an overdrawn, overwrought piece of cinematic cliches

for the first time in her five decades or more as an actress, nora aunor, the most talented and amply awarded living filipino actress, played against type.

in hustisya (an entry to this year's cinemalaya film festival), the superstar is not your usual underdog who is a victim of oppression or injustice or circumstances. for a change, we are given a nora who is capable of doing the most vicious crime there is (human trafficking, corrupting a priest, bribing government officials), who will fight for her rightful place in the sun even if it means killing somebody.

my most favourite scene in the movie is the one towards the end: showing the bejeweled and well-dressed nora aunor laughing out loud, as though telling everyone, including the government who refused to give her the national artist award that she truly deserves, to go fuck themselves. pardon the french, please. for that scene alone, she rightfully deserves the festival's best actress trophy.

if you think that you have seen all there is to watch about nora aunor essaying all sorts of roles with aplomb, then you are wrong. watch hustisya and brace yourself for a different kind of nora aunor.

a friend is right, nora is indeed the country's best character actress. and i don't mean to demean her stature in the industry, for truly, in the real sense of the words character actress, the superstar indeed embodies every character she tackles in the big screen with so much justice.

in the film, nora aurnor is biring. or biring is nora aunor. it's really hard to tell which one is which given how convincing she played the character of a trusted right hand in a human trafficking syndicate. biring is a childhood friend of vivian (rossana roces), the head of the syndicate. she  does all of vivian's dirty laundry and she knows the ins and outs of the illegal trade.

among her duties include distributing payments to people in the government (politicians, policemen, heads of government agencies) to ensure that their illegal business will run smoothly. she deals with people who want to "buy" young men and women for god knows what purposes. she keeps the records of all these transactions in her notebook, including the names of the people whom they give bribes to and whom they deal with. she is even the one who gives donations to the church on vivian's behalf.

(that is why it's implausible when towards the middle of the film vivian betrayed biring just so she could get away with murdering a philandering, good-for-nothing lover. for how can vivian and her "business" function without biring? this major flaw made the twists and turns in the story hard to swallow. why the need for an escape goat when they "own" the police?)

if it sounds familiar, then it's because it reminded us of the recent janet napoles fiasco (i won't elaborate on this one. i presume that as readers of this intellectual blog, then you must be aware of the recent goings on in the government, in the country, in society, as well as the world. if not, go back to kindergarten, and please stop following this blog. you are better off with fashion police and its kind.)

after she was set up by vivian for a crime she did not commit, biring tried to get back at vivian by giving a journalist (the comebacking erstwhile heartthrob romnick sarmienta, who also produced the movie along with his wife harlene bautista) some documents, including a notebook where she recorded all her transactions, as evidence of vivian's illegal activities.

biring, it seems, subscribes to the saying: don't get mad. get even. and get even she did. and how!!

by the way, before she decided to expose vivian and her illegal trade, biring was shown inside the prison where she was subjected to a lot of physical abuse by an inmate, the supposed leader of the selda. this was where she befriended a lesbian (chynna hortaleza) who was jailed for stealing boxer shorts and watches that she gave to her girlfriend as a gift. she would later play a crucial role in the syndicate's illegal activities.

a young lawyer (rocco nacino), hired by the syndicate, obviously, advised her on how to behave inside the prison so she can get out of its oppressive walls faster than you can say justice.

unknown to her, the shrewd lawyer and his boss (it turned out that vivian also reported to a higher, more powerful boss) have plans for her aside from toughening her up (thus, the physical abuse) while inside the prison and eventually getting her out of the jail house. the boss wanted to get rid of vivian, who has become a liability in the syndicate's operation mainly because of her relationships with the wrong men that have clouded her judgment, and have biring replace her.

left with no other choice, biring eventually agreed to the plans of her lawyer and his boss. she agreed to have vivian killed and took over her post.

in the end, biring has become the new vivian -- rich, influential, powerful -- a far cry from the simple biring whose only motivation for doing her part in the syndicate was to pay back her friend vivian for all the good things that she has done to her and her family. biring has no ambitions of becoming rich and powerful, nor did she ever dream of someday replacing vivian.

