Insiang

(1976) Insiang (In Filipino with English subtitles) DRAMA/ SOCIAL COMMENTARY

Hilda Koronel plays the title character Insiang as we see how she is being exploited while living in the impoverished part of the Philippines. Who lives with her self-centered single mother, Tonya who slaves after her without giving her a proper paycheck. The mom, Tonya (Mona Lisa) then kicks her father's side of the family so that she can allow her lover, Dado (Ruel Vernal) closer to her (who is young enough to be her son). Except that Dado obviously has ulterior motives which is to make out with her daughter Insiang. And besides that, her love life is kind of complicated in which she hopes her current boyfriend, Bebot (Rez Cortez) cares enough to want to elope with her, but as it turns out the only thing he wanted to do was to get into her pants.

I kind of liked it more after my second viewing, as I tried to look for a plot, except that living in the slums itself is also part of the plot. I did not care for how Insiang forgave her mother after not believing her when she told her about Dado's advances. I don't quite understand how a mother who does not believe her own child that she forgave her for not believing her.

Squalor, grime, and poverty are all palpable in this gritty film from Lino Brocka, which centers around a young woman (Hilda Koronel) who is mentally abused by her mother (Mona Lisa), and physically abused by her mother's lover (Ruel Vernal). It feels as though we're immersed in a slum the entire movie, and none of its scenes ever feel like they're on a set (they may not have been). We feel the utter lack of privacy in the home in this little shanty town, with its squat toilet in the living space, and the daughter forced to see and hear her mother with her lover. In the town we see men behaving badly by getting drunk, groping women, and frittering their time away in the pool hall or gambling. There is a sense of these characters having few options, with high unemployment in the town, and for those who do have menial jobs, having to get by on meager wages. This was contrary to the image the Marcos regime was trying to push of the Philippines, and it's not surprising the film was banned.

Aside from the realistic window the film gives into the poverty of the masses while Imelda Marcos was out buying all those shoes, it's also the queen mother of stories where the rape victim isn't believed - in this case by her own mother. In another sad moment her boyfriend (Rez Cortez) takes advantage of her in a cheap hotel room, all while the audience is thinking, good lord, she needs love and kindness, not sex. Where the film goes from there I won't spoil, except to say it's as satisfying as it is depressing.

Oh, last note. I don't really care if the extended slaughterhouse scene before the credits rolled was meant to set the tone for the cruel world we're about to see, or if it was a metaphor for the Philippines under Marcos - it was brutal and unnecessary to see. As a vegetarian a small part of me likes people confronted with the facts of these cruel places, but to see it in this context and for so long was a very unpleasant surprise, and really turned my stomach. You can certainly skip over all of this if you need to.

A strong, well written story, perfect casting and performances, clever staging and pacing make for a powerful love story, set in the slums of Manila. Insiang (Hilda Koronel) is tormented by an embittered mother (Mona Lisa), barely able to contain her anger at the husband who abandoned her for another woman and left behind their daughter to abuse and belittle. Tensions explode when Mom takes in a much younger lover (Ruel Vernal), who bides his time, ogling Insiang. Her boyfriends (Rez Cortez and Marlon Ramirez) are too young, too weak and too poor to do much for her, but the person who loves her most is eventually revealed.

Forget the rest! Hilda Koronel's magnificent performance as the title character is enough to recommend this tale of rape and revenge, seduction and squalor, power and poverty. Hilda lives in a slum in Manila, maltreated by her domineering mother (Mona Lisa). Her mother has a lover (Ruel Vernal) old enough to be her son. Vernal, doing the lover bit because Lisa holds the household money, has his eyes set on Insiang. He rapes her but Insiang turns things around, getting Vernal to be her parasitic paramour. Great film noir, great performances.

Lino Brocka's 1976 melodrama of slum family love double-crosses was the first Filipino film to be shown at Cannes and is being revived at festivals. It deserves to be seen for the female actors, mother Tonia (Mona Lisa, credible as an aging lady who's still highly sexed and attractive) and gorgeous daughter Insiang (pronounced "Inshang"). Hilda Koronel, who plays Insiang, is enough like a Loren or a Lollobrigida to make you think of Fifties or Sixties Italian cinema and the visual style is conventionally of an early period, but this brutal story lacks the humanity and warmth of the Italians. Tonia drives a family of in-laws out of her shack (which is in with other families; in this barrio there is no privacy and all is known) because she can't feed them, but her ulterior motive is to bring in Dado, a handsome, macho man and a gambling no-good probably young enough to be her son, as her lover. Insiang has several young men interested in her, but the one she chooses is too cowardly and lazy to run away with her as she would like. Soon Dado puts the make on Insiang. It turns out badly for just about everyone in this miserablist drama, which has been compared to Fassbinder and Sirk. It's been commented that the story undercuts the two major values in Filipino film – motherhood and the sanctity of the family. Brocka certainly keeps things lively, as do popular dramatic films from other Third World countries, and telenovelas. Yes, this holds the attention; but unfortunately the print used for the NYFF 2006 showing was an ugly-looking digital transfer that made all the boys look pimply and the shots look shoddy. Only Koronel's face shines through.