Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

The film is essentially about bridges, the little bridge that connects a barrio from the rest of the Philippines, the bridge that connects the Philippines from the rest of the world, the bridge that connects the world from the rest of the universe. Kidlat Tahimik, a jeepney driver obsessed with crossing bridges ever since he was three, inexplicably learns the consequences of change, and decides, in a declaration that becomes the filmmaker’s raison d’etre in all his films, to value the state of being instead of crossing.
It is Tahimik's generosity, his humble simplification of the world's complex worries, that carries Mababangong Bangungot from its low budget imaginings. Tahimik exoticizes his culture without necessarily exploiting it. He also exoticizes European cultures; and in a way, he dons the skin of a curious documentarian, only with more humor and a drawing charm. Tahimik states that he initially wanted this film to be the typical tale of a probinsyano (provincial man) who is transplanted to city life. Somehow, the canvass blossomed into what it is now; a flavorful ode to Filipino ingenuity and culture; a classy coming-of-age tale of a fullgrown man (although childlike in his ways) coming to see the world in his little nation's meager curious eyes.

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

Close

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

Close

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Perfumed Nightmare / Mababangong bangungot - by Kidlat Tahimik (1977)

Close