There
are two things teen rom-coms get right: the girl always falls for the
transparently pond-scummy dude and she treats her nice-guy best friend like
dirt. Considering how many teen tearjerkers get released in the Philippines,
Sally really should have known better, but her tastes run more towards geeky
fare. However, poor Marty might turn out to be more resourceful than he looks
in Avid Liongoren’s Saving Sally (trailer here), which screens
during this year’s New York Asian Film Festival.
Like
Roddy Piper in They Live, Marty can
tell the world is mostly full of monsters, but Sally isn’t one of them. She is
a cool, down-to-earth chick, who invents steampunky gadgets and shares his
passion for geek culture. Despite their friendship, he secretly carries a torch
for her, but he is too shy to express his feelings. He is also concerned for
her in a more immediate sense. Her parents are so controlling, it always
requires a fair degree of trickery for her to get out of the house for any
length of time. Plus, he has a clear enough idea how she gets her bruises, even
though he never challenges her alibis and denials.
Then
one day, Sally suddenly announces she has a boyfriend, who is older and cockier
than Marty. Of course, he can see Nick for who he is: a giant phallic-shaped
organ. Nevertheless, he agrees to act as a go-between, giving him an
opportunity to confirm all his suspicions. As a further complication, Marty’s
heartburn comes just when a professional publisher starts to take notice of his
work.
The
way Liongoren integrates his live action actors (Marty, Sally, their parents,
and sometimes Nick) with the animated backdrops and background monsters is wondrously
idiosyncratic. Don’t call it quirky—this is some of the most comprehensive
world-building you will ever see on film. This is the real world, not as it
looks, but how it feels to live in it as a nebbish, artistic teenager.
Frame
after frame of Saving Sally are works
of art in their own right, but Rhian Ramos and Enzo Marcos are still quite
winning as Sally and Marty, respectively. They shrewdly keep the angst
restrained and understated, because excessive restraint is part of their
problem. They can’t help getting up-staged by the amazing animation, art direction,
and matte paintings from time to time, but they still make us care about and
identify with these kids in a very personal and direct way.
