BERLINALE 2020 - Death of Nintendo
70th BERLINALE FILM FESTIVALRaya Martin’s Death of Nintendo is another in the long line of pop culture influenced coming of age films.
Set in the early nineties, the film follows a group of young teens — Paolo, Kachi and Gilligan, as they navigate the trials and tribulations that come with growing up. They’re followed by Mimaw, Gilligan’s sister who also has a crush on Paolo and is friends with the preppy Shiara — who Paolo incidentally has a crush on. Along the way, they must deal with the local bully, a local ghost legend involving a ghost, an encroaching volcano eruption and the journey to become men that involves circumcisions from a doctor in the woods. All the checks of a typical coming of age film are on full display in this: first love, familial troubles and self-discovery.
Filipino culture is a unique angle for a story of this nature. The story of a group of horny teens contrasts well with a strict conservative culture that’s heavy on religion (one scene features street performers re-enacting Jesus being whipped in the streets). Despite a packed script, the film doesn’t come together. Some scenes, like one going from Paolo’s mother yelling at him, to cutting to Kachi’s mother yelling at her older son, show the difference in class and values that’s never fully explored beyond comments made by Paolo’s mother about his friends or the comments made by other adults.
Bedrooms are littered with early nineties pop culture from posters of the Michael Jordan-era Chicago Bulls to Nintendo’s Famicom systems (the Asian markets version of the NES). The film’s soundtrack features some Filipino versions of nineties hits, along with video game sound effects that work more often than they probably should. The films cinematography feels reminiscent to the bright and colourful worlds Taika Waititi has built in his own coming of age stories. All of these elements come together to showcase the performances of the film’s young leads, who give this film the warmth it needed to be successful.
Raya Martin’s Death of Nintendo is a light-hearted, fun coming of age story that doesn’t necessarily reinvent the wheel. The pop culture shout-outs littered throughout the film have been a stable of every coming of age story from Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show to Taika Waititi’s Boy. But despite playing by the same drum of the genre and too many story threads to hold things together, what helps this film standout is the performances of its young cast and its Filipino perspective on those familiar story beats.
