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She is Beauty, She is Grace, She Almost Ironed Her Mother’s Face

Another iconic film that was directed by Brocka was Insiang, which also starred Hilda Koronel as the title role, Insiang.

Insiang is a film about a beautiful young woman named Insiang. She has a strained relationship with her mother, who treats her like dirt, and an absent father. A great recipe to create a juicy plot. The establishing shot is of Dado who is working at a slaughterhouse, stabbing the pig in jugular and watching the blood drain from its body.

A really great establishing shot, if I do say so myself, I feel like it really set the tone of this movie for me, it really roped me in, I mean using a pig being slaughtered as your opening scene? Give me more, please! Then we see Insiang, she is beautiful, she’s perfect, she’s a model, she looks like Linda Evangelista, she is way too pretty to be that poor, and let me tell you, she knows it, this girl gets stared at when walking down the street, she is that girl, the girl everyone loves to hate, and by everyone, I mean her mom, but I’ll get into that later. Insiang lives with her mom and her extended family, in a house that’s way too small for that many people. Insiang’s mother rules that house with an iron thumb, she constantly complained about how the house is too small and how terrible living with them is, she eventually throws majority of the people out (these are her relatives, mind you) even saying that since she bought the clothes the children were wearing she owns that, and her daughter-in-law who was as petty as her mother-in-law, asked the children to strip and threw the clothes back at Insiang’s mother. Being left along with her mother, Insiang takes up more work as a launderer, we see her throughout the film washing clothes, folding them, ironing them, and packing them up to deliver the clothes back to their owners. After throwing the other family members out of the house, Insiang’s mother has a midlife crisis, she begins seeing this much younger man romantically and he starts living with them, plot twist, this guy has a thing for Insiang, he’s in love with her, but in a creepy possessive way, the watches-you-while-you-sleep-without-your-consent kind of way. Insiang ignores his advances, giving him the side eye, and just flat out ignoring him at times. Insiang starts developing heart eyes for this one guy, I forgot his name so I’m going to call him Curly, Curly likes wearing earrings, but Dado is not about that, because guys don’t wear earrings, girl do. (wow, we love toxic masculinity) so Insiang starts getting heart eyes for him, and Dado scares him off because he’s obsessed with Insiang, but Insiang isn’t about it, she still seeks Curly out, and at one point the two of them plan on running away with each other, but not before they make a pit stop at motel and enjoy each other's company. Insiang wakes up alone, Curly nowhere to be seen, heart-broken, she returns to her home, sad and alone. Dado is more bold with his advances now, he lingers longer, is nicer to Insiang, and stands up for her when her mother is being a grade-A bitch towards her, mommy dearest, of course noticed this, and started accusing Dado of having feelings for her, Dado smoothly declines every time, and figures out a way to get mommy into bed, mommy who is the definition of marupok, always says yes, and the matter is forgotten. Then something shifts in Insiang, she begins to accept Dado’s advances, she starts to even, dare I say it, encourage it. She becomes more bold, more daring, even edging him on at times, which is a complete shift since he raped her at one point while she was unconscious, he’s a real piece of work, this one, but something went off and she starts sleeping with him, flirting with him, sis is using her looks to her advantage now. Her mom was still being really difficult, and Insiang sort of has this catatonic look about her, like she’s just going through the motions waiting for something. Then it was like she snapped. Her mom comes home a little bit drunker than usual, and starts accusing her of things, and when I say she snapped, sister snapped, she was not holding back this time, she was not backing down, she almost used the iron on her mom. Her mom, taken aback by the sudden retaliation, looked shocked, and began to look for Dado, she starts fighting with him this time and is sent over the edge and kills him. Insiang, who was watching, looks on at the gruesome scene. We cut to Insiang visiting her mom at prison,  one last chance at fixing their relationship, because even though her mother is a garbage person, blamed her of getting raped, she was still her mother. The movie ends with the shot of Insiang’s mother behind bars looking off into the distance.

