Unassuming on its surface, this film really grabbed me. I had taped it months earlier on TCM, choosing to view more glittery productions before it, with no clue as to the profound experience that awaited me.
I am a decades-long film buff, with great interest in world cinema, so it surprised me to realize that I had never previously seen a Filipino movie. Director Lino Brocka is quite a discovery. It is sad to read on Wikipedia that this talented artist died prematurely in a car crash at only 58.
This powerful example of cinéma vérité in an Asian setting depicts the epiphanies of Julio, played by Bembol Roco in an understated and stunning debut. He has appeared out of nowhere, walking the grimy streets of the capital with nothing but the shirt on his back, becoming glued to the street-corner location of Chua Tek Trading Company, an address that holds the key to finding Ligaya (Hilda Koronel), his winsome love from the provinces, who waves to him from memory.
To feed himself, Julio toils for 2.5 pesos a day in construction,but gets less after the foreman takes his cut. Julio can accept lot, or quit. If not for the empathy of fellow laborers, Julio, more accustomed to a fisherman's nets, would collapse of hunger and exhaustion amid the rubble of the work site.
This movie's landscape bears the taint of past colonialism, offering zero degrees of freedom to the common man. Lack paperwork? Then the land your family has farmed for generations will be seized. Don't have money? Then the cops don't care. If you should wish to protest, think twice -- you could end up paralyzed, dying mysteriously in jail, or fleeing your burning home, with neighbors poised to pick through what's left. Julio had lost his love to the loathsome Mrs. Cruz, who had arrived in the village to recruit girls, especially the prettier ones, for so-called factory jobs and the promise of education. So Ligaya fulfills her filial duty, no questions asked. And, fatefully, Julio opts to stay behind and await her return. When a second letter never arrives, he sets out for that hell-on-earth of the urban environment, where it's each man for himself, and prostitution is everyone's last resort.
When our lovers finally meet, rather than joy there is a sense of foreboding to rival that in "Romeo and Juliet." We know their few minutes in bed can come to no good. And when Julio sets out for vengeance, we wish that we could protect him, while realizing that hope is futile.
This is a very dark tale of humanity, with a rare opportunity to hear it narrated in Tagalog.
I am a decades-long film buff, with great interest in world cinema, so it surprised me to realize that I had never previously seen a Filipino movie. Director Lino Brocka is quite a discovery. It is sad to read on Wikipedia that this talented artist died prematurely in a car crash at only 58.
This powerful example of cinéma vérité in an Asian setting depicts the epiphanies of Julio, played by Bembol Roco in an understated and stunning debut. He has appeared out of nowhere, walking the grimy streets of the capital with nothing but the shirt on his back, becoming glued to the street-corner location of Chua Tek Trading Company, an address that holds the key to finding Ligaya (Hilda Koronel), his winsome love from the provinces, who waves to him from memory.
To feed himself, Julio toils for 2.5 pesos a day in construction,but gets less after the foreman takes his cut. Julio can accept lot, or quit. If not for the empathy of fellow laborers, Julio, more accustomed to a fisherman's nets, would collapse of hunger and exhaustion amid the rubble of the work site.
This movie's landscape bears the taint of past colonialism, offering zero degrees of freedom to the common man. Lack paperwork? Then the land your family has farmed for generations will be seized. Don't have money? Then the cops don't care. If you should wish to protest, think twice -- you could end up paralyzed, dying mysteriously in jail, or fleeing your burning home, with neighbors poised to pick through what's left. Julio had lost his love to the loathsome Mrs. Cruz, who had arrived in the village to recruit girls, especially the prettier ones, for so-called factory jobs and the promise of education. So Ligaya fulfills her filial duty, no questions asked. And, fatefully, Julio opts to stay behind and await her return. When a second letter never arrives, he sets out for that hell-on-earth of the urban environment, where it's each man for himself, and prostitution is everyone's last resort.
When our lovers finally meet, rather than joy there is a sense of foreboding to rival that in "Romeo and Juliet." We know their few minutes in bed can come to no good. And when Julio sets out for vengeance, we wish that we could protect him, while realizing that hope is futile.
This is a very dark tale of humanity, with a rare opportunity to hear it narrated in Tagalog.