FILIPINO FILM: Sean Ellis' 'Metro Manila': The Evolution of the Innocent Pinoy from Victim to Player

By Cora Llamas
Published in Interaksyon Lifestyle Website, August 27 2013

irst, let me start this piece with a disclaimer.  This is not a film review, and as such it will not discuss or evaluate the artistic merits of the film such as the direction, production design, editing, cinematography, sound and the other technical aspects that make or break a great film.  Otherwise, it would have ended in the Entertainment section of this Web site where my respected peers are more qualified to write a bona fide movie review.

Rather, call this piece a film reflection of the lifestyle—meaning the attitude, paradigms and behavior—of the protagonists in the drama that mirrors perhaps an aspect of our own, which we wrestle with every day although not in so grand or dramatic a scale, fortunately.  In that sense, a discussion, and not necessarily a critique, of  the performances, story line, and thematics of the film is called for.

And be warned, spoilers are unavoidable.

Portrait of the city
‘Metro Manila,’ another searing portrayal of the underbelly of the nation’s capital as seen through the eyes of an innocent provinciano and his family, will open in theaters on October 5.  It has already won critical raves and the Audience Award in the World Cinema-Dramatic category of the prestigious Sundance Film Festival early part of this year.  Filipino actors speak Tagalog within the film that takes us from the fields of Banaue to the slums, nightclubs, and vaults of the titular city.  English subtitles make the journey more comprehensible for the foreign audience.  But what makes the film remarkable is that it was conceptualized, produced, and helmed by British director Sean Ellis who found the initial beginnings of the story when he became witness to an actual robbery while taking a trip in Metro Manila.

According to some of the earlier write-ups that emerged preceding the premiere of the film last month, Ellis originally wrote the movie in English – and had the cast members themselves translate the dialogue into Tagalog.  If true, that approach pretty much explains why the onscreen English translation flashed on the screen captured the essence of the Tagalog words spoken by the cast (or should it be vice-versa?).  Unlike many of its counterparts, the translation was happily far from translatese.

Perhaps it is the British perspective, but the old haunts that we are used to suddenly appear in a different light, without losing their familiarity.  Metro Manila echoes films like Lino Brocka’s classic Maynila:  Sa Kuko ng Liwang where the innocent soul is uprooted from his provincial roots to find his fate in the Big Bad City. This stranger-in-a-strange-land tales rarely end in happiness; tragedy is often the aftermath, adding another victim to those who had already been killed by injustice, poverty, corruption and the other social sins you can think of.

The challenges and travails of living in the city is depicted in ‘Metro Manila.’ In photo are actors Jake Macapagal, Althea Vega, and Erin Panlilio. Photo courtesy of Captiva Cinema Distribution.

What makes Metro Manila different is that the poor Filipino, in this case farmer-turned-security-guard Oscar Ramirez (Jake Macapagal) does not accept his fate blindly but rages against the dying of the light in order to protect his family. He does it as a Pinoy caught in the same situation would.  There are no unrealistic heroic protestations and no fighting-against-the-windmills campaigns.  In fact, the film shows that another honest victim did – and failed, agonizingly; as a consequence, like the executions of leaders in Imperial Rome, his entire family suffers without his protection.

Going against type
Oscar does not do any grand gestures, except understandably try to slug his mentor, Ong (John Arcilla) who was seducing him slowly into the dark side.  Ramirez knows the odds are against him and his family.  His wife Mai reluctantly dances in a bar, and their 9-year-old daughter is being eyed by the Mama-san for her customers “with special needs.”  Oscar himself was lured into becoming a pawn by Ong in his machinations to get back against the system while earning retirement money for himself through the largess of their rich clients’ entrusted funds.  Once Oscar finds out the truth, Ong gives him only two horrific choices:  Play along and get a cut of the big bucks, or be implicated and you and your family will be thrown in jail.

Scene from ‘Metro Manila.’ Photo courtesy of Captiva Cinema Distribution.

Three-fourths into the film, Oscar and his family appear as the usual archetype in any Pinoy film of this genre:  the naïve scapegoat who must join the system or sacrifice his life.  Oscar does make a huge sacrifice – but it buys his family their freedom.  And whether or not he intended to, he actually becomes the master of his own destiny, up to the last moments.  The twist of the film – and hard-pressed for anyone to see it coming – has Oscar taking his life back from the system.  Forget the pity party or the Pinoy as the proverbial victim – this provinciano becomes the ultimate player.

