Review of Insiang (1976) by Yuki A — 05 Sep 2009
A Filipino melodrama with great cast in the hand of Lino Brocka. It's a sad story about a girl who is living with her gambling-addicted mother and her boy-toy. A scene that is so heartbreaking not coming from the drama, but when Tonya, the mother, urinating in the bathroom stall (yes, stall) with only thin curtain separating the toilet and the kitchen.
She stops, without a word, she goes quietly to the corner behind Insiang (Hilda Koronel), squats, and Brocka cuts to a shot of Insiang listneing to the hiss of urine, and a shot shifting uncomfortably on her heels, then pours water down the sides of the drain.
Brocka has already shown the hard-life of Tondo slums, but this detail drives home the fact that Filipino do lives in conditions other country barely can imagine--in houses so crude that rooms are partitioned by hanging cloth or curtain, a bathroom is a cement hole, and privacy is an agreement between people not to look at each other while performing basic body functions.
This review of Insiang (1976) was written by Yuki A on 05 Sep 2009.
Insiang has generally received very positive reviews.
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