Blinding Hopes ends in Bitter Life
   What would you do? What would you do if you just woke up one morning, and you felt light and satisfied. You make ends meet and you do a small but honorable work. After a long tiring day, you get to rest. Normally, people would be drained after doing so much work, but you, you’re different. Even after you spent all day in the sea, looking for fish in the scorching sun, you still looked the same as you woke up earlier. You’re still happy. Then you notice a movement from far away. You notice that slight change in the scenery even if it was just a dot from the window of your kubo. Ah, yes, it’s her. Your happiness. Ligaya Paraiso. The love of your life. Everyday seems worth it because of her. As you talk with her, as you exchange your days with her, you seem to forget how tiring your day or your days to come really is. But of course you know the reason, it’s because of her. Just her is enough. Then one day, that changed. Ligaya is destined to leave you. She wishes for a life that’s more than what your life could now offer. She wants to go to the city where she hopes to make that life come true possible. Manila. You refused to be parted with her. Not her. Not your only reason for happiness. But what would you do, if she asked you to sacrifice a little, for both of you? You trust her and let her go. As you do the same routine everyday, you get tired eventually, but the thought of her still keeps you hanging. But one day, you find out she was missing. Not your happiness, Not her. What would you do? Is that obvious? You go to the city where hope lives. You go to the city where your happiness is. You go to Manila. But after arriving, you realized this is no city of hope. This city, it takes hope but it doesn’t make it come true. This city only takes. However, you stay, because it’s not hope you’re looking here. It’s your happiness. You? What would you do? That’s the bugging question of the film, Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag always asks its viewers. How far can you go if you were in the place of Julio Madiaga, the protagonist of the film.
      Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag is a pretty-straightforward film. From the start, you already know it’s a bleak film. From the Black and White shots of Manila to the colored transition of Julio Madiaga’s entrance shot. The Film’s message was already at the first few minutes of the film and was consistent all throughout its runtime.Â
      Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag was a film based on the novel by Edgardo M. Reyes which is Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag. However, Lino Brocka, helmed the adaptation of this film during the Marcos Regime. The referential message of this film is that Julio Madiaga went to Maynila, searching for his love, Ligaya, during the oppression of Martial Law. It was evident by showing scenes of rallies and the consistent misconduct or abuse that the Police do during this time according to the characters of the film.Â
      The film’s premise is simple. A fisherman came to Manila looking for a job. But as the film progresses, this man really came to Manila looking for the love of his life, Ligaya. Later on, he witnessed different tragedies that fall on the people he met. And as we discover later on, that same tragedy befalls him and makes him do a thing that he never imagined he would do. He killed someone. The film’s explicit message was simple, even though what hardships you may endured, someday, a tragedy will just struck you senselessly. Because life is just that cruel. No matter what you’ve done, no matter what good you did, it doesn’t matter.Â
      Underlying the surface message, there is a lot of symbolism in this film. Julio Madiaga is the symbol of every hardworking Filipino there. True, Honest, and Honorable. For his lover, Ligaya Paraiso, is literally the persona of the Philippines, our country. The film is literally portraying every Filipino trying to save their motherland from the hands of foreigners. The foreigners are obviously the deceitful Mrs. Cruz and Ah tek, which ultimately kills our homeland. However, besides them, Manila itself is a character, showing its dark and ugly side for the people that doesn’t matter, for the oppressed and poor people of the Philippines. Because, Manila might shine a little hope, but ultimately deceives them by giving them unjustified and cruel fate. The implicit meaning of the film is that every Filipino who wishes to hope, or save their country will only be living in despair as it continues to cling onto the false hope given by Manila, which is now dominated by countless foreigners.
