Movie Notes: 'Lumayo Ka Nga Sa Akin' (2016) is Too Much on Many Levels

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Bob Ong’s books may have been spot on in capturing the clichés of Filipino culture in his books but translating this to the big screen is a far more complicated and different story.


Lumayo Ka Man Nga Sa Akin is the newest movie adaptation of Bob Ong’s 2011 book. It is a movie parody about the clichés in Filipino TV and Cinema. It consists of three stories: the first one titled Bala Sa Bala, Kamao Sa Kamao, Satsat Sa Satsat is about clichés in action movies; the second story Shake, Shaker, Shakest is a parody of the Filipino Horror Genre and lastly Asawa ni Marie is about the clichés of Filipino Soap Operas.

Bob Ong has been very successful in his works in pointing out the clichés of Filipino Entertainment in his books but putting it into the big screen as a solid story is far trickier. Lumayo Ka Man Nga Sa Akin has tried to live up to its genre of being a parody movie.

However, the risk with this genre is that it is bordering to exaggeration and over the top acting which can sometimes be irritating if not taken in moderation. The movie tried to put everything in the story and in the end, made it into a messy storyline. Some jokes were corny and out of place.

The main difficulty with the first story Bala Sa Bala, Kamao Sa Kamao, Satsat Sa Satsat is that it requires prior knowledge of action movies in the Philippines. If you haven’t seen a ton of action movies up till the 90’s, you wouldn’t get the jokes at all.

Shake, Shaker, Shakest has so much screaming and plot twists that it was so confusing and gives the audience less chance to laugh at their jokes before another one comes along. They have broken the fourth wall too much that it felt weird and honestly added less humor to the story if not eliminated it completely. It would have been funnier if the characters remained oblivious that they are in a horror movie cliché but instead they pre-empt the audience by explaining too much.

In the trilogy, Asawa ni Marie which is the story of rags to riches girl (mostly based on the Mexican telenovela MariMar) is the most entertaining. This is probably because of the timing; among the three, it is the most relevant genre now. The Filipino action movie and the horror genre are not as vibrant as it was in the 90’s while Telenovelas are still part of primetime TV viewing. The characters were oblivious that they are in a Soap Opera cliché and it worked to make the movie funny. It was worthy to note that the camera shots and production value were good especially the actors make up (case in point, they were able to make a believable muscular chest and abs for Jason Gainza’s character).

Despite the misses in its punchlines Lumayo Ka Man Nga Sa Akin on the standpoint of a Bob Ong inspired film still delivers to be a reflection of the clichés of Philippine Entertainment that we have been served for the longest time.


2/5 - Good-ish Movie

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