Manila Film Difficulty Ranking: 4
If you’re looking for a dark portrayal of life in Manila, you’ve come to the right place. In Manila there’s social problems, political corruption, and injustice hidden behind the tropes of the Hollywood noir genre. You’ll meet a few characters of the city, but the focus is always on the city of Manila and its sounds, sights, and life.
From: Philippines, Asia
Watch: Trailer, Amazon Prime, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: From What is Before, Miles Ahead, Manila by Night
Why Watch Manila?
- Experience the streets of Manila at night.
- It’s two films in one.
- For a throwback to the classic Hollywood noir film.
- Meet a diverse range of characters.
The Breakdown
Manila opens with the feel of a classic Hollywood noir film. The first thing you notice is the black and white contrast of the night time streets of Manila on the 16mm black and white film. The city looks dark and bleary, lit up only by car lights and street lamps, just as you’d expect to see in a classic Hollywood Noir. Secondly, the opening is dialogue free; the only things you hear are the sounds from the streets and the free flowing, echoing jazz music on the soundtrack. The lack of dialogue forces us to listen for any narrative clues in the city, bringing us into the film to follow our curiosity, just like a noir film.
The sound is crucial in the film’s opening. All the sounds of life are amplified: footsteps, water gushing from a tap, a bouncing basketball, cars, and the sounds of the sea. In contrast, there is no dialogue in the opening and little dialogue between the characters after the opening. The auditory focus is quite clearly on the sounds of the city instead of the speech of individual characters. Similarly, visually, the multiple shots of the opening show us a diverse range of the city at night time: people sleeping by their shops, cars driving along a highway, a couple flagging down a rickshaw. These images, like the sounds, focus on city life instead of individual characters. As a result we a forced to see and hear the city before we know anything about the characters.
It is only once we have experienced the city of Manila that the director introduces us to some of the characters of the first half of the film, but even then, like another hour out to Hollywood noir, we never get a full picture of their background. There is a junkie who has dropped out from school and his mother who seems to be a traditional devout Christian. However, neither character is that simplistic. The film hints that the mother was a former prostitute and her son was a decent student and band member but neither back story is explored. With both characters, the director intentionally leaves us with more questions than answers to force us to question their motivations and address the social issues of drug addiction and prostitution it touches upon. This is replicated in part two with the son of the politician and his bodyguard to encourage us to question corruption and injustice.
What to Watch Next
The first place to turn after watching Raya Martin is to check out his fellow contemporary Filipino experimental filmmaker: Lav Diaz. Check out his From What is Before or Melancholia for 4hr plus introductions to him. Although be warned, these films are not for those with short attention spans. They are long and slow moving.
Secondly, step into the past to check out the film’s which inspired Manila. Lino Brocka’s Jaguar and Ishmael Bernal’s Manila by Night.
Last, but not least, I recommend pairing Manila with the Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead. Unlike traditional biographical films, Miles Ahead is a semi-fictional film inspired by Miles Davis’s music. His free form jazz inspires a free form narrative with explosions of energy. Similarly, the free echoing jazz melody in Manila complements the free flowing life in the city. It’s another film where the music guides the film (rather than the film guiding the music).
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