the daycare. They are placed in the hands of family, which is great. But this leaves the parents complacent with their child’s well being. They feel that their children are well taken care of by their parents that they sometimes forget their own responsibility as parents. A film in the collection â€Å"Tingala sa Ibaba†, also showed how parents can neglect their children. The film is a satire featuring two children in a seesaw. One chubby child from a well to do family is always looking up at a lanky child from a poverty stricken family background when they are on a seesaw. The story shows how friendship between two people from different social backgrounds can change one’s perspective in life. The child from the well-to-do family was left in school alone his fetcher late. This is another usual scene in schools when parents are too busy to attend to their children. To kill time, he befriends a boy who remains to stay on top when they are on the seesaw. Maybe this lanky child is on top for many reasons. Even though he is from a poor family, one will notice the concern the father has for his child when his sister came to fetch him and said â€Å"Angelo, Angelo, hinahanap ka na ni Papa! † Here is a child from a poor family – his own FATHER looking for him compared to another from a rich family left alone because his DRIVER is late. One will not feel anything but pity for the latter. Feeling sorry for him, the lanky one devised a way to add weight to his side of the seesaw. He gave up the ice cream, gave it to his sister so she would agree to sit on his side. This gave the other boy a chance to experience being on top. Going back to â€Å"Sali-Salita†, another detail that I noticed in the film is the absence of the father. One may think that maybe the reason behind the mom’s concern for her job is because she is a single parent. She needs to work hard for her child to sustain the lifestyle that they have. But looking at their house, the presence of more than one house help and their possessions, maybe there is indeed a father. Maybe he is also just too caught up with work – an absentee father. The children are the ones who suffer in this situation. It is noticeable that parents who work hard but does not have time to be with their children, shower their children with the material things that they want. This is very evident with the toys that Josh has. This kind of children often grow up getting â€Å"spoiled. † Along with being spoiled, they do not learn the values that most of us, in our generation, learned from our parents. In this world which has become more materialistic than ever, money is very important. Parents buy their children PSPs, iPods, iPads and other very expensive toys. These material things will not teach them about life. These just expose them to things that are far worse. This â€Å"gadget-filled† lives of children were seen in â€Å"Unplugged†. In this film, a football team of young students went on a fieldtrip to the province. They met their coach’s grandfather there who pulled them away from a life full of technology and materialism. He taught them to live a simpler life, which means going back to nature. This also gives them the chance to discover new things for themselves. It teaches them to learn to appreciate life as it is. How one can wish that children can forget all their gadgets, just like what happened towards the end of the story. But there was a twist, when they went out looking for the grandfather, there he was†¦using a laptop TWEETING! Probably, this tells us that you can never really escape technology. People need to learn to use it to be more efficient. Even grandfathers can still learn and make their lives easier to connect to the world through technology. Going back to a family’s show of support, another film (a musical one this time) â€Å"Oh! Pa Ra Sa Ta U Wa Yeah! † also showcased this Filipino family trait. It is a story of family on a road trip. It is a continuation of the â€Å"Nestea-serye† which stars Nicos who is very much in love with Matina. Nicos’s father, showing full support to his son, shares with him an aged old heirloom that is an alphabetical manual on how their clan courted women. Nicos found himself confused with Matina’s mixed signals and the information given to him by her sister. As a function of a family, which is providing emotional support to its members, Nicos’ parents comforted him. A little pat on the back by his younger brother goes a long way especially for a distraught brother. It showed how great a family can be if the children are open to their parents. This openness probably roots from the confidence and security that their parents will support and help them. This is not the case in some families. Sometimes the parents and the teenage children are always in conflict. Teenagers do not confide in their parents. Usually, they run to their friends for help, especially in the matters of the heart. This film reminds me of a featured film entitled â€Å"Little Miss Sunshine† which starred Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear and Steve Carrell. This particular family went on a road trip to support their daughter in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The family consisted of a father, a mother, brother, grandfather and an uncle. They rode in a Volkswagen Type 2 (Kombi) which is exactly the same car used in â€Å"Oh! Pa Ra Sa Ta U Wa Yeah! † The American film showed a dysfunctional family coming together for the little girl’s dream of winning in a beauty pageant. They finally came into terms with their differences and settled their personal issues through each other’s support. The long drive from Albuquerque to California gave them the chance to settle what needed to be settled. Another story about families is â€Å"Cooking Mo, Cooking