   The film says from the get-go that if you must survive in the big city, you must have money. And money could only be gained from hard work and a job. That’s what Julio believed and that’s why he entered the construction site, but as he entered there, he discovered that people like him are doomed because people like their boss always abuse them and pay them less than what he should actually pay them. So no matter how you work hard, as long as there’s people taking advantage of you, your life will stay the same. Then he met Bobby, a sex worker that introduced him to the jobs of callboy and the like. Bobby said to Julio that money is easy, as long as you do whatever it takes, even though you have to do things you’re not going to be proud of. Julio tried to do that, which he gained a lot of money. But after, he felt it’s not right for him, even if he will get used to it. Then finally, he met Ligaya, who became a prostitute against her will. He learned that she somehow survived due to the payment she received from Ah Tek, who’s a wealthy chinese-filipino. But when she tried to escape from Ah Tek’s hands, she was killed but of course, because of the money, justice was not given to her. Money is what keeps the oppressive foreigners and abusive employers ahead of everyone while regretful sex workers manages to get by because of this. However, for honest and true men like Julio, money is the reason why they are continuously suffering. More money is great because to have more money is to have more power. The symptomatic meaning of the film is that Capitalism is in the way of honest good people.Â
    Overall, the film is compact and straightforward. The film takes our hero, Julio Madiaga as he finds his missing lover, Ligaya Paraiso. However, what he found in Manila wasn’t just his love but also Manila’s true face and it’s cruel fate. As he goes on this journey, he turns into something he would not have imagined, but it was not fast, it was slow, and the Film portrays that naturally.Â
     Every Filipino character shown in this film has different situations. From Ben’s singing persona but lonely life, from Atong’s friendly nature to his tragic familial situation and to Bobby’s luxurious life but life filled with compromised decisions. Every character here has their own battles and conflict, and they all coincided with the main theme of the film. Even the events that will soon happen to them are predictable. Even though their lives are on the constraints of the film, their conflict, struggle and situations are still real and happening right now, and this film was made almost 40 years ago. So in terms of realism, yes, the film was realistic.Â
      As Julio arrived in Manila, he discovered life was not the same as it was in the province. He thought it was simple but now, it’s riddled with complications. He discovered that thinking through Bobby as he entered the red light district part of Manila. Even though Bobby was a prostitute, he only needed to do that not because he liked it but to live the life he wanted. There are also hints that Manila changes you. This was shown when Julio stopped a robber and beat him up relentlessly. He then became surprised at what he had done and ran in disbelief. Apparently, this scene was also a set-up to the apparent metamorphosis of Julio Madiaga in the end. So for the morality of this film, it shows that there isn’t always a black and white look at life, and that our morals, when faced with insurmountable hardships continuously, could change in a whim.Â
       When Julio assisted Atong to his home, they encountered a girl with a skimpy and bright red outfit. It seems that the implication the film is giving is that the girl they passed through was a prostitute. This continued when Julio returned to the quarters of the construction workers, for the people he was with were lining up on the prostitute at their premises. The prostitution activity in this film is frequent and consistent, as it shows to Bobby, to Perla’s immediate job and the real fate of Ligaya. Not only that but the tragic element was the same, as it happened to Ben, Atong, Perla and finally, Julio. The way it consistently used these motifs through the film was good and organic. These scenes weaved naturally into the plot and made the messages of the film more strong as the runtime went. In terms of Coherence, this film had a strong one as they repeated motifs and changed their context as the next scene plays out.
     As said before, Julio discovered that some things aren’t just the way they are due to the thinking and decisions that people made from the film. It showed that people are not just simple, they are complex. They want to do things they want, but they are hindered from this because the conflict and the situation they’re in. They just can’t do what they want in the world of this film. If they wanted to, they would have done it already but in order to do so, they have to make sacrifices and compromises. So in things of complexity, the film was complex enough but easy to understand. Â
      This film was adapted from the novel of Edgardo M. Reyes. However, adapting that novel in that time was pretty much changing. It was not afraid to show the real situation of the Philippines during the reign of Marcos. Of how Filipinos suffered due to the current living conditions at the time, and how police acted when money is presented at them. It showed the ugly truth of the Philippines through Manila in this film. It’s even regarded as one if not the best Philippine Film. So in hindsight, it’s pretty much an original film at the time. Â
      Upon watching this film, I know only the novel. I read the novel when I was in Grade 9. And I’ve done reading it in one night and was very impressed by how it ended. I did not know that Filipinos can produce some tragic and contemporary fictional novels. And because of that, when I knew I’ll get to watch this, I was excited. Upon watching the film, I’ve really admired how it was shot, how the actors delivered their characters and how the story was organic on the screen. The framing and the cinematography of the film was top-notch at the time, using wonderful and mundane establishing shots along. Not many films do this, even at this current time, so I was very impressed by the shots achieved in the film. In the acting, I was surprised by how Bembol Roco was the protagonist here, and he was so young but how he portrayed the naive Julio Madiaga slowly turning into madness was subtle and effective. But for me, the ones who stole the show were Lou Salvador Jr. as Atong and Tommy Abuel as Pol, they portrayed as the real kind-hearted friend of Julio that has been jaded because of the events that shook their own lives. Lastly, the story was greatly adapted from paper to screen, on how they visualized the streets created by Edgardo M. Reyes. However, they made it more nuanced by adding the bit of Bobby the callboy, they showed another layer of Julio here by delving into the life of a prostitute. It allowed him to understand the lives of people who made decisions that were not their initial intentions but were forced to. And then the general theme and message of the film. I liked the overall hopelessness of this film. Of how hopeless life in the big city is because it’s still pretty much resonant this time. It’s really scary that what’s happening back then is still evident now which means mostly that nothing has changed. Either that or we’re returning in the dark times again. That means the film is more relevant now. So it begs the question, what would happen to us if we experienced the same events that Julio did? What would happen if all the things we worked for ends up not working in the end? What would happen if the person we loved most, ends up dying for no reason? What would happen to us? Will we turn mad? Or will we compromise and move on? What would you do if you had a slimmer gleam of hope that turns out to be false? As the film ends, these questions seem to remain to viewers, a haunting series of thoughts that might define who we are for the rest of our lives. However, as people like us and Julio come and goes, Manila stays the same. It always offers hope that one day we might reach or that in the end, one that will ultimately destroy us. So, you, what fate awaits you in the city of hope, Manila? What would you do to achieve it? Would you sacrifice your morals to achieve it? Or would you stay strong to preserve who you are? You, what would you do?
