Queue Tips: Sister Sister Stella Stella

I saw "Sister Stella L" over ten years ago.  I had a Netflix account back then, back when they still had DVDs.  I was a video editor and had a DVD player and monitor on my desk next to me.  I wanted to make the most of my subscription so I would go through the movies and send them back ASAP so I could get another one right away.

That was how I watched this movie.  I was doing some work and just had this DVD on as kind of like background noise.  I didn't hate it at the time, but I also didn't remember much of it.

I rewatched it again recently, and I was actually pretty impressed by it.  Mainly, it seemed like everybody knew how to act.  This film was released in 1984, and it seems like whoever was in charge of casting back then actually knew how to find talent.  Everyone seemed natural and professional, even the small parts.  

And there were not a lot of forgotten lines.  These days when you watch Filipino movies and shows, you can tell when they're trying to recall what to say.  We don't really have similar words like "uh" or "um" in Tagalog.  We just kind of trail off or stretch the last syllable.  When you watch recent Tagalog movies, you can pretty much notice this most of the time.  But not in "Sister Stella L".

The storytelling itself is pretty straightforward.  There's nothing fancy about the style.  It's just like one scene follows another.  

There are some odd choices with the camera work and editing.  They would just kind of change angles from time to time, violating the 180 degree rule.  But the acting made up for that, I think.

Also, there were not a lot of English in the movie.  These days, English words are constantly mixed Tagalog.  I don't know if Tallish wasn't yet popular back then, or if it was the filmmaker's choice, but I liked it.  I liked hearing the deep words and idioms that you don't hear much these days.

The other odd choice what the name of the movie, which is also the name of the character.  It's called "Sister Stella L" because there is another Sister Stella.  I don't remember what letter her last name starts with.  But it's not L.

So they created two characters with the same first name.  They kept referring to each other as "Tukayo".  It was about halfway through the movie when I realized that meant "Namesake".

Apparently this is based on real characters, real nuns, based on what I read about it.  But those real characters don't have the same first names.  So in that regard, I think it was an odd choice to give them the same name.  Unless they just wanted to be able to have namesakes and call each other "Tukayo".  Maybe because the older character was already deeply involved in their movement, and the younger one was still hesitant.  And having them have the same name kind of gave it more meaning when the younger one finally accepted and took over the role.

And spoiler alert: there is no real resolution to this movie.  It just kind of shows how the character became involved in their movement.  They could have probably called it "Sister Stella L. Begins".