Revisiting Lino Brocka's "Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag" (A Moving On Film Worth Watching Again & Again)

I saw the posting on a link to the late Philippine National Artist Lino Brocka's "Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag" from one of my Facebook friends (I personally know the guy, actually) and was prodded to watch the movie, in installments due to so many distractions while doing my various works, on my laptop. Bear with me and brace yourself as I share with you a few of my spill-over thoughts about this hauntingly beautiful film, which could be probably one of the best films ever made. Among so many reasons, it talks but never actually verbalizes it, about a certain kind of innocence that each one of us who grew up to adulthood is familiar with and can only look back to check with a tinge of liberating sadness in our hearts.

I've seen this film many times many years ago, the most particularly memorable of which took place during my formal schooling years  when we were required to watch certain movies and write brief movie reviews (thus, to help us become more aware of what's happening in society in general). This movie, among several, didn't really bring that much personal impact then (it looked so suspiciously political to me, among other things, and I didn't enjoy the ambivalently-styled ending that was subject to so many interpretations) to me. I felt then that the movie was trying to relay a lot messages that didn't really matter so much to me on a personal level (i.e., why would I even care about other people's miserable lives, when we in our family couldn't afford much of what we need, or that we had what we need and want at that moment, so why should I bother with other people's lives?). And besides, what exactly is so new about seeing what I ordinarily would see whenever I come to Manila, which was the setting of film....it was ho-hum to my eyes then. But now that I've been here in NYC for years, I was experiencing nostalgia instantly when the scenes where displayed onscreen. I suddenly remember as well a lot of my own experiences, which I shared in my first published book (Angels In Disguise: Leavings and Goings at the Chocolate Hils)---this film depicted scenes about guys who've freshly come from the provinces and would have to cope with the challenges forced upon them in Manila, which I had seen so many times when I was still cruising the open parks and spaces in that capital of the Philippines for hundreds of years now (excepting during a period when Ferdinand Marcos was the president and when the capital was Quezon City).

This time, when I found time to watch it again, my experience has been more emotionally moving, engaging and meaningful. Brocka and the other artists involved in the making the film were seriously making very strong statements on the issues that matter in life, which we, as viewers, have to pay focus on so we could use them to lead meaningful lives in our respective communities now. Despite the film's violent murder scenes at the end, I could see that it's a film that resonates in our respective efforts to move on with the terrible, troubling, bothersome, horrendous happenings in our individual lives. Depending on the perspective on how you will view the characters shown in the movie, the story is a treatise on how to deal with life's miseries, most of which have been set-up mainly to satisfy the needs and wants of those in power. And to deal with those, you have to continuously move on and not be caught up in the trappings found in the lives being led by people who seem to be out there to use you to meet their own needs and wants.

I'm surprised that the protagonists in this film went about taking charge in the directions of their respective lives. Some of them would look like failures on the surface but on closer look, they've done their best, given available resources to them. And that's actually liberating, despite the idea that it looked tragic somewhat. Each one of us would have our end, anyway, in due time. With that in mind, we might as well take responsibility for our individual lives, even if most of those in power and have influence would just look at most people, including most of us who happened to be around now, as mere cogs in this wretched, unfair  system in a society that seems to give preferences to meeting the needs and wants of those among the intertwined networks of the powerful, the greedy, and the influential.

I was surprised to note how Brocka had Hilda Koronel ("Ligaya" in the movie) acting in a non hysterical manner, considering the character that she played, which in some regular movies, a similarly-written character would have been acting as if life has been so unfair with her and would be so loud and demanding for attention from others around her. No, she didn't really go about becoming crazy after she was turned into a prostitute by greedy recruiters who would poach on particular types of women who live in small towns, where life's supposed to be thought to be less complicated and bucolic. Ligaya (the meaning of which name is the total complete opposite of what took place in her life), apparently, has come into terms with her life and moved on after seeing that having a baby (sired by one of her regular patrons who became in loved with her) have changed her life situation completely. She wanted to take charge and make the most of what remains in her still youthful but heavily-disarrayed life. She was just persuaded by Julio (her boyfriend from the province who came to the big city to look for her, and was so well played by Bembol Roco) to ran away from the clutches of white slavery that she got herself into, unwittingly. But, she would fail (we would learn that she was killed while she was trying to ran away from her captors).

And Julio would actually go out of his way to take revenge into his own hands. He would kill Ah Tek, the father of Ligaya's child and who enslaved her so that she won't think of ever running away from the circuitous entrapment. I could perfectly agree with his characterization; he was a low-key fisherman who should have known the ins and outs of being out there in the open sea that has provided him with lessons in tackling other numerous life challenges found in different settings. He fought his enemy and killed him in a manner so raw that I felt it was justified he actually did it (as 'what can you expect from a society who would not care to bother with the valid grievances of regular folks like Julio and most other characters in this film').

But since society has its own values (that are primarily a reflection of the value systems of the powerful and influential, plus their supporters), Julio has to be paying the price. The ending suggests something terrible happened to Julio.

Of course, so much about this film is subject to the viewer's interpretation and mindset. And you can read a lot of intellectualized discussions about the movie as it's a very disturbing movie, which is one of its very strong qualities and makes it a must-see movie. I've seen and have read so many narratives similar to the plot shown in this movie in real life, and I can only empathize with the characters that are being fictionalized by so many authors. Actually, in real life, more violent happenings take place and much more stranger moments happen. It's how it is really even in raw scenes found in nature (observe how stronger animals in the hierarchy would kill quickly, without so much ado, their prey so they could eat and feed themselves and their offspring). And that's how disturbing more truthful narratives can be in real life. We just try to soften the impact of how truthful events in real life are by using artistic tools when we present them to others who would have been in shocked state and in complete denial with such details about life if they happened to see such pieces of artworks (like this film) in the course of their respective lives.

But life moves on, and people do move on, no matter how hurtful and deadly (in some instances) life situations can be. We encounter people who would hurt us (intentionally, indirectly). We find ourselves in places that would bring out the worst in us. And we continue to move on (or else, we hasten the process of our slow dying to terminate our own lives). I believe we could learn a thing or two on how to tackle better life's challenges if we can find time to watch this disturbing moving-on film. Needless to say, we hope that the insights you'll experience as you watch it again and again will help you move on with your respective concerns in life.