Title: Ded na si Lolo
English Title: Grandpa is Dead
Country: Philippines
Language: Filipino
Year: 2009
Cast
- Roderick Paulate
- Gina Alajar
- Elizabeth Oropesa
- Manilyn Reynes
- Dick Israel
- Perla Bautista
- Richard Quan
- Froilan Sales
- Rainier Castillo
- Karylle Quijano
- BJ Forbes
- Iren Liel Escaño
- Mosang
SYNOPSIS
Siblings Syano, Dolores, Mameng, Charing, and Junee gather together to mourn the death of their father. As the family deals with their grief for losing the family patriarch, they had to contend with many superstitions about death and dead people in Filipino culture.
REVIEW
Dead Na Si Lolo showcases the Filipino culture, specifically the social rites followed when there is a death in a family. Funeral practices and burial customs observed largely depend on the family's religion and ethnic background.
For Filipinos who are Roman Catholic, there is a wake held for around one week where family and friends honor the dead. Relatives of the dead usually serve some refreshments to people who come to pay their respects, and people are generally expected to give alms for the dead.
Most of the scenes in the movie are played up for laughs but are generally grounded in reality. For instance, siblings Dolores, Mameng, Charing, and Junee are pretending to faint left and right; but many people faint for real during wakes because of their grief and emotional distress.
Ded Na Si Lolo also touched on the many superstitions about death and dead people in Filipino culture, and I'll enumerate these superstitions as it appeared in the film.
Superstitions about death and the dead:
- don't serve soup during the wake
- the head of the body in the casket should be facing the door or doorway
- the relatives of the dead should not carry the casket containing the body to the house where the wake is being held
- cut the rosary placed in the hand of the dead to cut the successive deaths in the family
- tuck money in the hand of the dead, and distribute the money to relatives before the funeral for luck
- don't say thank you to people who help in any way
- don't wear red colored clothing and accessories when going to a wake
- cover children with a red blanket so that the ghost of the dead will not appear before them
- don't take a bath in the house where the wake is being held
- relatives of the dead should not escort guests out the door
- when placing the names of the surviving family members on the casket, list them by their relation to the dead and in case of siblings, by birth order
- don't sweep the floor and don't clean the house during the wake
- if the dead person was killed by someone, place a chick on top of the casket to make his killer guilty
- use the alms for the sake of the dead
- tears should not fall on the casket
- throw some coins in the street where the dead will pass so that the dead will use it for their journey to the afterlife
- before the dead is buried, young children should be passed back and forth over the casket so that the ghost of the dead will not appear before them
It's very difficult to find information on these superstitions and more often than not, there are no explanations. People will always say that it is based on hearsay. If you ever question the validity of any superstition or if you ever express your reluctance to follow any superstition, people around you will usually urge you to comply anyway because you won't lose anything if you do.
Syano ?: You won't lose anything if you follow (the superstitions), right?
I had fun watching Ded Na Si Lolo, which is not something you'd expect to say about a movie with a title that translates literally to Grandpa Is Dead. I felt a little awkward as I laugh when characters are exaggeratedly crying because in context, they are mourning the death of a loved one.
###
Ded Na Si Lolo
