Insiang

I didn't intend it, but I watched a couple of movies in close proximity that have gotten their DVD releases courtesy of the Criterion Collection. Another of them is Insiang.

The title Insiang refers to a young woman of that name (played by Hilda Koronel). She lives in the slums of Manila with her mother Tonya (Mona Lisa) and Mom's extended family. Mom does the best she can by taking in laundry, while Insiang helps as best she can, although nothing Insiang does ever really seems to satisfy Mom. Even more unsatisfying are the extended family; they seem to be a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings; and Tonya eventually throws them out of the house.

Insiang has a boyfriend in Bebot (Rez Cortez), who has a job as a mechanic that ought to be at least mildly prestigious; and yet, Bebot and his friends spend a lot of their time drinking. This is outside the storefront run by the Karyas family, including son Nanding who hopes to further his education in order to get a better job and possibly get out of the slums. Nanding likes Insiang too, and would like nothing better than to be able to take Insiang out of the slums with him.

Meanwhile, Tonya and Insiang still can't quite support themselves. Since Tonya has an ex-husband who lives god knows where, she decides to take on a live-in boyfriend in the form of Dado (Reel Vernal). What Tonya doesn't know is that Dado doesn't really love her; he loves Insiang. Insiang, unsurprisingly, doesn't love Dado at all. Matters take a turn for the worse when Dado decides he should be able to have sex with Insiang at will, raping her and then blaming her for it.

Insiang gets no help from her mom, and when she tries to look to Bebot for comfort, he takes her to a cheap hotel, has a one-night stand with her, and bolts before she gets up in the morning! Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and Insiang decides she's going to get back at all the people who hurt her, which leads to a shocking conclusion.

Insiang is a fascinating movie, taking a look at a sort of place we'd never get in an American movie, for the fairly obvious reason that we don't have the sort of third-world slum depicted here. The story is quite good, looking for the first two-thirds like an excellent example of cinema verite, before swerving into a universal revenge story.

One thing I found interesting was the technical work. Insiang was released in 1976, and some of the camerawork, especially the way the director used close-ups of characters' faces, gave me the distinct vibe of 1970s US TV shows. One slight negative was the editing; there were several cases where a cut caused the music score to stop abruptly, right in the middle of a theme.

Insiang is part of a box set of several films from the third world selected as part of Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project. Unfortunately, being Criterion, it's quite pricey.