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| Bembol Roco in Manila in the Claws of Light |
The title, Manila in the Claws of Light (in which "Light" is sometimes translated as "Neon"), is enigmatic. But there's nothing enigmatic about this straightforwardly harrowing look at the working class in the Marcos-era Philippines. The protagonist, Julio (Bembol Roco), has left his village, where he was a fisherman, to search for his girlfriend, Ligaya (Hilda Koronel), who was lured away to Manila with other girls by a woman who called herself "Mrs. Cruz" and promised good factory jobs and schooling. When we first meet Julio, he's scrounging for work at construction sites, having been robbed of the money he brought with him to the city. The other workmen help Julio survive after he collapses from hunger on the first day, and their friendship and solidarity in the face of the bosses who routinely cheat them of their full pay help get him on his feet. In his spare time, he continues his search for Ligaya, having learned that she's been lured into prostitution and is now the mistress of Ah Tek, who runs an import-export business. Julio stakes out Ah Tek's business in Manila's Chinatown, hoping for a glimpse of Ligaya. Meanwhile, he endures unemployment with the help of his friends, and survives a bad period by working briefly in a male brothel. His eventual reunion with Ligaya is brief and tragic. The film provides a fascinating look at the underworld of a city that could stand for almost any other metropolis, and director Lino Brocka keeps it moving with a well-paced alternation between desperation and recovery until the shattering end. The cast is uniformly fine, and the realistic view of the city keeps the story from tilting into melodrama.
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