QCINEMA 2017: Review of BALANGIGA: HOWLING WILDERNESS: Artistic but Appalling

October 23, 2017

Mainstream audiences like their films to tell stories to be diverting and entertaining. Indie films are a way for more adventurous filmmakers to go beyond those traditionally-desired constraints in order to explore darker stories using daring visuals which may not sit well with its audience. I have seen quite a number of local indie films already over the years, and I thought I could take anything an indie director throws at me. And then along comes a film like "Balangiga."

This film was set in the year 1901, in US-occupied Samar province. In retaliation for an armed uprising by the villagers of Balangiga, the Americans launched a merciless mass killing that reduced the whole Samar into an island of death and despair. Escaping from Balangiga after his father was killed in a massacre, 10-year old boy Kulas and his grandfather (Pio del Rio), along with their trusty carabao Melchora. 

In order to avoid Americans controlling the town of Borongan, they needed to traverse three mountains and seven rivers in order to reach Quinapundan, where Kulas' mother was staying with relatives. Along the way, they passed another massacred village and picked up a toddler, whom Kulas called Bola, who miraculously survived the carnage. When the grandfather was overcome with exhaustion, the two little boys had to fend for themselves.

This is an art-house film to the max as executed by its director Khavn (who claimed in the credits that this film was not by him) and his cinematographer Albert Banzon.  Khvan employed various innovative camera angles and image-distorting techniques to further drive the "modern art" treatment of his historical subject. He also played around a lot with bright blues and bright reds. 

It had very strange, esoteric and provocative imagery that shout "Art!" but the rationale for these scenes can be questionable. I can maybe sense that the recurring image of giant bird made of Christmas party junk which spoke a Southern drawl could be a symbol of the American Eagle. But what about that truly unsettling scene of an obscene roadside "preacher"? What about those disturbing scenes of animals being abused, like a goat being molested, or a poor piglet impaled alive, pitifully wailing and exsanguinating, or a chicken whose head was being slowly severed?

There was admittedly a certain charm about using children to drive a story across about senseless violence. The film starts with whimsical images like a flying carabao as dreamt by Kulas. However, as these dreams of Kulas become weirder the longer they are on their trek, so will the images we see become more and more bizarre as the film progressed -- from stylish midgets to flying fireballs to walking church bells. 

As Kulas, the scrappy Justin Samson (who looked younger than 10) did a lot of stuff that most adults would not have the strength or the nerve to do. He had to climb tall trees, lift heavy-looking loads, pick mint leaves out of a pot of "boiling" water, eat various seemingly dirty half-cooked rootcrops and meat, hack off animal heads and shoot a rifle at someone. His most discomfiting scene of all was when he had to go inside the disemboweled carcass of an animal, reminiscent of Leonardo deCaprio's similar scene in "The Revenant" (except that this one is probably a real carabao carcass, and not a fake prop).  

As Bola, Warren Tuano was impressively well-behaved for a child his age. He even had one particularly well-shot scene where he was crying and calling out to Kulas in full dramatic mode. Tuano must have been no older than two years old because he does not seem to talk yet. His first scene had him completely blackened up, sitting among "dead" people with fires burning around them. Then there was another dangerous-looking scene where he had to toddle down a slope to go to a pond. 

This film may receive critical acclaim for its undeniable artistic merits. However, as a parent, I found the film truly upsetting and even appalling, especially when I imagine how harrowing an experience the shooting this film may have been to those child actors. Samson and Tuano had precarious-looking scenes amidst tall grasses and trees, in the dirty pools of water, in the mud and in the rain. I only have to trust that the health (both physical and mental) and safety of these children were taken seriously into consideration by the director while shooting this film in the name of art.  4/10.