Household planning

(WARNING: storyline and plot twists mentioned intimately)

Laurice Guillen’s Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap (Ought to the Skies Clear, 1984) is one more widespread komiks sequence (tailored by Orlando Nadres and Lualhati Bautista from a serial by Gilda Olvidado) about younger Catherine Clemente (Hilda Koronel), upset that her mom Minda (Gloria Romero) has fallen for newcomer Pablo Acuesta (Eddie Garcia). Catherine’s boyfriend Rustan (Christopher de Leon, virtually a required identify for middle-class melodramas) scoffs at her fears however Catherine will not be placated; she is aware of Pablo and his progeny– Chona (Isabel Rivas), Rita (Amy Austria), Jojo (Michael de Mesa)– are as much as no good.

Instructive to match this to Mike de Leon’s Hindi Nahahati ang Langit (The Heavens Indivisible, 1984) his crystalline tackle a komiks sequence: the place de Leon’s is climate-controlled to inside an inch of its life, Guillen’s veers wildly from the implausibly confrontational (Catherine exterior of Minda and Pablo’s bed room, demanding that they clarify Pablo’s P30,000 private mortgage) to the sublimely melodramatic (Rustan within the rain begging for forgiveness whereas Catherine huddles in her bed room, weeping). De Leon’s movie is of a chunk; the plot is logical, the main points genuine (cherished it that when the characters speak concerning the development enterprise, it is actually about development, full with technical jargon and concerned accounting ideas). Guillen would not have that sort of precision–when Pablo begins beating girls and kids, you marvel the place his violent streak comes from (he earlier confirmed himself craven when Rustan pulls out a gun); later developments– a mom’s demise, a baby’s struggling by the hands of relatives– aren’t excessively outrageous, however the tone is so insistently despairing it’s a must to suppress a giggle: there’s such a factor as too melodramatic, and this crosses the road as soon as, twice, a number of instances.

About halfway into the movie Guillen phases a sexual assault, and the scene is  dragged-out brutal, so bruisingly lifelike the giggles fall away like rain. Later comes the trial, and whereas the standard apply in Filipino dramas is to forged actual attorneys or low-cost extras to play prosecutor or protection legal professional woodenly (we’re not speaking skilled thespians right here), this time we have now veteran character actor Tommy Abuel as prosecutor, and he is magnificent: sly, sarcastic, even cunningly mild when questioning Catherine (by no means pays to browbeat a rape sufferer), he sells the likelihood {that a} clear-cut case of self-defense might be waylaid right into a manslaughter conviction (just one problematic element: the door was clearly forced– would not this have been taken into consideration?). Once more breakdowns and lamentations– it is a komiks serial after all– however Catherine’s last cry for assist and Minda’s anguished response (Guillen’s digital camera capturing all in a sequence of prolonged pictures) feels harrowingly sincere.

The second half, a lot of which is ready in jail, appears like an altogether totally different (and higher) image. At one level Catherine stands tall amongst the dried grass in her convict orange uniform, Guillen’s digital camera concerning her from a low-angle shot– with not somewhat awe, a monument to martyred girls everywhere– her knees buckle, her palms clutch her stomach, her face tilts heavenwards in agony as labor pains start. Later her baby (now three years outdated) screams as he is being abused; Guillen cuts to Catherine sitting on her bunk, the screams like a haunting reminder echoing in her head. Mike de Leon for all his precision and mind would by no means try something this straight elemental. He makes no main errors; he additionally fails to attain something so improbably intense–for that you could take dangers.

The movie may also recall Mario O’Hara’s traditional women-in-prison movie Bulaklak sa Metropolis Jail (Flowers of the Metropolis Jail) accomplished that very same yr. The place O’Hara’s is a portrait of the city jail as one of many decrease circles of hell, Guillen’s is comparatively innocuous (the meals appears dangerous, the guards stern however not violently abusive); the place O’Hara’s Angela (Nora Aunor) hardens her resolve within the forge of incarceration, Guillen’s Catherine stays one huge open throbbing wound–more passive maybe, but in addition extra susceptible to the ache of loss.

Fascinating to match Koronel’s efficiency right here to one in all her most well-known early roles, because the eponymous Insiang in Lino Brocka’s traditional film–there she appeared as French critics would famously say “too stunning for the slums” (Brocka’s reply being equally well-known (she “is from the slums!”)); right here her magnificence appears extra developed, extra complexly flavored. Cannot make the case that Guillen’s melodrama is healthier than Brocka’s masterpiece (it is not) however I believe I could make the case that Koronel again then was uncooked and inexperienced, her efficiency quite callow; right here the lady is now a girl grown, and her struggling appears to come back straight from expertise, and never a director’s insistent coaxing.

The remainder of the forged is mostly advantageous, with the villains having fun with a definite benefit within the enjoyable division: I’ve talked about Mr. Abuel however there’s additionally drop-dead horny Amy Austria, the one Acuesta prepared to make use of her mind (she would not get very far–you marvel why she by no means realized her sob story to Rustan can be straightforward to fact-check–but not less than she received someplace); Eddie Garcia is deliciously unscrupulous because the spineless Pablo, and enjoys one nice moment–when Catherine strides into the sagging outdated mansion she as soon as lived in to confront Pablo in his sickbed (shades of Pip confronting Mrs. Havisham, with the sexes reversed). Not an incredible movie by any measure, however Guillen’s means so as to add such grace moments helps make the image on the very least a memorable leisure.

First printed in Businessworld 12.18.14