By DANIELLE B. BARANDA
“THE Poet Rilke once wrote that the purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.”
“Kung hindi ka natatalo, hindi ka na gumagalaw.”
Pop culture often depicts lawyers as nothing but sleazy and power-hungry corporate machines who are only in it for the money. It would probably be safe to say that it has reached some sort of film stereotype.
Young up and coming director Kip Oebanda’s “Bar Boys” challenges this stereotype with a tale of four friends trying to make a name for themselves in this world. Set throughout the whole four years of their law school journey up until the moment they take the gruesome Bar exams, “Bar Boys” tells the story of a wealthy young man named Christian (Enzo Pineda) desperately vying for his father’s acceptance after turning down the chance to study at Harvard Law to earn his degree in the Philippines so he could stay with his long-term girlfriend, a happy go lucky guy with an insanely good memory called Torran (Rocco Nacino) who finds himself mixed with the wrong crowd, and Erik (Carlo Aquino) who lacks Christian’s wealth and to some extent, Torran’s memory, but whose heart and determination will leave viewers inspired and in tears.
The ensemble is topped off with Joshua (Kean Cipriano) who although he failed to even pass the law school entrance exams, appears with quips and witty remarks from time to time. His character serves as a mirror of who the boys were prior to entering the gates of hell that is law school.
A comedy-drama that will leave you both laughing and crying in all the right places, “Bar Boys” isn’t just a film for law students or lawyers. It’s a film for all students alike struggling to make it to the finish line. Oebanda’s narrative is a poignant one that will tug at your heartstrings and leave you reminiscent of your college years and the people who helped you make it through.
“Bar Boys” breaks the stigma that lawyers are arrogant and overly-confident robots. It lays out this groundwork perfectly depicting how the people that enter law school do not always have it all covered – they learn as they go.
It takes four years to memorize those laws, it takes four years to build that level of confidence, and that’s if you’re lucky. Because as they emphasized throughout the film not everyone gets out of law school alive.
Oebanda took his viewers on a journey about friendship and determination and how ultimately, we both have to lose and sacrifice sometimes to get that much coveted dream.