REVIEW | Metro Manila (2013)

I attended an advance screening of Sean Ellis’ celebrated Metro Manila last Friday, October 7th, and I would like to thank Matt Suzara of Lakwatsera Lovers for the passes. After the screening, the main cast, as well as the director himself, Sean Ellis, talked about the film and answered questions from the stunned Filipino and British audience.

Metro Manila, if you haven’t yet heard, is UK’s entry to the 2014 Oscars, hoping to win a nomination in the Best Foreign Category.

The story is about Oscar (Jake Macapagal), a very poor Benguet farmer who, like most folks from the provinces, journey to the capital city for a “better life.” With his beautiful wife Mai (Althea Vargas) and two young children, and a small can of meek savings, the wide-eyed and innocent-looking Oscar is ready to start a new life in Metro Manila.  

As the small family looks hopefully out of the jeepney window, and Oscar and Mai exchanging a look of excitement, feelings of dread and sympathy begin to envelope you. And when their eldest found a shiny new 10-peso coin inside the jeep, the parents beam with gratitude—as if it’s a blessing and a sign of great things to come. Your heart breaks. This family is so poor, yet hopeful and brave. And they trust that God will never abandon them.

When the Ramirezes finally arrive in Metro Manila, of course it’s in Quiapo, in the heart of Metro Manila. The family is immediately thrown into a cacophony of street vendors, a dense crowd, all the squalor and eyesore, and, adding to the claustrophobic chaos, right in the middle of an ongoing Nazarene festival. 

I haven’t read Brown’s Inferno with the controversial “gates of hell,” but that phrase instantly came to mind as I followed Ellis’ camera greedily taking in the most depressing, the filthiest, and the most poverty-stricken areas of Metro Manila. Indeed, it’s effective; you feel a strong sense of despair. It’s all so depressing and frightening, but then you also feel disturbed—this is just part of Metro Manila and not the entire Metro Manila, but will the international audience know this?

The Metro Manila that Sean Ellis painted in his film is a den of danger and immorality and Catholic rituals. This is Metro Manila, where poverty is so extreme that no one is safe, including the good and righteous Oscar. The film will immerse you in the darkest side of Metro Manila and humanity that even I, who grew up in Metro Manila, suddenly fear and dread the commute home from the cinemas.

Oscar, our hero, is the archetype of purity who finds himself in a “dirty” capital city. Not only are we shown that Metro Manila is a disgusting place, but it is a living, breathing entity—one of the “main characters,” as confirmed by Ellis himself in the Q&A portion. The city is alive, corrupt, and immoral, immediately pouncing on poor Oscar and his homeless and starving family, smelling their innocence and naïveté. Your heart twists for the family, whose hopefulness and trust in the Lord is touching.

After a depressing series of unfortunate events, windows of opportunity started opening for Oscar and Mai. Mai reluctantly accepts a gig as a go-go dancer in a seedy bar, and Oscar earns a job at an armored truck company—which transports “money boxes” to clients— through the help of Ong (John Arcilla), a senior guard in the company who has immediately taken into liking the former farmer. Arcilla acts like a heaven-sent angel in the gates of hell, and it looks like Oscar will have a better life in the city after all.

Now, Arcilla is a pleasure to watch—highly engaging, natural, and nothing short of brilliant. At the Q&A portion, Ellis revealed that Arcilla injected his own lines to the script, and this is evident by his highly realistic lines and very Filipino way of communicating. Here is a character so colorful and convincing that most of the film’s humor and life comes from Arcilla. 

Arcilla’s character Ong is too nice and generous to Oscar that you anticipate the catch with much trepidation. You dread how dangerous his character will turn out to be. You know that he’s going to use Oscar sooner or later, but the question is how? Now that Ong has fixed Oscar to be his partner in the risky job of security, you imagine the worst.

Ellis, in the Q&A portion, says the film is actually a “heist thriller,” but to me it’s not. I felt the movie is all about “kapit sa patalim,” a Filipino idiomatic expression that describes one’s situation so desperate that one is willing to resort to anything—including immoral acts—or risk his life, in order to survive.

[spoilers ahead] 

Although the story is well-written, highly engaging, and smart, I saw a minor flaw. Ong tells Oscar of how his former partner was killed in a robbery. We are shown a flashback, where a long-haired, white-eyed criminal (Leon Miguel) murders Ong’s partner and runs away with a money box. The movie establishes how traumatized and affected Ong was; the day of the theft so vivid and detailed to him. So here’s the weird part:

Ong eventually turns into Oscar’s worst nightmare—he turns out to be as corrupt as the entire Metro Manila, bribing Oscar to cooperate with a planned heist. Ong has collaborated with some thugs to plan a fake robbery.  When the robber arrives at the planned time—and this is the weird part—it’s Leon Miguel, the long-haired, white-eyed thief who had killed his partner, and yet Ong spoke to him so casually, mistaking him for a collaborator? The movie and the character have both established Ong as a veteran who can read you—intelligent and detail-oriented, yet he did not recognize the criminal who murdered his best friend? That he did not recognize that this guy—this distinct long-haired guy—approaching him is not any of the thugs that he’d been planning the heist with? Or you could argue that Ong was probably too blinded with greed to sense something was off—and then it was too late. 

