A film review by Janna Moya




The film’s steady contextualization of Filipino life owes much to the naturally existing clash between the two opposing cultural realities. British film director Sean Ellis’s eye for the mundane in Filipino reality had him devoting a number of scenes to everyday sights and sounds of urban life in the Philippines. A stark example would be a number of scenes throughout the movie devoted to our friendly neighbourhood askal (stray dog) and pusakal (stray cat). To many, stray cats and dogs offer no visual merit, let alone be worthy of high-definition praise on film. Ellis, however, cleverly captures the little critters with awe.

Visually, the movie is stunningly picturesque. However, it often leans toward visual indulgence and forgoes strength of the characters. The first scenes of the movie tried too explicitly to depict the beaten-down, chivalrous but impractical path of the Filipino farmer in the rice terraces. One can almost imagine a non-metaphorical raincloud constantly hovering above the main characters; scenes are constantly in a state of literal darkness.

The film is not your off the bat rags-to-riches story. The story catches fire and becomes an engulfing flame once the characters arrive in the morally-challenged, bipolar city of Manila. In my opinion, Ellis’s greatest achievement is how the unfolding plot depicts realities gripping Filipino life that go beyond its namesake. 7/10