Movie review: Bayang Magiliw is a missed opportunity

"Bayang Magiliw", the latest film by Gil Portes, is being sold as a satire on the fables and foibles surrounding reproductive health in the Philippines. Timely as this may sound in theory, having seen the film, I regret to report that labelling this film a satire would be something of a misnomer – the cleverest thing about “Bayang Magiliw” is its title. Simply put, the film is never as slyly comic or, conversely, as uproariously farcical as it could have been. Set in the fictitious town of Magiliw in Quezon Province, “Bayang Magiliw” tells the story of Mayor Filemon "Fil" Almazan, whose word is law and whose stance against family planning is well-known. What isn’t as well-known is Almazan’s predilection to womanize, which has resulted in 13 illegitimate children, three of whom he has adopted and chosen to raise with his wife (Sue Prado). When Almazan’s 14th child is born to a beauty queen runner-up (Princess Manzon) after a night of alcohol (and one truly atrocious pick-up line), the mother chooses to abandon the child on the doorstep of the wealthy Tiongsons (Jackie Lou Blanco and Lloyd Samartino). In the space of a few hours, the couple’s daughter, Catherine (Giselle Tongi), a tax attorney visiting from Manila, decides that she wants to raise the baby on her own. This draws the ire of Almazan, who, having learned the parentage of the child, wants the baby for himself. What follows is a series of repetitive sequences where Almazan abuses his municipal powers to do something underhanded to the Tiongson family, followed by Samartino’s character telling Catherine she has to give up the baby, only to be stubbornly told that she will fight to keep the child. Meanwhile, Catherine has taken the pro bono case (and cause) of Dr. Emil Magsino (Arnold Reyes), who is himself in trouble with Mayor Almazan for spearheading the drive for Magiliw’s women’s right to manage their own reproductive affairs. While it goes without saying that Catherine and Emil will fall in love (and have twins!), the slipshod manner in which this happens (during the epilogue) is so clumsily handled that it becomes inconsequential. Also thrown in for no apparent reason is an irreverent narrator whose presence is forgotten once the story, such as it is, gets going. Of course, “gets going” is relative, as the film never really picks up any narrative or emotional momentum to really keep the audience interested in anything happening onscreen. Even Tony Mabesa as a narcoleptic man of the cloth or the much talked-about sequence of Wendell Ramos running through the town naked failed to get laughs at the screening I attended. From a technical perspective, the film is competent, though aside from the narrator’s claims that this is the most densely populated town outside of Manila (complete with initial sequences of Almazan’s motorcade negotiating its way through throngs of people (that disappear as the film progresses), Magiliw looks like pretty much any other small provincial town in the Philippines. With a stronger story, this “ordinariness” would have worked to apply the fable unilaterally. Without it, it just makes the film look, well, generic. Just when things look like they might be getting interesting, the film just ends, but not before letting a minor character deliver a heavy-handed speech about one’s life choices to a crowd of mostly-bored extras who only come alive long enough to clap their hands and cheer on cue. That the film fails is truly unfortunate, given the relevance of the issues being discussed and taking into account the pedigree of its creators, to say nothing of the impressive cast they have assembled. Under better circumstances (i.e., if it were a better film), I would have been proud to call “Bayang Magiliw” a daring piece of local filmmaking that was worthy of its R16 rating and sure to spark debate on social issues. As it stands, the bravest thing about “Bayang Magiliw” is the creators’ decision to have released it at all and, while I wholeheartedly respect their resolve, that doesn’t mean I have to like what came of it. — BM, GMA News Mikhail Lecaros is a professional magazine editor and freelance writer. The views expressed in this article are solely his own.