A Retrospective Review
By Cesare Augusto Directed by: Lino Brocka Starring: Insiang: HILDA KORONEL Tonya: MONA LISA Dado: RUEL VERNAL Bedot: REZ CORTEZ Thank Heaven for the Criterion Collection and its streaming service, the Critieron Channel. For they are the gateway to some of the most unique, quirky, and magnificent films ever created, that you’ve probably never seen. Criterion’s gloriously vast assortment of films come from different eras and all kinds of countries. They include great classics like Chaplin’s The Gold Rush and Nicholas Ray’s In a Lonely Place, abstract “New Wave” Arthouse films like Fellini’s 8 ½ and Louise Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows (a personal significant favorite of mine in this category), and outrageous cult oddities like Herschell Gordon Lewis’ Horror splatter-fest Blood Feast. The Criterion Channel is more than worth the $10.99 monthly subscription cost, that is if you’re an obsessed connoisseur of cinema who wouldn’t mind the expense, like me! The Criterion Channel is also home to a special select series of international cinema dubbed “The World Cinema Project.” Established by none other than Martin Scorsese, the World Cinema Project dedicates itself to the preservation, restoration, and re-distribution of both classic and newer films from countries worldwide. Cinephiles disinterested in run-of-the-mill Hollywood popcorn flicks will be intrigued by the Project’s selection of films rich with high intensity and melodrama, many of which are fueled by their countries’ political or social turmoils. Among the ones I’ve had the great pleasure of viewing include the depressing Senegalese-French drama Black Girl, the taut Turkish crime thriller Law of the Border, and from my ancestral land the Philippines, Insiang. Prior to Insiang, the only Filipino-made pictures I saw were mostly 1960s to 70s low-budget exploitation schlock-fests which meet the criteria of the trashy yet energetically fun “Grindhouse” mold. Cheaply made Horror and Action flicks like The Big Bird Cage, The Blood Drinkers, and The Muthers were all filmed in the Philippines and made use of the country’s tropical jungle locales just so attractive, scantily-dressed women can run around topless while wielding machine guns and killing their evil, sex-starved male captors. Sure, these pictures are utter garbage with very little genuine artistic merit to speak of. But if you’re an unabashed fan of Grindhouse movies, lack of such merit makes very little difference as long as they entertained you from a “so-bad-it’s good” rationale! (For more on these, check out the insane 2010 documentary Machete Maidens Unleashed immediately) Then there’s Lino Brocka, the internationally-renowned Filipino director and master storyteller. Scorsese himself is an avid admirer of Brocka, crediting the Filipino filmmaker’s “key role in remaking the cinema of his country.” Brocka’s approach was to show the Philippines’ darker, seamier sides, often using the poverty-stricken streets of the country’s capital Manila during the notorious Marcos Regime as a backdrop to the hard-edged dramas he specialized in. Two of his most prolific pictures, Manila in the Claws of Night and Insiang, brutally depict the harsh lives of poor, downtrodden Filipinos who often teeter on the edges of sanity and insanity, civilized and criminal, life and death. Brocka’s films may not paint the most flattering pictures of the Philippines, but they certainly make for brutally realistic cinema. Insiang also holds the distinction of being the very first Filipino feature film to be presented at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, a highly impressive feat indeed. Vintage Filipina actress Hilda Koronel portrays the titular character, a young Manila woman trapped in her own private hell. Insiang lives deep within the shanty town of the run-down Tondo district, where she shares a cramped house with her estranged father’s relatives, and her bitter and overbearing mother Tonya (classic Filipina cinema legend Mona Lisa). Tonya barely tolerates or feels even the slightest smidge of love for her only daughter. Instead, she bludgeons Insiang with barrages of insults, humiliation, and physical abuse. Tonya’s cruelty stems from her husband’s abandonment of their family to run off with another woman, prompting Tonya to take her frustrations out on everything with a pulse. When Tonya evicts her husband’s relatives from her house, she viciously vents her life’s failings on her daughter. Insiang’s troubles don’t end there. Both mother and daughter barely make enough money to afford rice and even decent clothes. Her boyfriend Bedot (Rez Cortez) is an irresponsible deadbeat who never takes their relationship beyond just making out in darkened movie theaters. And because of her mother’s infamous volatile nature, Insiang and her family have become the butt of negative gossip among the shanty town’s denizens. Yet all these unpleasantness pale terribly in comparison to that of Dado (Ruel Vernal), the neighborhood’s biggest scumbag who also happens to be Tonya’s latest squeeze. If you were to Google Image the word “Sleaze”, you’re