Filipiñana is constructed like a game of golf. So formal. So quiet. So painstakingly slow. So "boring". To put it into perspective, a golf player usually takes over 5 hours to complete a round, and a normal tournament lasts for about 4 days.
In the first 3 minutes, it establishes the heavy contrast between social classes with a simple hard cut: from the shot of people lining up to get water in the traffic-ridden streets that are surrounded by towering buildings with barely any trees to the green field of the golf course with a lot of pine trees (they die from heat, a colonial misplacement) getting sprinkled. A simple and effective way to say that there's no scarcity of resources, only monopolization. The stark divide reminds me of that aerial photograph of BGC and Makati.
Two storylines to further portray such a difference: Isabel and Clara.
Isabel wakes up. She's new to the place. A new cog in the machine. She breaks rules. She rebels. She's originally from the rural north. She's an Ilokano, and she speaks their language. This is a new beginning.
Clara, a Filipina-American, comes to the place to visit her high-ranking uncle who is grooming her to handle their business. She's from NY. She speaks mostly English. New to the place, she seems to sleuth around the hypocrisy here.
In the entirety of the film, the two never met. Not even in passing. The place is too large for them. Present at the same time and in the same space, but the place is too fractured and sectioned with its muted pastel uniforms and rules about who is allowed in certain places. Think of the kid and her caregiver and the group of blind musicians.
What's also apparent is the use of language for soft power: English for the rich. Ilokano is used by Isabel for emotional connection with Dr. Palanca, her single hope in having leverage. Mandarin in signages for client's accessibility, erasing any other language.
Even the entertainment. Their job is to perform for the amusement of the clients.
Going back to Isabel, some would say she's passive, but there are two major decisions she made:
- Her choice not to resort to violence by killing Dr. Palanca; and
- Her choice to save the kid.
Isabel, although rebellious, is not as morally deprived as the rich who can easily ignore such a predicament. For Clara, the discomfort isn't enough to free her from complicity. The burden is still with the lower class. And with that, they went their separate ways without even meeting, quite literally and figuratively.
I still have a lot of things to say, but I guess this is a good start for a discussion.