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as i have mentioned earlier, nora aunor inhabited her character with gusto. you can really see it in her eyes that she had fun portraying a character that's a far cry from her goody-goody roles in the past.

here, we see a nora aunor who is capable of swearing, of slapping a helpless beggar, agreeing to have her best friend killed and worse, even personally shooting to death a crusading journalist who refused to do what she asked him to do.

nora indeed deserves the best actress award from the cinemalaya festival. i won't be surprised if she wins more trophies here and abroad for this film.

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but while nora's performance surpassed expectations, the movie itself was a big disappointment. it was too overdrawn, too preachy, too long, too elaborate, too overwrought for comfort. a string of cinematic cliches, specially on its social commentaries.

to think that the film was written by one of the country's best scriptwriters, ricky lee, who penned such classics as himala (which also starred nora aurnor), jaguar, kapit sa patalim, bayan ko, brutal, salome. movies that successfully weaved into its narratives the political injustice, poverty, police brutality and other social issues that beset the country.

in hustisya, ricky lee tried to pepper the story with social ills -- the worsening poverty situation, people living on the streets, rising criminality, prostitution, the influence of the united states government in philippine politics, human trafficking, etc. we've seen them all in better and worthy films that tackled these issues with care and more believability. in movies directed by lino brocka, ishmael bernal.

in hustisya, all these issues and noises were just too much that they were already suffocating. instead of helping open our eyes to the reality surrounding us, we want to flee from them and out of the cinema. they are simply too tiring to watch and even to listen to. almost every scene in the movie showed people sleeping/living on the streets, begging, stealing something just to survive, or protesting and denouncing the government. there are vandals writing graffitis on the wall about the continued intervention of the united states in the country's internal affairs, etc, etc.

too much of everything is still too much. in cinema, or in any other forms of art, subtlety is the best policy. but it seems that ricky lee and director joel lamangan, an overrated director in my book, are gunning for the obvious. thus scene after scene, these social commentaries that oftentimes get in the way of the movie's narrative and development are shown and highlighted as if there's no more tomorrow. as if this is the last time that ricky lee and joel lamangan will be doing a movie together.

the film could use some editing. ok lots of trimming. it is as bloated as one its stars, the former sex symbol rossana roces who looks so hefty on the big screen. no offense meant.

a lot of scenes should have been edited. or left out. a lot of underlying stories should have been cut. for example, most of the scenes inside the prison were unnecessary. in fact, the movie would have been better off without them. even the "pa-sosyal" scene showing the real head of the syndicate (it turned out that vivian had to report to a more powerful man in the syndicate), his family and friends watching and enjoying a live musical performance on a garden was totally unnecessary.

lamangan, for his and our sake, should stop trying to be a lino brocka, or an ishmael bernal, or a marilou diaz abaya. he simply does not have what it takes to be a brilliant story teller and director.

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as for the other actors, rossana roces proves that she is still capable of delivering a worthy performance even if she has put on a lot of weight and has aged dramatically since her glory days as the country's biggest and most bankable bold actress. chynna ortaleza is credible as a lesbian who eventually became biring's sidekick. she should be given more meaty roles in the future.

even sunshine dizon, who played biring's daughter, is good. although she is a bit too young to play mother to a teen-age son. sadly, the actor playing his son, while gorgeous, looks like he is already in his late twenty's. he also needs a lot of acting workshops.

rocco nacino, who plays a major role in the film, is miscast. he mistook playing a lawyer with dressing up like a fashion model in every scene. this kid simply does not know how to act. period. lamangan should have given his role to a better, more credible actor like bembol rocco.

as for romnick sarmenta, well it's better for him to stay behind the scenes. he has, unfortunately, lost his shine in front of the camera.

that's all! babush!! sorry for being so mean.