TWO OF THE tried-and-tested formulas in getting an audience hooked to a film is either leaving them guessing right to the very end of the movie, or building up the scenes to a dramatic ending. In "Halaw (Ways of the Sea),"adjudged the best film of Cinemalaya 2010, audiences are wont to believe that director Sheron Dayoc was aiming for one of those techniques. But in the end, despite the the element of suspense, it becomes clear that the film is merely trying to capture the burden of dirt-poor islanders who are willing to illegally cross the border to Malaysia just so they can put three square meals on the family table.
Breakthrough young star Arnalyn Ismael plays a young girl longing to see her mother in Sabah.
The casting for Halaw could not have been better: a mixture of film veterans and a pool of non-actors, and you reach an equilibrium. One of only two professional actors in the film, John Arcilla plays the character of Hernand, a mischievous pimp who tricks young women into crossing the Malaysian border in exchange for jobs - that means, sex slaves. Another actor, Ma. Isabel Lopez, is Mercedes – a long-time sex worker who goes back and forth to Mindanao luring prospective sex slaves into taking the risky journey to Sabah. Among the newbies there’s the character of Jahid who hopped along - together with nine-year-old daughter Daying - not for money but to retrieve his wife, who is a victim of white slavery in the Malaysian island.
John Arcilla plays the character of Hernand, who entices the women of Sulu into joining him on a boat ride out of the country for jobs abroad.
Also thrown into the bunch is a distrusted female trader forced to flee her neighborhood, and a young lady blinded by the sparkles of Mercedes' jewel into joining her in Sabah. Voila! Hernand's band of stowaways is complete, ready to sail into the trap of prostitution. Unaware of the fate that awaits them in the country's neighboring shores, the smuggled travelers embark on a gloomy and rough journey in the Sulu Sea. The trip is wracked by betrayals, the weariness in the characters' eyes growing heavier as they sail away. Arcilla and Lopez deliver the goods, offering stability and credibility to the story. Meanwhile, the non-actors offered a genuine feel of the people of Jolo's real-life struggles to make ends meet in one of the most impoverished places in the Philippines.
Ma. Isabel Lopez plays Mercedes, a sex worker traveling back and forth to Mindanao to convince young women to join her in Sabah.
The imagery that Dayoc conjured for his film - with all the color, texture, and composition - was like a mood fountain spewing out the right emotion for each scene. "DSLR (Digital Single Lens-Reflex) camera ang ginamit namin," Dayoc proudly announces after a screening in UP Diliman. He was answering a question about the unusually stylized texture that was especially noticeable in the shots where the subject pops out clearly from a blurry background. In one of the most striking visuals of the film, highlighted by moonbeams piercing through the pitch-black vastness of the Sulu Sea, the team braves the waves toward Malaysian shores with only the motor pump and Hernand's hushed voice cutting through the silence inside the boat. "
Walang magsisindi ng lighter. Walang mag-iingay. Walang tatayo. Yuko kaagad 'pag tinamaan ng ilaw," he sternly warned in the vernacular as they approached land.
As the stowaways illegally set foot in Sabah, the audience holds its breath and prepares for what lies beneath the borders - what they have been waiting for all those two hours. But then the screen blacks out. There is only darkness, then scuffling sounds. A couple of gunshots are heard, a blaring siren, and finally, panicked screams. And then, thud, the film ends. That’s when you realize that the director did not intend to dwell on the life of the characters after they reach Malaysia. Instead, he wanted to highlight the trip itself. Realizing this, the viewer wishes the script could have been further improved, the execution more polished. The film may have intended to chronicle the plight of Mindanao residents searching for greener pastures, but overall, it fails to convince the audience that every living soul aboard the boat was anguished, uncertain, or even scared during the sojourn.
Halaw attempted to build up the story to a climax that never came. It was a journey that never reached its destination. Some might argue that the thrill is usually in the ride, but sadly, that didn't apply in this case. In the end, whether you are captivated by the film's visual appeal or haunted by the heart-thumping drumbeat of multi-ethnic Mindanao, or simply disappointed by the unfulfilling ending, what comes to mind is the expression "Whatever floats your boat." -
YA, GMANews.TV Photo credits: Facebook page of Halaw
'Cinemalaya 6 Goes UP' Halaw and other entries to the Cinemalaya Festival 2010 are having special screenings at the University of the Philippines in Diliman from July 20 to 30.
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