Following the real-life events of Philippine’s Typhoon Haiyan in 2013, director Carlo Francisco Manatad makes his directional debut to highlight the aftermath of a family dealing with this horrific event with ‘Whether the Weather is Fine’, starring a family of three, Daniel Padilla as Miguel the son, Rans Rifol as Andrea the daughter, and Charo Santos-Concio as Norma the mother. The film made its world premier at the 74th Locarno Film Festival and is also released at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The movie starts the plot off right after the devastation happened, leaving the Philippine civilians stranded in their country without a proper home, electricity, food, and any basic living needs. The society has fallen apart from supporting each other and everyone is fighting for their own needs and survival. Miguel & Andrea are out searching for answers to escape the aftermath, while Norma is looking to reunite with her husband Luis.
Those that survived are looking for food and shelter at the rescue centre. Some look to connect with their loved ones and hope they could be rescued from the disaster. The feelings of having extremely scarce resources forces the community to find ways to survive by any means necessary, even if it means every man for themselves. Some do have compassion to help others, whereas some are isolated, turning wild, and doing whatever it takes to get into rescue camps waiting to leave the disaster.
It is a true test to the idea of nature vs. nurture, where the community looks for mercy of the lord to save them, when the irony is that nature could also be potentially the same lord that created it. Some follow the forces of nature to accept what has happened and band together as a community to find ways to entertain themselves to past the time. Some nurture those who are wounded to hope compassion still exists around them. The waves of anxiety that happen throughout the characters in the film creates a level of uncertainty of what their destiny will ultimately become.
From a plot perspective, there is not much storytelling to be found. Instead, Whether the Weather is Fine intentionally focuses very closely on the perspectives of the three family members to show how they navigated through this mess, leading to developing their own paths in this situation to find their true purpose and destiny. Their bond as a family is tested to see what sacrifices they have to make in order to proceed with what they want to do, creating dilemmas in the choices they make.
What stands out for this film is bringing out the Philippine’s representation in cinema, specifically the language dialect of Waray, as well as bringing the attention to see how the country responded to the aftermath of the Typhoon. While the plot itself is fictional, this was an opportunity to let the audience in and experience how disoriented people can become and experience a lot of negative feelings of anxiety, sadness, and hostility through their suffering in the Philippines. There are scenes that do bring hope and resilience from the Philippine community, embracing the idea that everything happens for a reason.
Most of the scenes are long and drawn-out, giving the sense of how uncomfortable the characters feel as they are navigating through a traumatic experience. One of the biggest standouts is Charo-Santo’s performance as Norma, who truly demonstrated how much love can do to her just to see her husband Luis one more time, even if the decisions she made seem irrational, yet somewhat logical.
The cinematography and art direction really brings out the natural disaster in each scene, from abandoned and broken houses, floating refrigerators by the beaches, and makeshift camp sites. There are plentiful background performers that help support the balance between hope and despair, without being over the top and grounded. There’s a presence of the army at the rescue camps, which thankfully did not distract from the main focus of the three lead characters.
Overall, Carlo Francisco Manatad has done a great job in bringing awareness of this historical typhoon event in the Philippines. Whether the Weather is Fine is the type of film with good intentions to remind the audience about the humanity in coming together to help the survivors move forward from a devastation. This is also a great reminder that when everything is taken away, only the physiological necessities matter like food, shelter, and water, which often are taken for granted until they become scarce. It is an important reminder to appreciate what they have in their life and not take things for granted.