This movie was just amazing, there was not a single moment where I was not interested. From the establishing shot, man, I was hooked. The story is what really got me. Personally, I feel like this is a story about the relationship between a mother and a daughter, it’s a messed up relationship, but it’s still a relationship, it’s still theirs. The movie was sort of a slow burn, action wise, there were times when it was just Insiang doing laundry, or doing mundane things, but it wasn’t boring to watch, I feel like with the circumstances of the characters it made sense for the film to be showing that. Like his other film, Manila sa Kuko ng Liwanag, Insiang was full of vivd imagery and metaphor, being released in the 70s, during the Strong Man’s rule, Brocka showed how poorly women were treated, imaging being blamed for your rape (I mean it still happens, but as a society, we’re working on it), how basically men are pigs, which totally ties in to the opening image, Dado died the same way he killed those pigs. Brocka skilfully creates these parallels in his work that really do elevate the experience that his films provide. As a director, he does have a style, there are a lot of shaky shots, lots of close ups, lots of shots showing the difficulties of living in poverty, and in these two films, I noticed that he loves his parallels, and using his film as a tool to get his message across.

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The Manila Dream

Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Light) is  a story about Julio Madiaga, a Marinduque native, who follows, his childhood sweetheart, Ligaya Paraiso (which when translated, her name means "happy paradise") to Manila.

The story unfolds in a combination of Julio's present journey of looking for Ligaya, and a series of flashbacks that gave the viewer more context and showed the dynamic of Julio and Ligaya’s relationship. In one of those flashbacks, we find out that Ligaya was promised an opportunity to work in Manila by Mrs. Cruz, a plump lady who was looking for pretty girls to come and work in Manila. She promised that Ligaya would be well taken care of, and will even, eventually have the opportunity to study there. Ligaya's mother, who was all about the idea of having Ligaya working in Manila, convinces her daughter that the opportunities there are much better than the ones in the province, that she won’t earn as much here, so why would she stay. Ligaya leaves and Julio is still pining after her, Ligaya eventually stops writing and Julio embarks on a one man quest to find her and bring her home.

Julio’s demeanor is very naive, he has that stereotypical provincial mindset. He believes in the best of everyone, he voices out what he believes is right. He finds a job at a construction site where he sort sort of makes friends with the other construction workers, they show him the ropes, and we can see him adapting to his new environment. While becoming more comfortable with his new environment, he continues searching for Ligaya and Mrs. Cruz, at one point he mistakes another woman for Mrs. Cruz.

He opens up to his friends about Ligaya, how he’s in love with her, and how he’s planning on taking her back to Marinduque.

We see Julio struggling to adjust to his new life, we also see how hard he had it. There was no stability in his job, he and his friends were nor paid fairly, they had no insurance, they were not treated well either, majority of them came from different provinces as well, and were all in agreement that even though they were not treated fairly, they would not go back to the province because they would not get paid that much, so might as well endure it.  It was really disheartening to see Julio lose his innocence. It was like watching someone telling a three-year-old that Santa Claus was not real, and them sitting there in disbelief. I feel like it was just the idea that since Manila was the city to be, everything would be easier because there would be more opportunities, when in reality, yes there are more opportunities, but people are also more aggressive, less kind, less forgiving, less considerate, life goes at a much different, much faster pace, and Julio was not used to that. Thankfully, though, he had some friends that helped him along the way, Atok, who had started at the construction site five weeks before him, took him under his wing, and helped him navigate this new urban life.

