Pinoy Sunday - 2009

Plot: An abandoned couch turns Sunday routine into an adventure of perseverance and self-discovery, for a pair of Filipino migrant workers in Taipei.

Story: Sunday is precious. In Taipei's Little Philippines, peopled, as it is with guest workers that put in six-day-weeks, Sunday is priceless. Sunday's little diversions, its simple pleasures, perk up wilting ambition and rejuvenate flagging aspiration. Migrant labor aspiration, fuel, the global economy burns, owes much to Sunday's particular charms. The discovery of an abandoned couch, this particular Sunday, sets this story in motion. Filipino guest workers, Manuel and Dado, hoist the couch and head back to their dormitory in the industrial fringes of the Taipei hinterland. This absurdest road movie is driven forward by the conflict between their irrational hopes and the lurking personal demons of cold, hard rationale. Pinoy Sunday walks rural-third-world protagonists through traffic heavy, fast-paced, modern city streets and freeways; till 'irrational hope' and 'the demons of cold, hard rationale' mutate, and one is soon indistinguishable from the other.

Did you know: Exhibition, A Window on Asian Cinema, Pusan International Film Festival 2010.