HIMALA & RESURRECTION: TWIN MOVIES?

HIMALA (1982)


RESURRECTION (1980)

RESURRECTION (1980) and HIMALA (1982)
are two movies that resemble each other in unbelieveably many ways.

In Resurrection: Lewis John Carlino's story goes:
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Edna (Ellen Burstyn) who was very much in love with her husband. Then she gave him a sports car for his birthday, and he died in an accident. Edna nearly died in the accident herself, and had a “near death experience,” having “seen” the other side where loved ones who had passed on now reside. She lived, and found herself partly paralyzed, and became depressed, until a long driving trip with her father triggered something: she met a very strange man in the desert. The man had a two-headed snake. It was a casual meeting, a brief one in fact, but this event obviously changed her. She found herself having the power to heal the sick.

In HIMALA: Ricky Lee’s story goes:
Once upon a time in a small Philippine town called Cupang, a young woman named Elsa (Nora Aunor) announced that she had seen the Virgin Mary. Soon enough, she demonstrated a new-found ability to
heal the sick.

In RESURRECTION:
Edna was now curing patient after patient by the laying on of hands and she even healed her own paralysis. Soon, she became sexually involved with a handsome, but extremely volatile young man who questioned the source of her powers. He insisted that she should recognize the ability as a grace from the Divine Power, but Edna believed profoundly that her healing power was just a manifestation of love (love can move mountains). While on a platform healing the sick, her lover shot Edna dead.

In HIMALA:
Elsa’s “healing power” made her whole village the center of national attention as people come from every nook and cranny of the Philippines – to buy statues of the saints and bottles of the village's holy water. One of the visitors is a skeptical film director hoping to visually document Elsa's healing powers, and without his knowing it, some frames captured a secret Elsa had kept from everyone for a long time, a secret which led to her sister's suicide. Elsa was a victim of rape, and soon became pregnant. The townspeople believed that Elsa’s condition was nothing but a “virgin pregnancy” exactly like Mary, the mother of Jesus. While standing on a platform facing her followers, Elsa was shot dead by someone from the crowd.

See what I mean? These two films are almost TWINS! And how strange that even the first names of the characters both begin in letter E: Edna, Elsa.

Personally, I like RESURRECTION than HIMALA.
Resurrection, directed by Canadian Daniel Petrie is a joy to watch. It is subdued, the crowd management is done beautifully – like music coming from an orchestra. In fact, it is quite reminiscent in the crowd scenes done by Cesar Gallardo in Premiere Productions’ I BELIEVE, a graphic novel written by Mars Ravelo in the 1950s.

HIMALA, on the other hand, must be Filipino film director Ishmael Bernal’s most hysterical film. Screaming, burlesque acting, and rowdy crowd scenes are allover the place, there are moments when you hear nothing but screeching voices and gave me a migraine after watching it.









I am not insinuating anything here, just because RESURRECTION was done in 1980 and HIMALA was done in 1982. This fact is immaterial. I am just showing you the COINCIDENTAL SIMILARITIES in these movies.
It’s up to you to decide.