Stars: Nora Aunor, Bembol Roco, Lovi Poe, Mercedes Cabral
What I Liked
Arresting cinematography, Exposition of Badjao culture
What I Disliked
Aimless narration, Shifty change of dialogue from local dialect to Tagalog reminiscent of shitty Mano Po films, some jerky camera work here and there
Gist
Beautiful but flawed, Thy Womb is a showcase of culture more than a proper drama.
Shaleha (Aunor) and her husband Bangas-An (Roco) lives in poverty among the various Tawi-Tawi islands south of the Philippines. Being infertile, she wasn't able to give her husband a child and the couple had resorted to adopting various children, which were taken from them when the child has grown older. The only solution it seems is for Bangas-An to marry a second wife (permitted by the Islamic laws) who could bear them children. As the couple set out to find a woman for Bangas-An to marry, we are given glimpses of everyday life in the poverty-stricken Tawi-Tawi islands.
Thy Womb, before making its way to the crapola known as the MMDA Christmas Capitalism Film Festival, was invited in several international film festivals--and won. Its validity as a movie is now put to question by the films it would be competing against in the said filmfest. That said, life is sad and that I hope more films like "Thy Womb" would be shown in this god-awful filmfest in the following years. Rant over.
Upon seeing the film, you would immediately notice that Mendoza took his time on the cinematography. Jerky camera work aside, which I tend to attribute to the fact that this was shot mostly at the sea, Thy Womb shows arresting pictures of the Badjao community's everyday life. Scenes like the two whale sharks flanking their boat and the turtles laying eggs, depict the simple joys the Badjao encounter in their sea-settled life. Mendoza was also generous in peppering his film with depictions of the rich Badjao culture and tradition--something that gives further credence to the film and adds more to its narrative beauty. It's easy to fall in love with Mendoza's depicition of Badjao life and culture, a work that Nat Geo would be envious of.
What I have a problem with is how Mendoza chose to narrate this film. As it is, the story is thin and it's made thinner by the seemingly aimless narration jumping one dragging event to another when beautiful cinematography is not in play. For most of its running time, it's one cut scene after another and that the characters were never allowed to fully interact with each other. There was no tension between the couple (which is perhaps a reflection of how submissive Badjao women are to their husbands) throughout the whole movie, and if there was any, it was buried under the sands of the deep blue Mindanao sea. Mendoza then goes building the conflict for an hour, surprises the audience with a twist: a chance for tension, conflict, intensity, then BAM, Mendoza finishes the film quietly. What a fuckin' disappointment. And while the final scenes were the cinematic high of this film, a crushing look at the protagonist who brought a tragedy to herself, it was too quiet for my liking.
Thing is: 1. It was never revealed explicitly if Bangas-An revealed to Shaleha the twist to this arrangement. 2. The sex scene does not explicitly reveal the answer to number one. Maybe Shaleha was crying because she is giving her husband a woman who can take her husband away, or maybe she is crying because she finally got fucked after like 40 years, or maybe the twist was revealed to her. Maybe I am reading too much into this, but the last scenes were too important for Mendoza to execute them in that manner if there was no follow up to those scenes. It just doesn't fulfill completely that way.
A pet peeve of mine is how Tagalog found itself in Tawi-Tawi, a secluded Philippine island near Sabah, Malaysia. I may not be an expert in Anthropology but I don't believe people there would be fluent in Tagalog or would even choose to speak it when speaking to one another. For crying out loud, Cebu, a highly modernized city, has people in it that doesn't speak Tagalog. How could an island secluded from the rest of the Tagalog speakers with barely any TV in it have people walking around speaking and understanding Tagalog and opting to speak it more than their local dialect? What this made me think was that Shaleha and her husband are migrants to Tawi-Tawi because they are running away from the stressful city life of Manila. But no, they are apparently natives. I mean, come on, people, if you are gonna make a movie like such, with subtitles anyway, don't be lazy and study and use the local dialect throughout, since you're out making a real feel movie anyway. Don't do it the Mano Po way because that's just sloppy filmmaking.
Judgment: Can't recommend it for its rather flimsy storytelling but will recommend it for culture-savvy folks in search of beautiful cinematography and depiction of beautiful culture. 3.4 out of 5.
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