Himala

I remember watching this film 2 times when I was younger. Each time I watched it, I picked up different meanings. Once when I was in high school for curiosity's sake, I learned about the history of Philippine cinema, the significance and the impact of this film, but was too young to understand anything from it. Once when I was in college for a paper that I was working on, it was the time when I stopped going to church. It taught me about how blind faith fucks people up. And now, I just recently watched the musical with the same title and story. Now that I am older, I can see that the reason why they hold on to this blind faith is that they are trying to hold on to this sliver of hope even if it is impossible. After all, hope is stronger than fear. What is another level fucked up is how they abuse Elsa when she is of use, then discard her right away after her "purpose". The only sane person in this film is Nimia, which says a lot. It's a timeless classic—a must-watch.