And so the failed heist has left Oscar a huge predicament with no way out. Mai’s gig at the sleazy bar was getting too much also, and the Ramirez family is stuck in hell.

Metro Manila has a side story as well, running parallel to Oscar’s story. Inspired by true events, Sean Ellis incorporated a story about Alfred Santos (told by Oscar), a victim of envy and corruption, which left him and his family penniless. Santos has resorted to “kapit sa patalim,” robbing a plane full of passengers before jumping to his death, which is the same true-to-life story that inspired Raymond Red’s Manila Skies. Ellis has confirmed this in the Q&A portion, that they both got inspired by the same “poetic” story.

Our pure and good Oscar eventually has resorted to “kapit sa patalim” as well, and he succeeded: by committing a crime himself he was able to save his wife and kids: gave them a way out of the devil’s lair that is Metro Manila. Because you, the moviegoer, has suffered with the Ramirezes, this has given you relief, of course, that Mai and the kids can now go back to the province where it is safer.

Another problem I have with the movie is the message it conveys: it has placed Oscar—despite his crime—a hero. Yes, Oscar was a victim, but is that an excuse to commit a crime? Additionally, Oscar, with much boastfulness, even compared himself to Santos; that he is smarter, hinting that Santos was careless, flighty and stupid, while his plans are more concrete and effective. It's like Oscar is saying, "we may be both 'poetic/romantic' criminals, but I am the more sound one?" Which is also odd, since Santos had planned his robbery, whereas Oscar wouldn't have resorted to his "kapit sa patalim" plan if it weren't for Ong's failed heist that put Oscar in a risky situation. If Ong didn't turn out to be a corrupt idiot, Oscar wouldn't have planned his last-minute crime. So there is no comparison there, really.

It’s just sad that your hero, Oscar, has evolved into a criminal, although the script has justified this by pushing his character in a helpless situation. But he is still a criminal, applauded for his “sacrifice,” so I wouldn’t call him a “hero.” He did not commit the crime to save humanity, but only his small family who made a mistake of going to Metro Manila.

In Ron Morales’ brilliant Gracleland with a similar theme of “kapit sa patalim” and corruption and prostitution, there was no hero, but the message was sharp and there is value in it: Lead star Arnold Reyes’ Marlon, in an an effective plot twist, turned out to be a corrupt, immoral man himself. But in the end, he didn’t benefit from his wrong deed. So there’s truth and morals in it: nothing good comes out of bad.

Metro Manila also portrayed the Philippines, a predominantly Catholic religion, to be ritualistic. The religion meaningless—a mere ritual with no real concept of right or wrong. The Ramirezes speak about trust in the Lord, always talking about God, yet are implying that it is their God that blessed Mai with a go-go dancing gig? Oscar’s locket that contained the "key" to ill-gotten money also has religious images in it, as if sending his wife a “God bless” for a new life. As if God blesses them in the guise of crime.

Also, the title “Metro Manila” seems to have generalized the city. The story implies that really it wasn't Ong, nor the go-go bar woman pimp, that victimized and corrupted Oscar and his family, but it was Metro Manila—the city itself, which is pretty offensive. Where as in Graceland, the focus is on Marlon and Marlon’s world alone.

Erik Matti’s On the Job also tackled crime and corruption, but the focus is on a crime syndicate, and Joel Torres’ Tatang will always be a bad guy, so it does not represent the country or the capital city.

However, in Metro Manila, Metro Manila is the bad guy here, the one to blame for Oscar’s actions. As if Metro Manila is a manufacturer of criminals, even romantic and poetic ones that fall from the sky. Oscar was a plain and simple good man who eventually went against his conscience and morals for survival. “Kapit sa Patalim,” is what it is. It’s not a heist thriller, as the heist is just a tool to push Oscar to his limits. A crime is a crime; a wrong deed is a wrong deed. There’s no other “good” way to look at it. Don’t make Oscar a hero. He’s not a hero. He’s just a victim na kumapit sa patalim and found a way out for his family.

However engaging and effectively horrific and despairing, Metro Manila left me with a slight bitter aftertaste, like Metro Manila was exploited to make a movie. It gave the city a bad rep, and made a hero out of a criminal because of his love for his family. If there is any value in this movie aside from its film-making competence, it's the harrowing lesson to penniless provincial folks: do not dare enter Metro Manila.

3 out of 5 stars

Opens today, October 9, 2013, in Philippine cinemas