- I'm no film critic
- This is more of a post-movie meditation than an actual recommendation of the film.
A few days back I was ranting about the news that this movie was getting pulled out of theaters due to the lack of people watching it. I just have a lot of feelings about the Mass Vote and people not appreciating "real art", okay? Haha. It's also probably fueled by the Congratulations You're World-Class Badge theory, which I will explain in another post.
Anyway, after watching it this afternoon, I understood why.
Brillante Mendoza's Ang Sinapupunan, or widely known as Thy Womb, is definitely not MMFF material.
This Inquirer article, linked to me by my friend Roxie, best explains why. The Metro Manila Film Festival is not the place for deep, artsy, serious films like Thy Womb. The people who flock to theaters to spend their Christmas money on spending an hour or so in amusement don't want to watch a quiet, scholarly film about the quest of a woman to find a suitable, fertile partner for her husband out of unconditional love.
Thy Womb is an art film, Mendoza's love letter to the Badjao tribe, plain and simple. It had no place in the majority-driven, Mass Vote-determining MMFF.
To be quite honest, I found that you have to prepare yourself to watch this movie. The pacing was a little slow. The website promised Shaleha's (Nora Aunor) "jealousy gnaw[ing] and consum[ing] her." This, I believe, is false advertising. That only happened near the end of the movie, when they finally met Mersila (Lovi Poe), who was to wed Bangas-An (Bembol Roco).
It was a very calm and realistic affair, a sentiment exhibited in the scene wherein Shaleha, Bangas-An, and the negotiator were waiting for one of the candidates. It took you about three minutes to watch them wait until the next scene arrived, which gave you enough of a glimpse of the long and tormenting wait that Shaleha had to endure. This feature of the movie, with its lack of visible (and physical) conflict and the only truly "exciting" struggle being the sudden and interspersed arrivals of military forces within the villages, was a welcome change compared to all the girl-on-girl fight scenes we see in recent films.
This, I believe, is my first Nora Aunor movie, so I can't say if she was amazing "as always". However, she was amazing, portraying an Everyday Heroine. She wouldn't have stood out, which makes it all the more realistic. However, she conveyed this unspoken melancholy that you really couldn't achieve had there been a lesser actress cast. Watching (or rather not, as my parents were right beside me) her make love to her husband for the last time was painful. She loved this man, and yet she was giving him away for his happiness.
Which reminds me, the story reminded me of Amador Daguio's Igorot short story Wedding Dance, which we read in first year.
I also commend Brillante Mendoza for casting genuinely native-looking, morena actors. That was definitely a must for showing authenticity and for giving your audience something to hold on to and root for, someone closer to them and someone they don't have to change so much physically to be. Unlike some people.
Was it fair for cinemas to pull it out despite it being an MMFF entry? I can't say it's fair. It was, however, understandable.
Would I recommend watching Thy Womb? Well, if you're into that kind of stuff, yes. I'll admit I wasn't. It's definitely for a more mature audience, and that's not just because it's rated R-13.
Thy Womb is a different indie movie from something like, say, Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay or Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (which I still haven't watched either, forgive me) because it doesn't offer the good time that most people seek in going to the MMFF. It calls for an artful appreciation that you can't see in the people who attend something like the MMFF.
In short, Thy Womb doesn't doesn't deserve the MMFF. Rather, the MMFF doesn't deserve something like Thy Womb. At least, not yet.
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