For its disciplined and mannered way of unfolding a tale of a sorrowful woman slowly finding respite in the most unlikely of places, turning what could have been grotesque and horrific into something boldly refined.
A sometimes eerie, sometimes funny gothic miniature on the pacts we make with solitude as we grow old and how honoring it can sometimes be a form of dying, too.
For ingeniously pairing her robust ode to the vibrant streets of Manila's pulsating heart with a compelling deep dive into the many kinds of desires that dwell inside the desirous hearts of Manila's men.
For the beguiling empathy she bestows not just to the living characters that have been morphed into mere shadows by grief and gloom but also to the dead that transforms a conceit seemingly more suited for nightmares into the reverberating core of a story that is essentially about our delicate humanity.
For its keen and artistic blending of the mundane and the grotesque to sensitively examine the fragile mind, soul and heart of a forlorn woman whose bizarre pursuit for some semblance of completeness renders her even more broken.