I think that the most surprising element of Lino Brocka’s Manila in the Claws of Brightness (1975) is the sensibilities the film possesses for American culture, while simultaneously subtly criticizing capitalist territorialism in the city of its title. Brocka was clearly influenced by American films and their themes, and quite possibly he influenced a few himself with this film, often regarded as the greatest of Filipino pictures. Obviously, the labor movement movies of the 1950s as well as Midnight Cowboy (1969) are reflected here from a somewhat unfamiliar perspective. Brocka certainly adds his own flare –notably with the film’s homosexual themes (he was openly gay) – and at times makes what might otherwise be a dingy homage into a unique, if admittedly melodramatic, picture about corruption and exploitation in the third world.
Arriving in the city to find his
lost love, Julio (Bembol Roco) is forced to seek work as a day laborer at a
construction site. The unsafe conditions
and unforgiving foreman combine for a volatile environment, and Julio is
shocked when he sees a man killed by falling debris. Ordered to return to work immediately, the
incident creates political stirrings amongst his fellow workers. This subplot quickly all but disappears from
the remainder of the film however when we see through brief flashbacks Julio’s
memories of his beloved, Ligaya Paraiso (Hilda Koronel). The two lived an idyllic life in a provincial
fishing village, but Ligaya left for the city when promised a job and a
potential education. When she sent no
word of her arrival, Julio followed to find her.
Structurally, the film functions as
both a disappearance mystery and a parable about the corruptive power of the
urban landscape. Julio is certain he’s
seen Ligaya (whose full name translates to “Happy Paradise”) through the window
of a trading company building, but he’s kept away by a sleazy gatekeeper. As he fumbles through the inner-city squalor
he finds himself increasingly prone to violence, and he eventually is lured
into a ring of homosexual prostitutes who seem to have a connection to the inaccessible
building. He turns tricks for a time,
seemingly unaffected by his plight, until by chance he sees Ligaya. He follows her to a church, where they have a
somewhat stoic reunion before going to a movie and then finding a bed in which
to rekindle their relationship.
In the film’s emotional centerpiece,
a nearly ten minute dialogue between the two*, she reveals that she too has been
trapped into a life of prostitution. The
young lovers make plans to flee the city, but before they can, Ligaya is killed
by her pimp as a warning to other girls who might try to escape his
clutches. Enraged, Julio climbs the stairs of the whore
house and murders the pimp with an ice pick. The film concludes ambiguously as a mob surrounds
the desperate young man, violently poised to make him the city’s next victim.
The obvious comparison to Martin
Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, released a
year later in 1976, in the film’s final sequence leads one to wonder how much
of a thematic influence Brocka’s film was on the American director and his
screen writer Paul Schrader. Obviously,
Schrader’s screenplay was finished by the time of Manila’s release, but visually the films do have some striking similarities. But Taxi
Driver, for the most part, feels like a timeless film that happens to have
been made in the 1970s, where Brocka’s to an extent feels stuck in that decade.
Costumes, body language, and even the
small smattering of English dialogue in Manila
feel dated upon first glance. Taxi Driver, and to a lesser extent Midnight Cowboy bear the scrutiny of
repeated viewings. Likewise, the
flashback sequences and melodramatic directorial tones (“Happy Paradise”…Really?)
they display feel like a Ryan O’Neal vehicle rather than a gritty low-budget
indy. For a novice actor, Roco does what he can with
the material he’s given, even showing some flashes of greatness, but his immaturity
combined with Brocka’s unsure touch leaves something to be desired, as does the
VHS quality stream that is available on Youtube.
Language:
Filipino
Runtime:
125 Minutes
Available
@Youtube.com (NST)
Grade:
2.5 Hats off
*This
was the scene that could have most used the missing subtitles.
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