Metro Manila

Oddly enough then I never got around to watch "Metro Manila" before 6 years after its release. And it turned out that I had actually been missing out on some of the more impressive piece of cinema to make it from the Philippines.

"Metro Manila" is a very realistic and in-your-face piece of action crime drama, with some pretty good character portrayals by the likes of Jake Macapagal (playing Oscar Ramirez) and veteran actor John Arcilla (playing Douglas Ong). It is the kind of movie that you quickly get immersed into the storyline and swept away by its quick pacing and director Sean Ellis's ability to keep the movie flowing and keeping it interesting.

"Metro Manila" has a great combination of action and drama, spiced up with a great character gallery. It is characters that come off as being very realistic and being characters that you can relate to on one or more levels.

The movie does have a major setback though, perhaps a flaw even, and that is that the storyline is very predictable, and I had the movie figured out not even halfway through, and it turned out pretty much as I had thought it would. Of course, I am not going to spoil it here and give the storyline and the 'twists' away. You should watch "Metro Manila" and experience that for yourself.

This movie also depicts a very gritty, albeit realistic image of the metropolis that is the capitol of The Philippines. And yeah, that city definitely has a thriving and ever-growing shady side to it.

I was genuinely entertained with "Metro Manila" from start to end. And even if you have an aversion towards non-English movies, then you really should take the time to sit down and watch the 2013 "Metro Manila" movie, because it is quite worth the effort.

I headed into this film with a glowing recommendation off a mate of mine. And it really delivers as story told where the viewer feels the crushingly powerless plight of the family, specifically the Husband. It also has a wider value in the commentary of urbanization of the modern world and the subsistence farmers being forced into leaving their livelihoods and traditions behind. It could double as a documentary!

It begins with the rice farming family not being able to make ends meet with their harvest for the season. They are forced to leave their home and find a means of feeding their children due to substantially lower prices being paid for their crop.

Upon arriving in Manila, a world away from their accustomed lifestyle, they are fish out of water. The hustle and bustle of city life makes any progress hard for them. Even when it seems progress is being made, corruption and greed stifle it.

Both the husband and wife find ways of making money, although the husband is not fond of the wifes choice...he understands from the desperation that no job is too immoral.

The films takes a couple of turns until its absolutely grandiose finale. And what an extraordinary end it has. I'm a heart of steel kinda guy, but this? This had me teary eyed and fully empathizing with the characters...

Brilliantly done, and I highly recommend it. 9/10

Metro Manila is not a film for everyone. It's an incredibly tough movie to watch at times and your heart really goes out to the leading characters in the movie. However, if you can make it through all the misery, you'll find that the script is amazingly well written and intelligent.

The film begins with Oscar Ramirez receiving only a pittance for their hard work as rice farmers. It's so little that they see they have only one choice—to travel to the big city to look for work. However, this nice family is constantly screwed during the course of the film—to the point where you wonder if it can get any worse. Their rent money is stolen—and they have no food for themselves or their two small children. Out of desperation, the wife gets a degrading job working in a sleazy bar as a 'hostess'—though she's not much better than a prostitute. Then the husband works all day only to be given a couple sandwiches in payment! Now they have no place to live, practically no food and they are desperate. Only when the man gets a job working as an armored car worker do things start to look up for them. Now, they can live in a nicer and safer home and they finally feel happy. But, based on how things have gone so far, I kept expecting the other shoe to fall. And, fall it did---but in such a creative way that it made the film worthwhile. What exactly happens to these poor people? Well I certainly won't spoil it by telling! However, the ending really took me by surprise—and I love to be surprised.

This movie has a lot going for it. A great reason to watch it is to see just how much of the world lives. This film doesn't give a beautiful look at Manila but shows a desperate town where it's more dog eat dog than anything else. How the family tries to hold on is what makes the film truly exciting to watch. But, as I already said, the film is tough viewing at times. It certainly is NOT a feel-good film and it takes a lot of patience and perseverance to see it through to the end. But it IS worth it. It also features some excellent natural acting and it is a well made production and makes me want to see more from these folks.

This film is without doubt a thriller, although the action scenes are kept to a minimum in terms of length (they do remain quite violent).

But what's shocking about it is that it's for most people the first time they're actually going to see or hear about Manila, and in this case they'll be seeing it from the bottom looking up. This film paints a rather dark picture, but a picture worth seeing: the developing world isn't a bed of roses, and things like violence and corruption do make up the everyday lives of its poorer inhabitants.

Therefore, this story is a story of struggle, and is definitively worth seeing, if only to get away from the postcard image that we may have seen of the Philippines.

"Metro Manila" is like two films in one. The first hour was about how Oscar Ramirez (Jake Macapagal), a poor farmer from Banaue, decides to bring his wife Mai (Althea Vega) and kids to Manila so he can find a better job so they can escape their poverty. It turns out that Manila is not really the paradise at all that it is cut out to be, as the Ramirez family continues to wallow in abject squalor. The major portion of this first half of the film are the sad images of the "real" Metro Manila with its polluted environment and overpopulation.

The second half of the film is the main crux of the story. Oscar gets a job as a courier of an armored car service, facing danger daily as they transport safety-deposit boxes containing a lot of money and other valuables. He is partnered with the more senior and jaded guard/driver named Douglas Ong (John Arcilla). Ong overly showers Martinez with kindness and generosity. But Oscar will soon find out later that Ong would have favors of questionable integrity to ask of him. As problems of criminal and ethical nature arise, what would Oscar do next?

Jake Macapagal really disappeared into his role as Oscar. It was like he was not acting in his scenes. We deeply feel his frustration and confusion as a father who desperately wants to provide for his family. Althea Vega tends to have a blank look on her face in some of her scenes, but she is much better here than her lead role in "Amor Y Muerte" earlier this year. John Arcilla was over-the-top in his characterization of Ong, and he really exuded that dangerous vibe about him. The tension was so thick when he is around. Ana Abad Santos made an impact even only with her two short scenes as Ong's wife, Dora.

The main plot is simple, about the corruption of the innocent in the wild jungle of the big city, and the film shows it well. I did like its setting of a security/armored car service, which I found to be novel and interesting. The set-up and revelation of the ending was wonderfully written and executed, very effective and poignant. I was expecting this to have English subtitles since I was interested to see how certain words and phrases would be translated, but there was none where I watched it.

As a resident of Metro Manila, I was very excited to see this film made by a foreigner about the city I live in. But upon watching, I admit I was not very happy at the sordid way Manila was depicted in an international film like this, now on its way to potential Oscar glory. It runs counter to all our efforts done to attract tourists to our country. However, I also know that the montage of unflattering scenes about the streets and slums of Manila is unfortunately true and accurate. It may be an incomplete picture of Metro Manila, yet it remains an undeniable reality. This is what British producer/director/writer/cinematographer Sean Ellis saw when he was in Manila, and we have to accept that.