And Oscar pulls it off  in character as the ‘typical Pinoy’:  scared, numb, desperate, praying throughout while always keeping his family in mind.

What makes this triumph glorious is recognizing the battles that Oscar and his family had to fight to keep themselves and their sanity intact.  The honest, hardworking but poor Ramirezes are noble to the core – which gets the audience on their side while making them easy prey for more treacherous wolves.  Homeless, penniless, they would strain to do the right thing even if it hurts.  If the first reaction is always the honest one, then Mai’s spontaneous plea to Oscar to return money that was  not his is just one example of the couple’s moral core.  Or take their little 9-year-old girl who, without thinking of the consequences to herself, rescues a stray kitten that is being beaten by bullies.

All too noble, true—and yet until the final pay-off, you wonder how long this family will last, or what form their tragic bloody end would take.

The film also does a splendid job of pitting one homegrown Filipino value against another, without preaching from a soap box.  The couple’s regular utterance of their belief in the Almighty to see them through during the tough times can appear to be a bedrock of strength in one scene, and a defeatist statement in another.  Oscar constantly weighs his desire to do what is right versus the debt he feels (‘utang na loob’) he owes Ong, his older brother-teacher-tempter.  The choices are agonizing, and to the Pinoy psyche, does not appear to be automatically cut-and-dried although the morality as the couple sees them is portrayed as black-and-white.

Ultimately, and not surprisingly, the one value that prevailed was the love for family, probably the one value  that characterizes the Filipino.  Family above principle, family above the temptation to succumb to what you know is wrong, family over personal survival.

Scene from ‘Metro Manila.’ Photo courtesy of Captiva Cinema Distribution.

The ending is far from Pollyanish.  The last words of Oscar say it all—and I paraphrase:  “We won not because we believed in dreams, but because we knew there was no way out.”

TURNING POINT (FILM): Jake Macapagal of 'Metro Manila:' From struggling theater actor to international film artist

By Cora Llamas
Published in Interaksyon Lifestyle October 4 2013

“Everybody has a piece of the sky.  I will find a niche in my country.”

Pinoy theater performer Romano “Jake” Macapagal wrote that vow in a journal while working in a foreign country in the late 1990’s. More than a decade later, he just might be on the verge of living it, as the associate producer of the Tagalog-language but British-produced-and-directed movie, Metro Manila, which has  recently been served by the United Kingdom as their nominee for the Oscar Award’s foreign language category.

Macapagal’s choice back then was not one that many of his counterparts would have understood.  After five years touring in productions like “Miss Saigon” and “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” he had already earned his permanent residence status in Germany.  He would enjoy the benefits of his equivalent of  a green card for three more years. While it was true that meaty roles on the stage for Asian actors were not always forthcoming, he still could—and did—have access to do other kinds of employment while in-between roles. The jobs were legal and brought food on the table and a roof over his head; and while a working actor’s life in his adopted country was not exactly luxurious, it was not penurious either, at least not by Philippine standards.

But the lean and 5’9 tall actor wanted more and came home to Metro Manila to start his professional life all over again.  The accolades of foreign audiences and the listing of the now legendary “Miss Saigon” in his resume were lost to casting directors who were looking at dozens of  new and younger performers for their teleseryes and reality shows.  Macapagal did the usual casting calls and networking with former colleagues but reality soon bit.  “I was gone for 13 years … I gave up the TV thing,” he reminisces.

That struggle to climb out of anonymity, make a decent living, and find his place in a sun is probably what makes all the more authentic and poignant his rendition of the protagonist Oscar in Metro Manila, the above-mentioned film directed by Briton Sean Ellis. Oscar is the provinciano who finds himself in dire straits once he lands a job in a security agency, and without compromising his decency and nobility of heart, fights  back to protect his family.  One can argue that even a struggling actor like Macapagal may still live a much more comfortable life than his cinematic counterpart, but the parallels are striking and do create a strong empathic connection between the two.

Lean times
Macapagal admits that during the first months of his homecoming, he had to save up and content himself with supporting TV roles like the main star’s lawyer or doctor friend.  During the lean moments, he also had to take on odd jobs that only a few would admit doing.  He names one during the interview, and perhaps it is only the triumph of the moment that allows him to say it with a bit of amusement.  “During those years, a friend of mine asked me if I wanted to dance in a shower party for the ladies,” he looks back.  “It was decent…there was no nudity…but still…maybe I can say this to encourage others who are struggling the way I used to,” he finishes the sentence with a wry smile.