Ko†. This story is reminiscent of Shakespeare’s â€Å"Romeo and Juliet† (even the names of the characters are patterned after the famous play) The film started with two families who get along with each other but ends up fighting because of a carinderia competition. Busy with their family war, the parents did not notice the blossoming love between their children. Getting along with other families in the neighborhood is a must for Filipino families. This is very evident especially in the rural areas. They give each other ulam without any need for a reason like a special occasion. When one suddenly runs out of bigas, asin or asukal, they could just ask from their neighbors instead of going all the way to the bayan to buy. The Capule and Montano families manifested this at the start but because of the â€Å"copy-cat† mentality of Filipinos, the friendship between them did not last. They started a competition which each Filipino must have witnessed at one point in their lives. This â€Å"war† ironically ended when their children eloped and bore a child. This is another good trait of Filipinos, they learn to forgive easily especially when they are presented with a grandchild. Filipino grandchildren and grandparents form special bonds, which will be discussed more later. Another Filipino trait that was evident in this film is the principle of pangunguyog (from the root word kuyog). The whole colony of bees running after its target is the perfect example of pangunguyog. Filipino families have this tendency. When a family member has a fight with someone, the whole family will surely join in. In the film, when the couples came out of their houses bringing ladles, pots and even vegetables to attack their neighbors, every member of the family was with them. Proceeding to another life stage, â€Å"Downtown† (another personal favorite) featured a lonely aging Chinese man. One might think that he must be alone because of his wife’s passing away. The most welcome twist came when he started cleaning and fixing up his house and along with that, his life. When he was ready, he tried to win back his wife. If only this can be possible for all married couples who separate because of differences. In the United States, divorce is legal. This makes it easier for married couples to file for separation. A perfect example of this is Kim Kardashian’s marriage to Kris Humphries where they were just married for 72 days! For a people giving importance to the sacred sacrament of marriage, this is not yet true in the Philippines. One can file for legal separation or an annulment if he finds himself wanting to get out of the marriage. Annulment can take a pretty long while to settle and can cost lots of money. Filipinos should be thankful that some family values are still intact. Husbands and wives really do try to settle their differences before really separating. Sometimes it does work out, sometimes it does not. There is also a growing number of married couples getting separated here in the Philippines. Some, which in my opinion is not right, are staying together for their children. This shows how much Filipinos care for keeping the family together. This also shows the great love of some Filipino parents to their children. Imagine this old man, turning his life around, just to win his wife back! For some, this is unfathomable. Husbands or wives cannot even tweak some little things in themselves to save their marriage. They remain selfish and continue with what they stubbornly think is right without realizing that changing can actually save their relationship. It gives me goose bumps when I hear of couples celebrating their 50th anniversary or even their 60th! What a life these couples had with each other! When their stories are heard, their married lives are not as blissful as everybody thinks. Of course they also went through challenges but because of their love, trust and commitment to one another, they remained strong through adversities. They would say that it has been a life of compromises and adjustments. Main point: married life is not easy but if there is true love, trust and commitment between couples, anything is possible and probable – just like that old Chinese man who lives in Downtown who did all that he could to win his wife back. Just like Chinese old man in â€Å"Downtown† and Angelo in â€Å"Tingala sa Ibaba†, the young handsome policeman in â€Å"Silup† had to sacrifice something in his life for another person dear to him. This film is about the dangerous life of a cop. A cop, despite his good looks, bravery and noble job, choosing to remain single. Why, you might ask? Well, one will not fail to notice his routine of taking out cans of milk and replacing them with his gun. Eventually, the audience finds out about his family life involving his dear old grandmother. Here are two people in two different life stages: the silup who is a young adult, who at this stage could already start a family, but chooses not to and his grandmother, a dependent elder, who needs daily care and unable to perform all personal functions. The silup chose to be single to take care of his aging grandmother. Probably this is his way of paying his grandmother back for taking care of him. This is common practice in Filipino families. Children learn to give back to their parents, in monetary form, once they start working. When these parents get older, one of their children is expected to live with them to take care of them until the end. The silup and his grandmother’s situation is not at all uncommon in our culture. Some children are left to be taken care of by their grandparents. One or two grandchildren grow up under their grandparents’ supervision. Sometimes they take on the role of the real children in looking after the grandparents when they get sick or until they