Kids today don’t have the luxury of growing up with real games, ones where you have to step out of the house and actually get dirty. For ’90s kids, one of the greatest parts of the weekend is patintero, a modified version of tag that gave players a dose of healthy competition, ambition, and camaraderie among teammates.
TBA, the film production company behind Heneral Luna, is soon to release their next film Patintero: Ang Alamat ni Meng Patalo. To promote it, they released a video where they interviewed adults about the game. The result? A serious case of nostalgia.
Some of the adults shared their strategies, including one who enjoys being tagged because it gave her the chance to touch her crush. Unfortunately (for her), her crush is gay. Another shared the euphoric feeling of winning, shouting, “buti nga sayo!” (“You deserve it!”)
The adults also shared the lessons they learned playing the game, such as “brotherhood, teamwork, and camaraderie.”
Watch the video below and reminisce:
Patintero was first screened at the QCinema Film Festival in 2015, and follows the story of Meng Francisco, a 10 year old girl dubbed as the neighborhood patalo (loser) because of her lack of skill in patintero, a modified version of tag. She gathers a group of “fellow losers” to challenge a group of kids who have staked a claim in a sari-sari store. The film won the audience choice and gender sensitivity awards at the festival.
The film stars Nafa Hilario Cruz, Isabel “Len-Len” Frial, William Buenavente, and Claude Adrales. This month, it will be screened at the third Silk Road International Film Festival in China.
It will be screened commercially on October 5.
What’s your most most memorable patintero experience? Share it below!
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