DARNA ANG PAGBABALIK aka DARNA THE RETURN is a wacky Filipino superhero film from the early 1990s. It's filled with cheap special effects, poorly choreographed fights, decent enough looking latex creatures, blunt hack-job editing and only serviceable cinematography and acting. It's also completely fascinating and totally entertaining. Darna is kind of a Filipino Wonder Woman rip with a dash of Captain Marvel (you know: "Shazam!") and this is the second and final(?) film in the series. I haven't seen the first, but here's what I can make out about the series from this film. Darna is Narda, a young, pretty and rather *ahem* busty young girl who when she swallows a magic pearl (I'm not making that up I swear!) and yells "Darna!" becomes, well yes, Darna, a flying , eye-laser-beam shooting, bikini-wearing superheroine out to defend poor Filipinos from bizarre supernatural villains, corrupt industrialists and rampant natural disasters. It's the rampant natural disasters that are featured prominently in this feature. Narda/Darna's village is destroyed by a flood which displaces her family to the slums of Manila. Even worse, during the disaster Darna loses her Magic Pearl! It's been stolen by Valentina (or something), Darna's medusa-headed archfoe who needs the pearl to keep her medusa-headed mother alive (or something). She also happens to be attempting to take over the Philipines by sending out subliminal messages through the television, which is slowly winning the populace over to her weird, new age-y cult thing. Narda's mother falls for it. Eventually Narda gets her pearl back, falls in love with two men, one a cop with a secret and the other her cousin (!?!) and it all ends with some wonderfully inexpensive special effects, silly fights (the ultimate showdown reminded me of a BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER episode at about 1/3 the production cost)and some sentimental exposition. It's all pretty weird and well, y'know, foreign. But it keeps up a terrific pace, with a constant barrage of cheesy fantasy and fighting. The inept film-making, acting and (on the DVD I viewed anyway) really horrible subtitling only enhances the bizarre spectacle of the whole thing. Go forth and find it, now!
7 comments:
You might be interested to know, that GMA7 (local Philippine TV Network) has resurrected "Darna" and it is now a TV Series. You can bet your bottom dollar, that feature films will follow.
Love your blog!
Nick:)
Thank you for sharing information Nick Nicholson. It is really good to know.
In the original Darna made in 1950 by Fernando Poe Sr. Productions, the girl Narda actually swallowed a Meteorite! Hahaha. No kidding! She saw this shooting star fall to the ground and the little meteorite has a name on it: DARNA. For some un known reason, she swallowed the damn thing and look what happened. She became a rip off version of Wonder Woman. Her first arch enemy was Valentina, another rip off character from Greek Mythology, Medusa, the Gorgon. The first Darna was actually fascinating in a way, because Fernando Poe Sr., used THOUSANDS of SNAKES that attacked the townspeople (through Valentina's order), and these snakes looked as if they were choreographed. People would capture thousands of snakes daily, then they'll shoot the scenes and let the reptiles go, only to catch some more the next day for the day's shoot. The snakes attack scenes are truly commendable. You gotta see it to believe it. :)
This movie is pure awesomeness, despite the bizarre filipino hero. highly recommendable.
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You might be interested to know, that GMA7 (local Philippine TV Network) has resurrected "Darna" and it is now a TV Series. You can bet your bottom dollar, that feature films will follow. Love your blog! Nick:)
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