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Have you heard of prosopagnosia?


Watched Kung Paano Siya Nawala last night for the fifth time. So why have I seen it so many times? I think it's because I like it a wee bit more with each viewing, which doesn't happen with many Filipino movies. Ang ganda ni Rhian, and she is so darn good in it that she forces you to love the character she's playing. The casting of JM De Guzman in the lead role is also superb.

Lio (De Guzman) has prosopagnosia, commonly called face blindness, which means he has trouble recognizing familiar faces and learning to recognize new ones. He walks right past his officemates, his friends, his girlfriend, without being able to recognize them.

I first learned about face blindness in 2012, when I watched a report by Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes. It can be embarrassing, and it can offend people. Unfortunately, there are no widely accepted treatments. Although prosopagnosia is described as "blindness", it has nothing to do with sight, but rather with a diminished ability to create the concept of a face and memorize it.

Keep going for the full movie.

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