Juggling with dealing with his new life, and learning the ropes, Julio never wavers in his search for Ligaya. While he is out with Atok, buying clothes in the market, a woman in black catches his eye, she reminds him of Mrs. Cruz, the woman who took Ligaya away from him. He chases her through the market, dodging market-goers as he makes his way towards her, but before he could say anything, he realizes it isn’t her, and she screams, not wanting to make a scene, Julio runs back to Atok, and they both leave the market together. On a chance encounter, Julio spots Mrs. Cruz entering a building with a ‘trading’ sign, marking it at being owned by a Chinese company. He waits for Mrs. Cruz to leave, and he enters the building, he makes his way up the stairs and asks the woman by the door if she knows or has seen Ligaya. She claims that she was just hired and knows no one by the name Ligaya. He leaves, and we cut back to the construction site, the man in charge of the construction site announces that since they're almost done building, they don’t need everyone to work at the site anymore, and that they will start laying people off. Julio is one of those workers, and he looks grief-stricken.  His friends ask him what he’ll do next and his whole demeanor changes, he now has a ‘bahala na’ mindset, not caring about what’ll happen to him. We see him chilling by the bay and he witnesses a robbery, a woman’s purse gets stolen and engages the robber with his fists, and he almost kills the guy, he looks at his hands, shocked by what he might have done if he had not stopped himself. We see him loitering again, and a man approaches him and asks him for a light, Julio says he doesn’t smoke, and the man smiles and takes his own lighter out, and says that he doesn’t really know how to approach people, he then invites to come with him and offers his place to him, which is honestly super sketchy, like did Julio not learn about stranger danger? Was he not taught that if a stranger invites you to stay at their place you say no? But, in a way I do understand his dilemma, he was jobless, homeless, and hopeless, plus, this is where his naivety plays a role in his character. They get settled, and Julio is sort of half asleep when he realizes there’s another person in the room with them, and that person and his new friend are over there doing the nasty. His new friend tells him the next morning that he is definitely not gay, and that it’s a good way to earn money, he says that he’ll get Julio a gig and introduce him to the the right people. Julio being desperate, actually goes with his new roommate and goes to a ‘job interview’, which was really Julio learning how to have sex with a guy, which was as uncomfortable to watch as it probably was uncomfortable to be in that situation, and even after all of these things, he still chooses to stay in Manila to look for Ligaya.

We cut to him walking outside a church and he sees Ligaya, he follows her inside, and they’re both shocked. This is it, the moment we’ve all been waiting for, he finally found her. They catch up, and have “I Missed You” sex, and Ligaya tells Julio what we’ve all been wondering this entire time, what happend to her and where she’s been. We find out that Mrs. Cruz was lying, she didn’t put Ligaya through school, she sold Ligaya into prostitution, Ligaya explained that she was kept in a room so small it felt like a coffin, she says that there was a consistent costumer who bought her, and she now has a 4 year old child with him. And in true romance movie fashion, Julio asks her to run away with him, to leave everything behind and be with him, they plan Ligaya’s escape, they set their rendezvous at 10, and Julio promises to wait for her till 12. And surprise surprise, Ligaya doesn’t show up. Confused, Julio tries to find her, he finds out that she’s dead, he sees a newspaper article explaining how she fell from the stairs. He attends the funeral and sees Ah-Tek, the chinese man who bought Ligaya. Fueled by rage, he returns to the building where he first thought Ligaya was kept, he attacks Ah-Tek, stabs his multiple times, and eventually kills him, finally realizing what he’s done, he runs, and a mob chases him, the movie ends with the mob coming at him with knives and fists, his face bracing for the blow.

This movie, even though it was released in the 70s, the message is still very relevant. The metaphors used in the movie to tell the viewer what wanted to be said was very well done, the most prominent and most important of these was Julio chasing Ligaya. Remember her name when translated means “Happy Paradise”, he’s literally chasing happiness. He chases it to Manila, a place where a majority of Filipinos from the province come to find a better life for themselves, to have better opportunities than what they would have if they stayed in the province. In his quest to find happiness in Manila, he starts losing a part of himself, and instead of being that kind, naive boy, he becomes a whole different person, a man who is capable of terrible things, including murder.  My main take away from this movie was that the whole “Manila is city to be” is very much alive in this day and age. This is still the place where majority of the population of the Philippines go to, because it is the capital, and this is where majority of the work force is situated, but since everyone is moving here, there’s too many people and scarcity of jobs.

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Why I’m Never Joining a Sorority (a review of Mike De Leon’s Batch ‘81)

“All art is propaganda. It is universally and inescapably  propaganda; sometimes unconsciously, but often deliberately, propaganda.” 

