Metro Manila (film)
{{Use British English|date=April 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}}
{{Short description|2013 British crime drama film}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Metro Manila
| image = Metro Manila Poster.jpg
| alt = A silhouette of Oscar, in his security guard's uniform, with the face of his wife, Mai, and the skyline of Metro Manila behind him. The film's title "Metro Manila" and its tagline "Desperate men take desperate measures" are also shown.
| caption =
| director = Sean Ellis
| producer = Mathilde Charpentier
Sean Ellis
| writer = Sean Ellis
Frank E. Flowers
| starring = Jake Macapagal
Althea Vega
John Arcilla
| music = Robin Foster
| cinematography = Sean Ellis
| editing = Richard Mettler
| studio = Chocolate Frog Films
| distributor = Independent Entertainment
| released = {{Film date|df=y|2013|1|20|Sundance|2013|9|20|United Kingdom}}
| runtime = 114 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = Filipino
English
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Metro Manila is a 2013 Tagalog-language British crime drama film directed by Sean Ellis. Set in the Philippines, it focuses on a rice farmer relocating his family to the country's metropolitan capital in search of a better life. Ellis also co-produced and co-wrote the film.{{cite web |title=RSA Films |url=http://www.rsafilms.com/news/news/metro-manila |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055842/http://www.rsafilms.com/news/news/metro-manila |archivedate=21 September 2013 |website=RSA Films |df=dmy-all}} The film was selected as the British entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards,{{cite web |last=Kemp |first=Stuart |date=19 September 2013 |title=Oscars: U.K. Picks 'Metro Manila' as Foreign Language Nomination |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-uk-picks-metro-manila-632337 |accessdate=2013-09-19 |work=The Hollywood Reporter}} but was not nominated.
Plot
Oscar Ramirez, a rice farmer from Banaue, Ifugao Province,{{Efn|Erroneously referred to as Banaue Province}} relocates to Metro Manila with his family in hopes of obtaining a better life after his rice crops are no longer profitable. While searching for a job, Oscar is offered a low-cost room to rent but this is a scam as the next day, his family is evicted by the police from the building for squatting. The family moves into a vacant shanty house in the slums of Tondo, which is rife with criminal activity, while Oscar secures a job as a security officer for Manila Armored Couriers after the other guards discover his military background.
On Oscar's first day and night at work with his partner Ong, the two exchange stories. Ong lost his previous partner in a failed robbery six months prior; Oscar once worked at a silk factory with Alfred Santos, who was forced into armed robbery on a passenger airline, after losing his father and his family's silk factory to a rival company, to which he felt responsible for failing to stand up with his colleague, who ultimately perished after jumping off the plane.
Concerned about Oscar residing in Tondo, Ong offers Oscar a spare apartment unit in Makati for his family. Meanwhile, Mai lands a job as a bar hostess at a nightclub in Makati. While undergoing the mandatory physical checkup, she finds out she is pregnant. When she fails to make her drink quota and her pregnancy gets more evident, her boss proposes to have nine-year-old Angel work for special clients.
During a routine job, after delivering their handouts to a rapper who is also a drug dealer, the duo have a tense discussion about corruption. When Ong pulls over ostensibly for a toilet break, Oscar suddenly sees a black Honda Civic, who had been stalking them on the first day, pull over with a group of men heading toward Ong's direction. Concerned, he exits the armored van and follows the gang on foot to save Ong, only to discover that they are in cahoots with Ong.
Ong tells Oscar that he took one of the security boxes with him after the failed robbery, and is plotting with the gang to have the box opened by staging a robbery and having himself "debriefed" in the company's processing center while Oscar makes an imprint of the key in another room for use in unlocking the box himself. He also blackmails Oscar into participating, threatening to frame him as the man who hid the security box in the apartment under their own name. The plan goes wrong as Ong realizes that the man in front of him is not part of the gang but the man who escaped when his former partner was killed; the man promptly kills Ong and Oscar is given the grievous task of "postman", who must deliver Ong's personal effects and severance pay to his wife Dora.
Upon learning that Ong's wife is aware of the security box, Oscar races back home and finds it under the floor. He and Mai face the dilemma of what to do with the box as she tells him it was a mistake for them to move to the city. One night after a delivery job, Oscar sneaks into the processing center and takes an imprint of the key while stealing another; he is quickly caught on security camera and fatally shot. Misled by the key Oscar stole, the company rushes armed men to the address of the drug dealer client while JJ, Oscar's new partner, becomes the "postman" to deliver Oscar's personal effects to Mai. She notices a locket that Oscar stole from a shop earlier that morning; upon opening it, she discovers a clay imprint of the key to the security box. After getting the key duplicated, she leaves the city with her children by bus, with a rucksack full of money between her feet. The final events of the movie are narrated by Oscar.
Cast
{{Cast listing|
- Jake Macapagal as Oscar Ramirez
- Althea Vega as Mai Ramirez
- John Arcilla as Douglas Ong
- Erin Panlilio as Angel Ramirez
- Iasha Aceio as Baby Ramirez
- Moises Mag Isa as Buddha
- Angelina Kanapi as Charlie
- JM Rodriguez as Alfred Santos
- Ana Abad Santos as Dora Ong
- Reuben Uy as JJ
- Ann Estrada as Bridget
- Gabs Santos as Pino
- Leon Miguel as White-eyed Man
}}
Production
Director Sean Ellis took inspiration from his first trip to the Philippines when he witnessed two armoured truck drivers arguing with each other.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/16/metro-manila-sean-ellis |title=Metro Manila's Sean Ellis: 'You don't need to know what an actor is saying' |author=Wise, Damon |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2013-09-16 |accessdate=2016-05-10}}
The film was shot on location in the Philippines in 2011 with a Filipino cast and crew members. The script was written in English, but Ellis encouraged the cast to interpret their lines in Filipino. Ellis used a Canon EOS 5D DSLR camera to capture the footage.
