1. There’s poetry in the timing of the theatrical run (only in select SM cinemas) of the restored Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1975) this month (or just this week); it comes in a time when a so-called discussion seems to be going on on a particularly tough topic, illegal settlements and settlers. From this so-called discussion naturally comes generalizations, which, worse than harsh, are actually acts violence, of speaking for other people, these people, these others, who become objects of so much derision, so much scorn. In this act of speaking for them the speaker assumes a position, which is that of oppression, that of an oppressor who refuses to listen, one who imposes one’s own views on the them one does not care to listen to in the first place. In Maynila, Lino Brocka makes one of them speak. Julio Madiaga (Bembol Roco) is Brocka’s perpetual pilgrim in Manila; permanence is denied him. The buildings he himself builds provide only temporary shelter: it’s not even half finished when he is kicked out. He builds subdivision walls that when completed become the very thing that excludes, others, him. Not even is there the mere appearance of permanence for him. Even love, that supposedly most permanent of all things, is denied him. Brocka makes him speak; is Julio heard? In the screening I attended yesterday, there were only maybe ten people in the cinema.
photo credit: festival-cannes.fr
2. One of my many pleasures watching Maynila restored was the scene above.
“Ako mananalo! Ako mananalo!”
“Presenting, Ms International, Aurora Pijuan!”
“Aaaaaay!”
“Ang ganda-ganda mo!”
“Aaaaaay! Lalake!”
“Lalake! Pila! Pila! Dali!”
And of course, there’s a huge Aurora Pijuan poster in Pol’s (Tommy Abuel) room in the film, something I noticed only yesterday.
3. Maynila is not Brocka’s best film, I think. There’s Insiang (1976) and Tatlo, Dalawa, Isa (1974). But all these talk of bests and greatests are just games we play (fun games, but without clear rules). What it does do, or should, is lead us to more great films. Somewhere, there’s a greatest film we’ve never seen before; in this game, revising our old views is not a fault.
– J. Chew
Banana Chews 