Laro Lang, o, Ilang Guhit Pa-Patintero

• Main Author: Benitez, Christian Jil R
• Format: text
• Published: Archīum Ateneo 2018
• Subjects: laro; patintero; pelikula; kritisismo; panitikang pambata; Film and Media Studies
• Online Access: https://archium.ateneo.edu/filipino-faculty-pubs/25; https://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/index.php/katipunan/article/view/2851
• Institution: Ateneo De Manila University

Tinatangka ng kasalukuyang kritika sa pamamagitan ng pagbasa sa patintero, isang salita at isang larong may sariling panuto, ang panimulang pagdalumat sa laro bilang paraan ng pagpapakahulugan. Nilalaro ng kritika ang patintero—mula sa pagiging isang laro, bilang isang talinghaga, tungo sa pagiging isang palabas: ang pelikulang Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo (2015, dir. Mihk Vergara). Sa pagbasa sa nasabing pelikula, dinadalumat ang pelikula bilang patintero, na mabisang nagtatakda ng mga guhit ng hangganan para sa pakikipaglaro sa mga manonood. Ang pagguhit na ito sa patintero bilang pelikula (at sa pelikula, bilang patintero) ang alinsabay na nakapagguguhit din sa kritika bilang isa ring pakikipagpatintero, na alinsunod sa kalooban ng pagkabata, nakaguguhit mula sa kakulitang kalikutang krisis. The current critique attempts to read patintero, a Filipino word and game about crossing lines with its own rules, as a philosophical tool for interpreting meaning. The critique plays with patintero—which elevates it from a game to a metaphor, and into a performance applied to the film Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo (Patintero: The Myth of Meng the Loser, 2015, dir. Mihk Vergara). In reading the film, film is theorized according to the game which requires some form of line-towing with the viewer. The lines inscribed in patintero as film (and in the film as a game) is simultaneously drawn in the critique as a form of crossing the line that is consistent with the desire of many children, whose constant blurring of the lines between stubborness and control represents a form of crisis.