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| Nora Aunor and Phillip Salvador in Bona |
Cast: Nora Aunor, Phillip Salvador, Marissa Delgado, Raquel Monteza, Venchito Galvez, Rustica Carpio, Nanding Josef, Spanky Manikan. Screenplay: Cenen Ramones. Cinematography: Conrado Baltazar. Art direction: Joey Luna. Film editing: Augusto Salvador. Music: Max Jocson, Lutgardo Labad.
Nora Aunor, who was a superstar in the Philippines, gives a fine performance in the title role of Bona, Lino Brocka's portrait of toxic masculinity. Hanging out on the fringes of a location shoot for an action movie, Bona develops a crush on Gardo (Phillip Salvador), a good-looking bit player who has aspirations to stardom. Gardo notices her and starts letting her run errands for him, but when she neglects her duties in her large working class household, her irascible father (Venchito Galvez), beats her with his belt. Bona moves into Gardo's shack in the Manila slums, serving as his housekeeper. He's a drunk and a layabout with a succession of girlfriends, but he's not as given to violence as Bona's father -- or, as we will see, her older brother. Their relationship gradually disintegrates until, expelled from her family and threatened with abandonment by Gardo, Bona finally takes revenge. It's a solid domestic melodrama given bite and purpose by Brocka's characteristic attention to the actuality of life on the fringes of Philippine society.