An allegorical treatise on the nature of facisim, Mike de Leon’s “Batch ‘81” makes its argument largely through facist means. Here he tells the story of Sid Lucero, a first year University of the Philippines Biology student, who is aspiring to enter the fraternity of Alpha Kappa Omega and is subjugated to a six-month long initiation where he and six other applicants undergo initiation rituals that have them endure extraneous humiliation, and physical and psychological pain. In the opening shot we are introduced to Sid, we get a sense of his character, how he thinks, how he sees Alpha Kappa Omega. Sid’s initiation was  told and divided into 4  different pagsusuboks or trials, each part preceded by a title card that indicated the name of the trial. The narrative was organized in such a way that it was almost like a storybook, we have our introduction,  body, rising action, climax, falling action, and the denouement. Despite the fact that the film was narrative heavy and less stylistic, it made sense for the type of film that it is. The events in the film  happened in such rapid succession of each other that it worked in favor of the film, and supported the story as a whole, and made it more true to life, almost comparable to the 2017 film “Lady Bird”, wherein the events in the main character’s life happen so quickly, where the moments felt fleeting at times, much like real life. The tone of the film was set very early on, and my expectations had already began to form as soon as Sid said he wanted to join a fraternity. 

As soon as Sid makes his mind up about joining the illustrious Alpha Kappa Omega fraternity, we see the first title card: “Unang Pagsusubok: Pakikisama” or “The First Trial: Fellowship”, here we are introduced to the other pledges; Pakoy Ledesma (the virgin), Santi Santillian (the professor), Ronnie Roxas Jr. (a legacy), Arni Enriquez (Sid’s roomate), Pete Matibay, and Ding Quintos, who are all being interrogated by the members of the fraternity while being blindfolded. The members who are interrogating and conducting the initiation, brothers Vince and Gonzalez, establish their relationships with the pledges immediately, ordering them to call them “masters” whenever they are going through the initiation rituals .  It’s interesting to note that Sid addresses the pledges and himself as “neophytes”. A neophyte is described as someone who is new to a subject, skill, or belief; a new convert, and that’s exactly what they are. A new convert. As the film progresses we see them converting into “brods”.  The neophytes and the audience are then introduced to the ideals of the fraternity, then the neophytes are told by Gonzales that they aren’t doing this to hurt them, they’re doing this for the good of the fraternity.

The next title card was “Ungguyunguyan….Pagsasama” (Monkeying Around… A Coalition). In this chapter we see more of who the characters are. We’re introduced to characters outside of the fraternity, like Sid and Arni’s girlfriends, Mariel and Tina,  and the guys in the other fraternity . The neophytes are presented with more rituals and they begin to bond with one another. We see them streak, go to a dance class, and go to a birthday party that turns into the grossest beer drinking session ever. Roxas becomes convinced that the masters are just making fools out of them and don’t really care about them, while the other neophytes-mostly Sid-try to convince him that it’s all for the brotherhood, and reminds him that his father would be disappointed if he leaves, and basically talks him down from leaving AKΩ.

In this chapter we see Sid adapting the principles and the ideals of the frat, he speaks to Roxas as if he’s convinced that the frat is doing this for their own good, and if feels as if he really does believe the lies they’re feeding him.  

We also see how the masters “forced” the other neophytes to turn on Ledesma, and how easily they were persuaded to him. Ledesma then has hurt feelings, and gets mad at his so-called friends. He opens up to them and says that all he wanted was friends, and that feeling of belonging. Santillian opens up and says that if he wants friends, this is where he’s supposed to be.

I found it really ironic that these guys decided to join a fraternity called AKΩ when they were all looking for brotherhood and friendship, when the whole point of brotherhood and friendship is being selfless, but as the story progresses the neophytes act on their selfish intentions.

