Despite creating an audiovisual feast with arresting lead performances, Carlo Francisco Manatad’s ‘Whether the Weather is Fine’ is a polarizing reimagining of how communities respond to adversity in a typhoon-ravaged area
Midway through Whether the Weather is Fine, Norma (Charo Santos-Concio) is looking for her husband amidst a sea of survivors, when suddenly a flash mob begins. Standing still while hundreds dance to Ivor B’s “Tahong ni Karla” and a lion roars from atop the astrodome in the distance, Norma seems to be the only sane person left in the community ravaged by a super typhoon. In any other place in the world, such a situation would be relegated as absurdity. But to those of us who have to regularly outlive such storms in the Philippines, the scene is closer to reality than one might think.
These intersections between the quotidian…