breathe their last breath. This is to attest that Filipinos cannot just leave their family behind, especially the elderly. In other countries, it is a practice that the elderly are left in nursing homes. This is one of the best traits of Filipinos, they have high regard for the elderly. They know how to be grateful to these people who I am sure also sacrificed a lot just to tend to their children and their grandchildren. In the film â€Å"Sali-Salita†, one can witness the special bond between the grandfather and Josh. His grandfather was the one who showered him with love and attention, which he craved. This kind of special relationship cannot be severed by anyone or anything. Josh might even grow up to be that courageous policeman who sacrificed living his own life just to take care of an aging grandparent (just like that honorable man in â€Å"Silup†) The final two films display the Filipinos’ belief in the supernatural. Very similar to Nora Aunor’s â€Å"walang himala† movie, â€Å"Isang Tasang Pangarap† is about Elias who acquired a power of telling the future using the person’s coffee cup. He then understood the responsibility that came with this special power. The film started with a scene showing Elias contented with his life. All he wanted is to drink a cup of coffee. This reflects some Filipinos’ contentment with simple life. They find joy even if living in the slums. People often wonder why Filipinos can still smile even through tough times. When you pass through the road between Quezon Ave and East Ave (passing by NIA Road), you will notice a whole lot of illegal settlers in the area. But every time you will pass by, you will seldom see a sad crowd. You will witness children playing on the dangerous street, men drinking alcoholic beverage on the same street or women talking with each other. These people seem contented like Elias. According to the Social Weather Stations, in a survey done in 2008 with the question â€Å"If you were to consider your life in general these days, how happy or unhappy would you say you are on the whole. Are you†¦ †. The percentage of their response is shown in the table below: | URBAN| RURAL| Very happy| 25| 33| Fairly happy| 49| 47| Not very happy| 22| 16| Not at all happy| 4| 4| One will see that Filipinos are fairly happy. But we have to take in consideration the fact that people may hide their true feelings when it comes to surveys. Sometimes, Filipinos try to hold on to HOPE. Hope is a very powerful driving force in their lives, in anyone’s life probably. When Elias received the power of reading the fortunes of people through looking at the bottom of their coffee mugs, the people of San Luis found hope in him. Some of the people in the film made their lives revolve around him (like the Indian national and his goons). Dressing him up like Jesus (with the crown, white dress with a red cape), he was brought out to be praised. In this activity, his most beloved coffee cup broke. He was the one who lost all hope when this happened. His source of happiness vanished with his want to be the bearer of hope to his townspeople. Filipinos are also fans of fortune-telling. This is evident before the current year ends and the new year starts when people are bombarded with fortune tellers giving us ideas on what will happen the next year. When one goes to Quiapo, he will be welcomed with rows of fortune-tellers just outside the Quiapo church (How ironic! ). Tarot cards, a person’s palm or the alignment of the stars and the planets are just few of the means on how fortune-tellers apparently see a person’s future. May this be true or not, Filipinos are mainly looking for HOPE of better days ahead of them. Families, especially in rural areas, often go to a faith healer or an albularyo for healing physical, mental and sometimes emotional sickness. When they hear of miracles in the form of a person being healed by someone, Filipinos go to this healer. The reasons can vary from truly wanting to be healed to nakikiusisa lang. Filipinos love to be in the know. This is very evident when there is an accident on the road. Expect heavy traffic if this is the case. People will surely be slowing down to look at or watch the accident. Another shameful proof of this is the hostage incident in the Grandstand in Manila where the usiseros bombarded the bus once the hostage taker was killed. Finally, the film â€Å"Sign Seeker† is about a young man seeking for divine outrageous signs to finally ask a girl out. To his surprise, he found them materializing right before his eyes. With his fear for rejection, he still kept on denying himself of what he really wanted. Filipinos are also sign seekers. Some Filipino families yearning for wealth often bet in the lottery. Choosing the numbers for the lottery is not a random act for most Filipinos. For example, one mom takes in consideration the initials of the names of her family members. These initials correspond to a certain number and these numbers are what she will use in betting. But Filipinos should learn from what Elias made his townspeople realize: â€Å"Walang himala, nasa puso ng tao ang himala. Kayo ang gumagawa ng sarili ninyong tadhana. † If Filipinos only live following this precious advice from a very contented man like Elias, they would make their own miracles. This way, they would find true happiness in life. All these films truly reflect the Filipinos way of life. Watching these films will surely make the audience laugh, cry and even reflect on their own lives. Nestle, in its 100 years of existence, has truly provided its consumers products that they will continue to use another hundred years from now. Through these Nestle Kasambuhay Habambuhay short films, it also captured the people’s hearts and minds on what Filipinos and Filipinos families truly are.