The story of Alfred Santos is based on the Philippine Airlines Flight 812 hijacking on 25 May 2000.{{cite news |date=2000-05-26 |title=Philippine Hijacker Found Buried In Mud |work=CNN |url=http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0005/26/i_wn.05.html |accessdate=2018-11-16}}
Release
Metro Manila had its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival{{cite web |date=2013-02-20 |title=Metro Manila |url=http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/13049/metro_manila |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140325185846/http://filmguide.sundance.org/film/13049/metro_manila |archive-date=25 March 2014 |accessdate=2014-09-21 |website=Sundance.org}} on 20 January 2013. In the UK, it was released on 20 September 2013,{{cite news |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Amber |title=Thriller in Manila |url=https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2013-09-11-sean-ellis-interview-about-metro-manila-feature-story-by-amber-wilkinson |access-date=26 April 2023 |work=Eye for Film UK |date=2013-09-11}} while it had its Philippine premiere on 9 October 2013.{{cite news |title=Philippine experience inspired British director Sean Ellis to make 'Metro Manila' |url=https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/artandculture/329470/philippine-experience-inspired-british-director-sean-ellis-to-make-metro-manila/story/ |access-date=26 April 2023 |work=GMA News |date=October 4, 2013}}
The film was re-released with special screenings to raise money for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda that had hit the Philippines and killed close to 6000 people. Ellis said: "The people of the Philippines were tremendously supportive during the making of Metro Manila, and it's only right that we should now use the film to raise money to help the victims of this terrible disaster."{{cite news |last1=Lo |first1=Ricardo F. |title=Why Pomeranz loves the Philippines so much |url=https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/the-philippine-star/20131128/282604555635260 |access-date=26 April 2023 |work=The Philippine Star |date=2013-11-28}}
Critical reception
{{RT data|prose|Infusing thriller tropes with a searing glimpse of modern-day corruption, Metro Manila is just as gripping as any action blockbuster — and twice as thought-provoking.}}{{cite Rotten Tomatoes |title=Metro Manila |type=m |id=metro_manila |accessdate={{RT data|accessdate}}}}{{RT data|edit}} {{MC film|65|11}}{{cite Metacritic |id=metro-manila |type=movie |title=Metro Manila |accessdate=2024-10-09}}
After winning the Film Critic Award at the 2013 Filmfest Hamburg, the jury said of the film: "The themes of our times are what define this film: rural exodus and impoverishment, exploitation and poverty in the Moloch of overcrowded metropolises. Director Sean Ellis filmed this story in a language that is foreign to him - and yet still always manages to hit the right tone. He is emotional, yet never impassioned; poetic, yet never tawdry; raw without any hint of cynicism. A social drama that becomes a thriller, breathless and unstoppable. 'Metro Manila' deserves to be seen by many. This film belongs in the cinema. ..."{{cite web |date=2013-09-25 |title=Hamburg Film Critic Award |url=http://www.filmfesthamburg.de/en/presse/2013/2013.10.05_Preise.php |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150403092954/http://www.filmfesthamburg.de/en/presse/2013/2013.10.05_Preise.php |archivedate=3 April 2015 |accessdate=2014-09-21 |website=Filmfest Hamburg |df=dmy-all}}
Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar listed the film as one of his personal favorite films of 2013.{{cite web|url=http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/pedro-almodovars-top-12-films-of-2013-includes-blue-is-warmest-color-mud-act-of-killing-more-20131211|title=Pedro Almodovar's Top 12 Films Of 2013 Includes 'Blue Is Warmest Color,' 'Mud,' 'Act Of Killing'& More|date=11 December 2013|accessdate=11 December 2013|work=Indiewire|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131214025706/http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/pedro-almodovars-top-12-films-of-2013-includes-blue-is-warmest-color-mud-act-of-killing-more-20131211|archive-date=14 December 2013|url-status=dead}}
Accolades
At the 2013 British Independent Film Awards, Metro Manila was nominated in five categories and won awards for Achievement in Production, Best Director and Best British Independent Film.{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/dec/08/metro-manila-british-independent-film-awards |title=Metro Manila named British independent film of the year |newspaper=The Guardian |date=2013-08-12 |accessdate=2014-09-21}}
{{Anchor|Awards}}
See also
Notes
{{Notelist}}
References
{{reflist|2}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=1845838|title=Metro Manila}}
- {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
{{BIFA BestBritishFilm}}
{{British submissions for the Academy Award}}
{{Sean Ellis}}
Category:2013 crime drama films
Category:British crime drama films
Category:British independent films
Category:Filipino-language films
Category:Films about aviation accidents or incidents
Category:Films about prostitution in the Philippines
Category:Films directed by Sean Ellis
Category:Films set in Metro Manila
Category:Films shot in Metro Manila
Category:British pregnancy films
Category:Films about squatting