i have watched this film several years back and when i finally landed in a place where there are millions of ofws, i felt compelled to write a review of it even though i believe no one would even bother reading it.
i have to be frank to say that the producers of this movie tried to beat the emotional punch of ofws, some 7 million of them in 2000, to make sure that they had a fan base that would solidly usher this movie to box office revenues and critical acclaims. but one could clearly see right through the motives of the producers that they intend on getting money even if it meant preying on the emotional vulnerability of ofws.
they have stuck on such an idea that they have discarded the essential points in movie making.
first, the dialogs and conversation flows were downright ridiculous.they were talking so fast as if they were in a hurry.
even if the movie casted very good actors, vilma santos, cherry pie picache, to mention a few, it just really cannot make up for a bad set of dialogs; it even made them appear laughable. just bad, shallow and unlife-like dialogs. the untalented writers even attempted to make the movie appear intense by drenching the dialogs with offensive and obscene expletives even in scenes that did not really need them. this shallow style of scriptwriting made this movie a lot more unbearable as there were unnecessary remarks in a lot of wrong places.
the character of the protagonist was poorly conceived, clichéd, just plain and vividly shallow. why would you despise your mother, who, from previous countless accounts of domestic helpers, had been enduring unimaginable working conditions in other country, just because she missed or unintentionally failed to reply to your letters. how shallow does that plot goes? if this description needed a metaphorical comparison, it should be that this story must have been written by a 4th grader for his short story requirement. i don't understand why such shallow (pardon the over-usage) concoctions pass out as a plot for a movie. maybe the producers also think of the audience as shallow and there was no need to go deeper. honestly in my opinion, they may be quite right. but it was not right to follow the audience's lead. the movie makers should always be the one raising the bar.
second, some angles were terrible. some perspectives were so focused on capturing the intense emotional portrayals of the actors that the important elements in the background were obliterated. again, bad directing. the director just doesn't know what he or she was doing or is it even correct to call her/him a director.
third, many scenes were superfluous and unrealistic. in a certain scene, the mother was grabbing the daughter and wouldn't let go of her for no reason even if the daughter had no plans of going anywhere. this bad situation was so forcefully implemented so that it would appear that they were wrestling. on top of it, the people cheered as if they were watching a wrestling derby. how shallow and mindless of a plot is that that it just made me cringe. we know that when people argue, especially if it involves someone who is a senior, spectators would tend to keep their mouth shut and retreat to the sides. the people involved in the writing of this script obviously do not know what the realities of human psychology and sociology are. they just wrote it so that they had something to write. truly, they obviously lacked the necessary education and talent. they did not even bother to do a little research. they just had the stupid idea in order to have something to call a story.
i still have yet to see a movie that doesn't capitalize so much on the manipulation of emotions for the purpose of amassing revenues. while it is true that movie making is also dictated by economic tides, it is also important not to leave out the essential and artistic aspects of making it. the Philippine cinema is not actually young but it seems to be doting and becoming more and more immature while many watchers have become more and more intelligent.