The third chapter in our film is “Kaisahan...Isang Kalooban, Isang Katuwiran”  (Unity...One Will, One Reason) it opens with the neophytes (minus Roxas) all blindfolded as the masters do a roll call. They are ushered into a small room with a table, a couple of chairs, and an electric chair. Roxas enters and the masters explain that because Roxas thought of leaving, he will sit in the chair as a penance for his thoughts of backing out and all of the “sins” that the other neophytes committed against the fraternity. The masters explain that there will be an interrogation and if Roxas answers wrong, he will get electrocuted. A couple of questions were asked until  Santillian speaks up against it, and he and his fellow neophytes were asked to be the ones who pressed the button that would electrocute Roxas. And they did what they were asked, Sid pressing the button the longest while holding eye-contact with Vince. Then Magpatibay  is called and the masters ask Roxas, “Ang Martial Law nakabuti sa taong bayan, tama o mali?”, Roxas gives no reply and gets shocked anyways.  Ledesma is called up and Roxas is asked the same question again. Ledesma frantically calls to a lifeless Roxas to answer and refuses to push the button, he runs to Roxas’ side and stood his ground. The masters yell at him to come back and push the button, but a fight breaks out between the masters and the neophytes (expect for Sid, who stayed behind the masters while his fellow neophytes were fighting with the masters)  until Roxas says that enough is enough, and the masters applaud. The neophytes looked confused,  because let’s be honest,  who wouldn’t be after being told to electrocute your friend, and the masters tell them that they aren’t being told to follow mindlessly, they should still know what’s right and wrong, that they aren’t being tested beyond what they are capable of overcoming.

This film draws parallels to facism, and by extension, the Marcoses regime over the Philippines.

The serious tone of the film is lessened as we witness a musical number that the fraternities have prepared for their annual showcase. The whole sequence feels so out of place with the tone and the story (but for some reason, it works). the AKΩ fraternity puts on a show with Bob Fosse’s decadent musical Cabaret, with Nazi flags and “Berlin 1931” as their backdrop, making another reference to another facist we all know and loathe, Adolf Hitler. It totally reminded me of a number fromThe Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The rival fraternity of  ΣOΣ decided to take things differently music-wise they perform this rock and roll number complete with them bringing a dummy on stage and stabbing it mercilessly multiple times on stage.  

It then cuts to Sid and Arni making their way home, and they happen to cross paths with Tina (Arni’s girlfriend) on the side of the road. They try to take her home, but the  ΣOΣ fraternity show up, and things go south quickly. The three are forced into cars and are taken to a building, upon arriving they dash out and it becomes a game of cat and mouse. The  ΣOΣ fraternity finally catch up to them and beat the crap out of Sid and Arni, separating them from Tina, who is hysterical at this point. They then take Arni and drown him, left with a lifeless Arni, the fraternity leaves Sid to grieve his best friend. We really see Sid turning into a loyal member of the fraternity. He seems like he’s so desensitized, he starts blaming Arni and Tina for Arni’s death.

Fueled by rage, the neophytes demand blood, and this is it, the moment we’ve been waiting for, the fight between the fraternities.  In a gruesome sequence, all that pent up masculine energy is released, an orgy of gore if you will.

De Leon ends the film the same way  Kubrick ended his film 2001, with the Star Child gazing straight through the screen at us, only where the Star Child radiates an air of serene transcendence, Sid Lucero's face-head slightly lowered, eyes level and direct-seems utterly drained of emotion, his lips mouthing the frat's principles with mechanized fluency ("Ang simula at wakas ay kapatiran!"). He is cured all right-of all reason, all intelligent thought, all sign or taint of humanity. He has evolved in the opposite direction from the Star Child, towards total obedience, and has done so of his own free will.

I had no knowledge about this movie beforehand, so I really didn’t have any expectations  going into it, but when I found out that it was a film about a fraternity, I instantly felt this sort of dread in the pit of my stomach, and it stayed there for the entirety of the movie. I noticed that there was a lot of foreshadowing that happened during the movie, from the video game that Sid was playing, that conversation that he has with Mariel, to the musical number that the ΣOΣ fraternity put on. The tone of the movie definitely shifts as well, it gradually becomes much darker and more serious.

I had high hopes for Sid, I  thought at  some point that he would have said enough is enough, but after learning more about the conditions on which the movie was made, it made more sense to the story, that being said, Sid didn’t really show that much in terms of character development, he wasn't completely flat, but he just didn’t exhibit that much of a drastic change, so I felt a little detached from his character, and sort of saw the entire group as the main character instead of just Sid.  

Overall, this was a great movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed it for its allegorical approach to such a serious subject matter, it definitely made it an easier pill to swallow. It was made during a time where it was a silent propaganda, and now how many years later, the message is still as relevant as ever.