Moral

This movie features flawed women at the center of its narrative; a whore, an eccentric, a liberated mother, and a poet who fell into the role of a traditional housewife. The story initially tries to make it seem that these women are one-dimensional characters, that this “trait” is what defines them, but in truth these women go far and beyond the box.  The film opened with a woman stating patriarchal values—preaching the gospel of the lord, all the while a woman, undoubtedly her friend, chastises her for being a hypocrite. I love watching films from previous decades, usually because it shows me how far we’ve come as a society, but not this movie. It made me realize how much more progressive Filipino movies were compared now, albeit being made almost 50 years ago. It paints the picture of taboo subjects that filmmakers were usually afraid to touch on that time—women’s issues, frustrations, and life beyond men, homosexuality, abortion, etc. I also love how it concluded, how their stories differed, how women don’t have linear paths, and how women can keep their whimsy no matter what life throws at them. There was a brief scene in this movie where there was a woman selling cigarettes and stuff, she looked like my deceased grandmother. It made me think of her and the premise of this film, it made me realize how she never got to live her own life and explore what it is to be a woman. She didn’t even have the privilege to go to school, the only thing she knows how to write is her name, she can only read grocery lists, and count change to give to those who buy from the sari-sari store. Her whole life had been about taking care of children that weren’t her own, tending to a house that was not hers, following orders from someone else. This realization made me emotional because i used to always attribute myself to her, my mom always compared me to her as an insult and to spite me, and even though i admired her for her strength, i came to the conclusion that i did not want to be like her. So this movie is for her, for Soledad.