Wag Kang Lilingon

Infobox Film | name = Wag Kang Lilingon


caption = Anne Curtis and Kristine Hermosa on the DVD cover.|
director = Jerry Lopez Sinengneng
Quark Henares
starring = Anne Curtis
Kristine Hermosa
Marvin Agustin
Cherry Pie Picache
distributor = Star Cinema
Viva Films
released = 2006
runtime = 96 min
country = flagicon|Philippines Philippines
language = Tagalog
English |

"Wag Kang Lilingon" (English: "Don't Turn Away"; more specifically "Don't Look Back") is a 2006 Filipino Star Cinema and Viva Films film starring Anne Curtis and Kristine Hermosa. The movie is directed by Jerry Lopez Sinengneng and Quark Henares.

Plot

"Wag Kang Lilingon" is divided into two stories: Uyayi and Salamin.

Uyayi

In Uyayi (English: Lullaby), the Angel of Mercy hospital becomes notorious for the sporadic death of some of its male patients. Startled by the incidents, a nurse at the hospital, Melissa (Curtis), points an accusing finger at the reticent Dr. Carl. She relays her beliefs to boyfriend, James (Marvin Agustin). Together they concoct a plan for James to fake an illness in order to gain admission at the hospital, so they can see if Dr. Carl is indeed the killer.

Unfortunately, James' attempt was unsuccessful and the duo are forced to re-examine their list of suspects, especially after Dr. Carl turns up dead. Melissa begins to wonder if the culprit is even human, when a series of apparitions begins to manifest themselves before her. As she slowly starts to loose her grips with reality, she is further devastated by the knowledge of her boyfriend's previous unsuccessful relationship, which only adds more tension to her already waning sanity.

The hauntings become progressively worse by 3 AM the next day (which incidentally is the end of the Uyayi segment); it is then revealed that Melissa is in fact the one who has been murdering the male patients, as well as Dr. Carl, revealed through a series of flashbacks, while in real-time, she is shown killing James in the basement of the hospital. The segment ends with Melissa crying over James' body.

alamin

In Salamin (English: mirror, lens), a near-destitute family of a mother and her two daughters seeks a new home in the rural provinces. They move into an old colonial-style house which has been uninhabited for years. Immediately after entering the home the mother, Rosing, (Cherry Pie Picache) detects the smell of blood, but her daughter Angel (Hermosa) dismisses it and attributes the hallucination with her mother's failing health. In the meantime, younger daughter, Nina, explores the rest of the house and stumbles upon a strange door, which she futilely attempts to open but to no avail.

All is fine with the family until the next night when the door mysteriously opens. Rosing and her daughters go to investigate and finds a basement-like room, where they come across an old mirror, which they make a wish upon. Unbeknownst to Rosing and the girls, they've unleashed and angered the spirits that dwell within the mirror (who we learn were the former occupants of the house),although the ghosts do not make their presence known until later.

Outside the home, Angel's inability to deal with her boyfriend Lander's unfaithfulness adds the strain on their already floundering relationship which inevitably causes the couple to become estranged.

When the spirits do finally appear, Angel calls upon her psychic friend, Trixie, for help. Trixie informs the family that a number of people have died there previously. After the relentless hauntings, Angel and Trixie agree to get rid of the mirror and have the family move in with Trixie's for a while. But with her curiosity getting the better of her and her unyielding need to save her family, Angel decides to return to the house. She learns that a local, Nestor, had committed the murders of the former residents of the home. When Angel tries to flee from him, Nestor gives chase. With Nestor in hot pursuit, Angel runs into her family and Trixie but the reunion is bittersweet when Nestor catches up to them and slaughters the women with the exception of Nina. As the remaining survivor, little Nina seeks refuge by scurrying to the attic. When Nestor closes in on a terrified Nina, Angel with her dying breath, rescues her by bludgeons Nestor across the head, instantly killing him. The segment ends with Nina hunched over Angel's body eerily similar to Melissa over James' body in Uyayi.

The Story Ties

The ending of Wag Kang Lilingon winds up being the epilogue to Salamin and a prologue to Uyayi. It turns out that in Salamin, after the tragic events leaves Nina an orphan, she is placed with an adoption agency and changes her name from Nina to Melissa (the same Melissa in Uyayi). She leaves for the United States, where she studies nursing for the next 6 years, only to return to the Philippines to work at the Angel of Mercy hospital. It is then revealed that her childhood home was demolished and the hospital was erected in its place. The spirits that haunts the Angel of Mercy hospital are the same ghosts that haunted Nina/Melissa's old house.

The movie ends with Nina/Melissa driving James' body to Angel's dream house, which the audience was privy to in Salamin. Still wracked with guilt, Melissa delude herself into believing her mother, Angel and James are still alive and pretends to have dinner with them. "Angel" tells Melissa that she can't hold them in the mortal coil like this, and as the camera zooms out, it is shown that Nina/Melissa is actually carrying the entire conversation in her head, she is actually not talking to anyone and James is still very dead. Melissa imagines that she hears James whisper her name, then leans in closer towards him. Suddenly, James awakens from his unconscious state and grabs her by the neck. The film ends abruptly.

Recurring Themes

There were repeating themes in Wag Kang Lilingon that tied the two stories of Angel and Melissa.
*3 AM. In Uyayi, the killings and the strange happenings occurred at 3 in the morning. The time relates to the deaths of Angel, Rosing and Trixie, in Salamin, which occurred around 3 AM. Melissa's repressed memories caused her to kill people and the ghosts haunting the hospital were actually manifestations of her own guilt. Additionally, Melissa only killed male patients because she associated them with the man that butchered her family. Melissa's hostility toward men may also stem from memories of her father leaving them for his mistress, which led them to relocate, thus indirectly contributing her family's murder.

*The humming tune. In the basement where Melissa kills James, she hums a tune reminiscent of the "Mockingbird" lullaby. This is explained in Salamin, when Nestor was pursuing Nina/Melissa towards the attic, he was humming the same tune.

*Man Trouble. It seems that the women in Nina/Melissa's family lacks the ability to inspire loyalty from their men. Rosing, her mom, was abandoned by their father in favor of his mistress. Angel's troubled relationship with her boyfriend stems from his promiscuousness. The strain between Nina/Melissa and James' relationship took root when Nina/Melissa learned of James' other failed relationship and maybe spurred on by her own insecurities that he may be (if not already) unfaithful, just as her father was with her mother and her sister's boyfriend was with Angel.

Cast

Uyayi

*Anne Curtis as Melissa
*Marvin Agustin as James
*Raymond Bagatsing

alamin

*Kristine Hermosa as Angel
*Cherry Pie Picache as Rosing
*Baron Geisler
*Soliman Cruz
*Celine Lim as Nina

External links

* [http://www.abs-cbn.com/wagkanglilingon/index.html/ Official website]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0877642/ Wag Kang Lilingon] at IMDB