sure to find the swaggering Dado smiling repulsively back at you. The man is a liar, degenerate, and a bully who moves in with Tonya after she chucked her in-laws out. The awkwardness behind the entire setup is magnified when we learn how much younger Dado is compared to Tonya (trust me: their relationship is quite gross and unsettling). Soon enough, Dado sets his disgusting sights on Insiang, eyeing the young girl with less-than-honorable intentions. He seeks to lay claim on both mother and daughter of the household he moves into. Late one night, he sneaks up on the unsuspecting Insiang, and rapes her. You would think Tonya would subsequently kick this perverted piece of trash to the curb, but no. She actually takes Dado’s side and accuses of Insiang of instigating the whole incident and seducing her rapist. What kind of a mother would victim-blame her own daughter, as if Insiang herself would willingly facilitate her own sexual assault? The jealous kind, as Tonya would wrongly suspect Insiang of stealing Dado away from her wrinkled, envious clutches. While pondering these profoundly disturbing notions, I couldn’t resist comparing Insiang to another grim urban drama, 2009’s Precious directed by Lee Daniels. Both films dramatically depict the plights of two young women caught in troubled households who find themselves victimized by sexually-violent men and monstrously-abusive mothers. Both films would also deeply explore its female protagonists as they struggle with the post-traumatic shock of their assaults. Still, they are contrast as their stories progress. Precious projects more optimism, as its hero defeats her demons with the help of positive people in her life and coming out a winner. Insiang, on other hand, is rife with bleakness and despair. Insiang spirals in depression and hopelessness from not only her rape at Dado’s hands, but betrayals from both her mother and a cowardly boyfriend like Bedot, who unceremoniously dumps her after a night of shared passion. Now left with no other options, Insiang embarks on a stormy campaign of revenge against her tormentors, with each act of vengeance more impactful and bloodier than before. If that sounds dark, bear in mind that this is not a Hollywood movie, but a Filipino one, set in very true times of social turmoil. Insiang was my springboard to films from my native land for two things: the stark grimness of human tragedy which director Lino Brocka excelled in, and the crushing realistic view of poverty and the poor in the Philippines. What Brocka created was more than mere melodrama; he took one character’s immense tragedy and made it soul-shattering not for Insiang herself, but for the audience. We can’t help but shed tears along with poor Insiang, and thusly shamelessly (at first) begin hoping that her revenge schemes succeed. Hilda Koronel is dynamite in the drama department as she steadily switches from helpless victim to perpetrator of her own personal justice. Her costars also deserve some major acting kudos. The venom that Mona Lisa spews against her cinematic daughter is nothing short of toxic, which I mean in a flattering way. She tackles the Tonya role with such unforgettable, cold-blooded ferocity that while Tonya wouldn’t win any awards for being Mother-of-the-Year, Lisa herself deserves a bunch thanks to her truly great powerhouse acting. Another lasting impact created by Insiang was Brocka’s depiction of his country’s poverty. The way he captured the dirt poor conditions of the Tondo district streets was shocking in my eyes. For those unaware of my personal past, I was born in the Philippines, within the Quezon City area of Manila to be exact. As a baby, I left the country with my parents with zero memory of my time spent there. So it wouldn’t be until I saw Brocka’s work that I caught a glimpse of my countrymen’s way of life from this vantage point. We observe Insiang walking aimlessly through the shanty town’s litter-filled streets, past neighborhood kids who appear otherwise happily skipping rope almost adjacent to young Filipino men drunkenly drinking beer outside local bodegas. This reality may appear horrible to some, but it’s nonetheless reality for those who lived it and accepted it as their way of life. It’s this reviewer’s theory that was Brocka’s intention, to introduce film-goers beyond Philippine shores of how rough life is in this world, and to presumably show audiences in places like America of just how good their lives truly are, despite any hardships they perceive to have. If that was indeed Brocka’s intention, he succeeded, at least in my eyes. Insiang is a soul-crushing wake-up call of a film, and it packs one hell of a powerful bitch slap. See the original trailer here! https://youtu.be/9ssGbkBNPUg
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About Yours Truly
Unearthing great forgotten and criminally underrated pop culture mediums is my specialty! Whether the topic be about cinema, television, music, or other fun bits of obscure minutiae, I love analyzing and unleashing these lost treasures to the unwitting public! Archives
October 2020
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