Kesong Puti
Pepe Manikan
" enchanting glassblowing musical effects. "Written by Joep de Bruijn - Review of the music as heard in the movie
In this third installment of 2026 Vivamax Philippine sensual dramas, Kesong Puti is another exemplary chapter.
Kesong Puti is a cliché. Lena is a vendor of white cheese who gets romantically involved with dairy supplier Manny. As time passes - this is no spoiler - she discovers Manny and his real girlfriend Shena seeking to steal the ingredients of her product.
Pepe Manikan (aka Jose Manuel Manikan) is credited as a film scorerer and is also a swordsman in real life. Having viewed more than two dozen of this subgenres in 2026, his music is among the best.
The music is an efficacious alloy of several lively processed sounds – a woodwind, cello, guitar, strings– blending with a variety of additional electronic sounds, including a wonderful glassblowing effect and vibraphone imitation.
Kesong Puti opens with a wonderful oriental, sparsely used woodwind solo, atmospheric synthesisers, and a vibraphone carving the optimistic state of mind, with the woodwind (now with an electronic beat) reprising at the end of the film, as the kitchen sink drama of deceit, Lena poisoning her swindlers, allows her to return to how her life was before.
In some of these irksome love-making scenes, the best ones include a wonderful tapestry of Asian percussion and romantic guitar rhythms counterbalanced by short, melodic, repetitive solo cello and foreboding, even slightly eerie, but more so, enchanting glassblowing musical effects. The glass sound recurs quite often, presumably signifying the theme of deceit, while the solo cello represents the passion and sense of love and turns out to be a falsely felt deeper connection Lena feels in interaction with Manny, presented in lyrical melodic or slower, atmospheric, and melancholic variations.
The score by Pepe Manikan for Kesong Puti is sublime compared to most of the other 2026 attempts in the subgenre that are generally more about colouring.
(25-05-2026)
Please read the two previous reviews...
Paul Estero - Sagaran
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/sagaran
Dale Martin - Angkinin Mo Ako
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/angkinin-mo-ako/
Kesong Puti is a cliché. Lena is a vendor of white cheese who gets romantically involved with dairy supplier Manny. As time passes - this is no spoiler - she discovers Manny and his real girlfriend Shena seeking to steal the ingredients of her product.
Pepe Manikan (aka Jose Manuel Manikan) is credited as a film scorerer and is also a swordsman in real life. Having viewed more than two dozen of this subgenres in 2026, his music is among the best.
The music is an efficacious alloy of several lively processed sounds – a woodwind, cello, guitar, strings– blending with a variety of additional electronic sounds, including a wonderful glassblowing effect and vibraphone imitation.
Kesong Puti opens with a wonderful oriental, sparsely used woodwind solo, atmospheric synthesisers, and a vibraphone carving the optimistic state of mind, with the woodwind (now with an electronic beat) reprising at the end of the film, as the kitchen sink drama of deceit, Lena poisoning her swindlers, allows her to return to how her life was before.
In some of these irksome love-making scenes, the best ones include a wonderful tapestry of Asian percussion and romantic guitar rhythms counterbalanced by short, melodic, repetitive solo cello and foreboding, even slightly eerie, but more so, enchanting glassblowing musical effects. The glass sound recurs quite often, presumably signifying the theme of deceit, while the solo cello represents the passion and sense of love and turns out to be a falsely felt deeper connection Lena feels in interaction with Manny, presented in lyrical melodic or slower, atmospheric, and melancholic variations.
The score by Pepe Manikan for Kesong Puti is sublime compared to most of the other 2026 attempts in the subgenre that are generally more about colouring.
(25-05-2026)
Please read the two previous reviews...
Paul Estero - Sagaran
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/sagaran
Dale Martin - Angkinin Mo Ako
https://www.maintitles.net/reviews/angkinin-mo-ako/