He did find a small cozy corner in the artistic world by choosing to become a dramatic arts instructor or theater arts workshop facilitator.  But even then, the consummate professional in him wanted to better in the craft.  Despite the financial struggle, he invested in his own education by studying again the fundamentals of acting in the Sydney-based National Institute of Dramatic Arts in 2010.  The five to six months spent in the alma mater of Aussie acting luminaries like Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush and the late Heath Ledger were an eye-opener.

“Nag-ipon ako para makapag-aral,” Macapagal continues the narration of his journey.  “I was no longer impressionable.  [Doing the theater workshop] was what I wanted to do.”  He basically learned the Western cinema’s way of acting for the screen, the techniques that would communicate passion and emotion without giving way to unnecessary melodrama.

Jake Macapagal with (from left) Rachel MacWatt of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), ‘Metro Manila’ director Sean Ellis, and composer Robin Foster during a Q and A session after the film’s preview screening at Cornerhouse in Manchester, England. Photo courtesy of Jake Macapagal.

Perhaps it was the skills as well as the artistic zeitgeist learned in Sydney that led him to his current big break, just a few months after he had finished the course. Ellis was in town and looking for a casting director who would help him cast locals for his film which was set in the titular National Capital Region; while the script was initially written in English, it would be translated into Tagalog.  Celine Lopez arranged an introduction between Ellis and Macapagal who was already conducting theater workshops for the broadcasting company.

Macapagal had read the script and was more than willing to look for the thespians who would fill out the roles.  He had counted himself out of the protagonist part because of his age and appearance.  “I was willing to help, but I’m not 30 years old any more, and I don’t look like a security guard,” he grins.  But in that fateful lunch, both Lopez and Ellis were sizing him up—for his potential  both as a casting director and as Oscar.

After some time, Ellis finally made him the offer, “Are you willing to make the journey with me?”

New journey
That journey would start with opening his black book containing the names of his fellow artists.  He would also use Facebook posts to alert his friends; many theater stalwarts like John Arcilla, Ana Abad Santos, and JM Rodriguez clinched major roles.

The next step would entail a month of shooting, 15 days in Banaue and another 15 days in the slums of Metro Manila.  His continuing assistance through post-production would eventually led to his appointment as “Metro Manila’s” associate producer – culminating in screenings in the Sundance Film Festival where the movie won the World Cinematic Dramatic Award in January of this year, right through to promotional tours in the United Kingdom only a couple of months ago.

Along with the movie, Macapagal’s performance in “Metro Manila” had gained the attention of many international film reviewers. Trevor Johnson in “Time Out” had called him “stellar,” and Jennifer Tate of “ViewLondon” had remarked that his portrayal of the embattled Oscar was “impressive.”

“I would be lying if I say that I am not excited or hopeful about the film’s chances in the Oscar,” Macapagal says.

A major studio had already bought the rights of the film to make it into a franchise, recreating the script and the cast of characters in other cities such as Detroit and New Delhi.

“The film is culture-specific but its themes are universal – they are about family, love and sacrifice,” Macapagal points out.  “When I saw it again on the big screen [in the UK], I was crying…I was transported back to my country…where people find it hard to plan the future because they have to survive every day.”   He adds that one particular scene that moved the foreign audiences so much was the intimate shower scene between Oscar and his wife Maya [newcomer Althea Vega], where the two discover their humanity and dignity again as they take a bath for the first time in a long time, something that is so precious to them but which the more affluent Westerners take for granted.

International  talent agencies have also come knocking on his door, offering him scripts to read as an actor—or helping them out as the local casting director for films they would make in Asia.

“This is the life that I’m dreaming of: telling this foreign casting director that I’m an Asian but I don’t do martial arts,” he beams about negating the stereotype.

Still, the memory  of those struggling years keeps him grounded.  Regardless of the doors that Metro Manila opens, he plans to take a Master’s in Fine Arts degree and continue his career in education.

“It’s working hard that gives you the opportunity,” he says.  “I’d have to give credit to all the work that I accepted—it’s how I landed this.”

• Metro Manila opens in Philippine theaters on October 9, Wednesday.