Birdshot

The film about the life of a young woman from rural area of the Philippines. She lives with her father who wants to prepare her for adulthood and teach her to be self sufficient. The world turns out to be far more complicated and dangerous than she can imagine at her age. Her actions will eventually draw the attention of local authorities. She and her father appear as victims of a police force whose priorities are at odds with the interests of the community. Rather than spelling out every detail, a subtle symbolism carried the events along as we are allowed, for the most part, to draw our own conclusions.

The corruption and arbitrarieness besides the lack of care for ethic and moral values shown in this film about the procedures carried out by the Filipino police must be a wake up call for the Government of this country to make amendments because of the image this movie projects to the World. The script is good, original, well structured and with a nice imagery as well as its unexpected ending to close paralell stories

I don't think I watched alot of movies from the Philippines, it's not a country I would immediately associate with good movies but actually this one wasn't bad. Okay the plot has some flaws and issues but overal the story is entertaining. Maybe a bit slow and not fully developed but there is a level of suspense on what actually happened. The acting was better than I thought it would be, not that I understand Filipino (even though there are alot of Spanish and English words in that language), but they looked genuine and believable. Nice cinematography, okay actors, and an entertaining story that could have had a better development.

Birdshot is a story of small-town politics, policing and a girl coming of age.

Most people wouldn't know that the film was set around late 80s to early 90s because of the evident lack of technology. However, one can also not notice it because of the countryside (provincial) setting. The film undecidedly wants to identify as a pseudo political and social commentary flick to a youth's struggle. Despite that every scene fills a part of a whole and eventually ends predictably.

It was long ago that I started watching this and got halfway through. Now viewing it again from the start, I do see it merits and how I should watch more Filipino films. It could have ended with a more subtle and stronger final scene but predictably found itself just uncovering most who have guessed early in the film.

With all the obvious flaws in this film, it is not really bad, it's watchable and it's way better than mainstream Filipino films. Filipino films are rotten but Birdshot can't be considered rotten, I give it 5/10.

The actor who portrays Maya needs more acting workshop. She is pretty but her acting skills is not really good.

The Philippine police is portrayed here in a mild way, the Philippine police in reality is worse than how it is portrayed in the film. The Philippine police now is very rotten, corrupt, and could not be trusted. Killers, police are.