Metro Manila

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

An independently produced from both the countries, Phillipines and United Kingdom which was selected to represent Britain at the 2013 Oscars. This crime-thriller is about a family's struggle and involvement in a crime affair. From the director of 'Cashback' another excellent and a different movie. When the movie 'Where God Left His Shoes' meets 'Armored', the 'Metro Manila' forms. But in a better way in every minute detail. With the beautiful dialogues and the performances the story makes you wonder how long it can drag. The value of sacrifice for the sake of the family's survive strikes with the unexpected twist.

A farmer family who failed to harvest in large quantity gets a little value for what they got in the hands. The savings are not enough to invest for the next season. So the whole family, father, mother and two children decide to travel to the capital city to earn money. They struggle to get a place to stay in the threatening Manila city where it is crowded, polluted and illegal activities are soaring high. Being a farmer family, they are the easiest target to get cheated. Both the parents get a decent job till they come to know the reason behind their recruitment. And what comes after is the family's only chance to put a full stop for all the struggles for once.

''You have more chances of seeing an alien than winning the lotto.''

You know what impressed me in this movie, the reality. Everything I saw was like a documentary movie till the last quarter. In the last few minutes I realized that I am watching a movie. That is only because of the awesome twist and turn to end the story on a high note. From beginning to the end the narration was precisely defined about the life in Manila city, especially in the category of below poverty line. The honest was convinced me and so the great end with a line: I too want to save my family, but my plan was never based on a dream. One of the best dramas based on the innocent family. It won't try to convince you with the family sentiments, but stays true and unveils the brutality of the metro city which apply same proportion for any other metros in the world. A rare gem and won't be wrong to say it is a must see.

"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.

METRO MANILA is as much a heartbreaking drama of trying to make it in the big city as it is a crime thriller, probably even more so. Sean Ellis, who directed, wrote, produced and did the cinematography has crafted an excellent story that, while a little too familiar in some respects, is still powerfully acted and beautifully shot. In fact, the visual authenticity is what gripped me the most. Having been to the Philippines a couple of times, I felt like these were locations that I had seen before (even though I hadn't been to the ones specifically used for the film). There are dozens of shots capturing all of the various aspects of life in Manila, from the squalor of the slums to the bright lights of the Metro area. Everything is shown, and nothing is held back. The cinematographic choices also lend a degree of realism to the drama of the story.

As far as acting is concerned, everyone did a good job as far as I could tell, although some line readings did seem to be a little off. In particular, the actors who played Oscar Ramirez and Douglas Ong stood out. The story the film tells is quite a familiar one, although the execution and setting is what make it seem fresh. Basically, Oscar moves his family from the rice terraces of Banaue to Manila, in hopes that they will be able to make a better living. Oscar gets a job as an armored car driver, while his wife Mai takes a job at a hostess bar (similar to juice bars in South Korea). While there, both are confronted with the harsh realities of city life and are forced to make difficult choices for themselves. Seeing some of the things that they, Mai in particular, have to go through was painful to watch at times, but it helped in making these people easy to sympathize with. Generally, the story doesn't take too many surprising turns, but the way in which it ends was definitely emotionally satisfying.

As far as the action is concerned, while the film seems to be billed as a crime thriller, this isn't entirely accurate. Yes, crime is a part of the overall narrative, but at its heart the film is a family drama. This might disappoint people going in hoping for a shoot-em-up, but this film is more thought-provoking than it is riveting in an action-film sense. Trying to escape poverty is one of the film's biggest themes, and the way in which this was portrayed is, in my opinion, what sets it apart from other movies like it. Overall, I thought that the film was well-made, well-acted, well-shot, etc., even if the story wasn't the most original. Fans of foreign and Filipino cinema should definitely check this out, and I would also recommend it to anyone willing to give it a chance.

Saying that this film could potentially be the best Filipino film ever made is a big statement, perhaps an overstatement, but I think it is. However, there are some things I would like to get off my chest and say that some things in the movie could have been better.

It has been a while since I've seen a Filipino act so good. With this, I wish to extend Jake Macapagal my deepest congratulations. His acting was precise and right on the money and I do not think that there was anyone who could have played the role better.

I don't exactly know what was wrong with the dialogs but perhaps because the original script was written in English and was later on translated to Filipino, that it became apparent that it brought about cultural-linguistic misalignments which made many lines sound fundamentally imprecise. To those who cannot understand spoken Filipino and would only need to rely on subtitles to understand the dialogs, the acting can appear fine. But for those who understand the native language, some actings can appear painfully bad.

Althea Vega was frigid most of the time but there was nothing that she could do worse than when she delivered iconoclastic lines. John Arcilla is a great actor by any measure but how his acting turned out to be unusually tense is a big wonder. He could have simmered his excitement quite a bit and he would have played the role with much more convincing realism.

Of all the actors in the film, only two managed to give life to their lines without unnecessarily giving an underacting or an overacting. Only Jake Macapagal and Miles Canapi, the madamme who played Charlie, were the only two worthy of praise. But everyone deserves to be congratulated, nonetheless. However, I find it quite strange because all the scripts, I believe, were written or translated by the same person. And yet some of the actors gave outstanding performances and some of them gave poor ones. I guess it is safe to say that talent can get the best out of the actors even if the lines are fundamentally flawed.

Many people have noticed that the film painted the capital in a rather unsightly way. I understand that in order to get a good story across, the plot has to tread somewhere in the territories of exaggeration. But believe me, the depiction of Metro Manila as a dirty city with ruthless inhabitants who always acted on their animalistic selfish behavior is chillingly accurate. What is more surprising is that it was written by a foreigner who has not lived in the Philippines for very long and who many consider could not give an accurate account of the locality. But his impressions or observations were excruciatingly accurate which no one can attempt to dispute.

Watching the entire film was exhausting not because it was dull or boring but because the misfortunes of the family always make you wish they could finally catch a break at some point. And when you think that nothing could be worse, along comes another. Imagine yourself in the shoes of those persons in real life and it would give you a whole new sense to the meaning of the word 'living'. I wonder what people in the First World countries feel about their First World problems after watching this.

This movie is so tense, I had to watch it in staggered sessions because I could not handle the suspense. The anticipation was so unbearable that I always jumped off my seat several times.

I grew up in Manila and I have seen it transformed. I have been to all those locations that were shown in the movie but nothing could have prepared me for what I would see in this film. If ever there was a family in Manila that goes through what this family had been through, I wouldn't want to know about it. Honestly, it now gives me second thoughts about getting out of the house when I would be visiting there in the future. Not because I am scared of the place but because I wouldn't want to meet anyone that could remind me of the sad fate of the family in this movie. In a way, I admit that I am affected and I must say that if a film can create such an impact to the viewers, I believe the story teller has achieved his purpose.

While I may not give this film 10 stars due to some dialog flaws, I believe it is the best Filipino film ever made. Only that it really was not made by a Filipino per se but by a British film maker who was trying to make a non-English foreign film. Regardless, I am still glad that someone has done something which many Filipinos can relate to. Yes, it is unfortunate that it would take a foreigner to make the best Filipino film but just like the overall tone of the film, it is sad but true.