Filippino Films I'm Looking For

Abakada ina is a film dedicated to all women who strive to be the best for their children. It is about an illiterate woman named Estella who married Daniel and had three beautiful daughters. Since Estella had stopped studying when she was still a child, she always had an argue with her mother-in-law named Matilda. Matilda loves her grandchildren very much that she didn't want them to become illiterate like their mother. Matilda taught everything she knew to Estella's children. She tried to be a mother to them. Matilda wanted to raise them the way she raised her children, Daniel and Jojo. Because of this, Estella felt that she doesn't have a place in them, that she cannot do anything but to sell in the market. Daniel came back home from his work on the ship and he tried to live with his family away from his mother. It was a very tough decision for them but they did it because they believe that they could fulfill their dreams in a place far from where they grew up. Unfortunately, many bad things had happened so they decided again to go back to Matilda though Estella knew that she would be hurt again by her. Daniel and Estella broke up and they both struggle to make their family get back again. Estella studied again and Daniel chose to pursue the course he really wanted. They wrote letters to each other and promised to one another that no matter what happen, the "Daniel and Estella" they knew would be together and love each other with all their hearts all over again.

The coming-of-age story of young college student, Joey (Christopher de Leon), who has lost all sense of direction and meaning in life, waking up every morning to the same old day that went before; fruitless, senseless, lifeless. He's a carefree kind of guy who just bums around with his friends. The only thing that inspires him is music. The problem is, he has yet to finish writing a song, which turns out to be the movie's theme song, and the theme song of his awakening. Then Joey meets Ana (Hilda Koronel), who immediately sweeps him off his feet. A very sweet friendship develops between them. Suddenly, Joey's world is turned upside-down and his mornings are never the same again.

There is something strange about this motion picture.

A crime-drama-suspense genre film not often seen in Philippine cinema. A controlling patriarch loses it over his daughter's marriage and her attempts to escape from their incestuous household.

A nun becomes involved in an on-going labor strike. She starts out non-politicized, but later learns about the plight of the simple working man and inevitably, the government's neglect of the poor masses. Filipino Tagalog movie.

The film revolves around two couples who find themselves in conflict with the foreign commercial giants that control the Philippine economy, the Japanese and the Chinese.

Agnes and Jerry's relationship becomes distant when Agnes migrates to America.

BIG BOY is a coming-of-age tale about a boy and his family in 1950s Mindoro, Philippines, and how he is groomed into becoming the poster boy for his parent's home-based business. The film is an experimental portrait of a family amidst change -- an experience that will engage audiences in something strange but familiar.

Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation.

Set at the turn of the 20th century during the Filipino revolution against the Spaniards and, later, the American colonizers, it follows a naive peasant through his leap of faith to become a member of an imagined community.

Flashbacks encompass the history of the Philippines as well as the life story of the elderly Daniel Aguila. The Aguila family gathers to celebrate Daniel's 88th birthday, but the old man is nowhere to be seen--he has been missing for a decade. Suspecting that his father is in Mindanao, one of his sons takes off for that region in a determined search. Along the way, his memories of the nation and his father's life tell the story of 80 tumultuous years of personal and historical development.

The hidden nightlife of ordinary people living in Manila unveils. Lovers and families' conflicts are radically pitted against each other as they live in the night streets rampant with drugs and prostitution. The outstanding narrative explicitly unravels the various characters and episodes. This landmark film of Ishmael Bernal depicts the darkness of city life so vividly that it was once prohibited to use the word 'Manila' on its title.

Florida (Vilma Santos) concocts a plan to avenge the abuse she suffered from devilish matriarch Octavia (Gloria Romero), only to discover that the child she used to exploit for her revenge is her own child. An oppressed housemaid has transformed herself into a wealthy and powerful business mogul through sheer dint of talent, ambition, and driving need to get revenge on her tormentors. She returns to the scene of her most abject debasement with the sole intent of humiliating the family who once made her life such a living hell. Unknowingly, she gets to exact revenge on the very person who turns out to be her own daughter by the son of her former mistress. Guillen's Kapag Langit Ang Humatol (1990) was based on a radio serial about the vindictive story of rags to riches, Florida.

A 1978 Filipino romantic drama film about a man's guilt over his affair with another woman that hurt the feelings of his long time girlfriend.

A groom takes his city bride to his hometown to settle in his father's house. Struck by her uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, the patriarch is driven to lust after his daughter-in-law. When things come to a head, a violent family quarrel ensues and leads to tragedy. A middle-aged spinster recounts the tale to reveal her identity and trace the downfall of the landowning clan trapped in the past.

THE HERO IS UP AGAINST A POWERFUL MATRIARCH WHO WIELDS BOTH POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC, POWER, ENABLING HER TO CONTROL THE WHOLE TOWN.