Ulan is a tale of life and love's reality that is seamlessly merged with magic and imagination. A beautiful and inspirational story that created a visual feast that left me in awe, paired with an equally beautiful scoring and cast that literally brought the characters to life. The audience were treated to experience the glory of fantasy while still having a grasp of reality, reality in its truest form.The shifts were so flawless and I enjoyed every bit of it. I'm a huge Studio Ghibli fan and a JaDine fan at that so hearing the background music while seeing Nadine on screen as Maya flooded me with feels and happiness like how No-face was almost drifted by the waves at the train station. Ang galing din ng cinematography and yung kulay while the story shifts POVs between young and adult Maya, distinct yung dalawa eh so hindi ka malilito kahit madalas biglang nag-iiba yung scene. Hindi ako movie expert but as a moviegoer all the technical aspects present in this movie were so subtle that you won't even notice they were using CGI (?) for the Tikbalang's hand, ang alam mo lang is she's comforting Maya as well as you as an audience after ng sunod-sunod na buhos ng damdamin. I like that I was watching two different times of a woman's life but both stories of young and adult Maya did not clash, hindi chaotic, hindi confusing kasi very subtle sya in the sense that Maya changed a lot through the years but you can still see bits of the young Maya; dreamy, aspirational and innocent Maya.
We could say that the plot is not new - brokenhearted girl meets a young free spirited nice guy - pero the way the whole story unfolded all throughout the movie until the end is very new, I think the very unique narrative has a lot to do with that plus injecting magical realism in a Filipino movie was a surprise. Yung storytelling that was applied sa movie is very unconventional. This simple plot can easily become cliché but because hindi sya focused mainly sa plot but more on the characters themselves and how they affected each other's life rather than the plot itself it convinced me that Ulan is far from cliché love stories we watch on TV or sa big screen.
The director really knows what she wants and how she would convey the message to us viewers. I just want to share one scene I really love sa movie; sa umpisa, Maya was buying a cake habang umuulan and then she went out of the store, walked pass the wet concrete pathway and then the camera focused on her feet while water was splashing as she stepped on it. That simple camera pan was so solid and then I was sold.
The cast were chosen by the the story itself, I couldn't see anyone else playing the role of Maya but Nadine Lustre and the camera loves her. I can't believe Carlo Aquino was not the first choice to play Peter. Ang smooth ng batuhan nila ng lines, walang overly dramatic scenes like we commonly see with other movies. Yung silent scenes nilang dalawa didn't require any dialogue for us to feel the emotion the actors and director want to convey. Mark and Andrew were roles played by actors whom Nadine is already acquainted with so the chemistry on screen was automatic. Topi was played by Josef Elizalde whom I believe Nadine only meet on set but their chemistry as friends looks so authentic. Maya's Lola, Uncle and Antie were played by actors that were honed by experience and I love how they naturally delivered each scene they were in, it amazes me. I just want to specifically point out how Andrea del Rosario was so good and how I love her character. Siya yung Tita na parang mataray at akala mo minamaltrato nya si Maya like an evil stepmother but no; she's this madada but genuinely loving Tita we all wanna have *wipes single tear from left eye* - I want halo-halo too. Leo Martinez played a short but sweet role. All the mythical creatures in the movie were oddly satisfying to watch lol. Even the cameo's "oohh..ahh" amused me hahaha.
Ulan deserves to be seen...seen not just by any paying viewer but those who are smart enough to discover its symbolism and artistic value.
Sa mga di pa nakakanood, BAKIT?
