March 14, 2025
Kosko (Allen Dizon) and his daughter Arya (Christine Mary Demaisip) lived on the northern part of Gigantes Islands, in the municipality of Carles, province of Iloilo. Kosko's wife had left them behind to go work in Japan, where she already had another family. Like his neighbors, Kosko made a living free diving into the sea to gather scallops to sell to the market. Arya joins him in these dives and she was getting the knack of this job herself.
Arya was about to celebrate her 13th birthday, and her one wish was to have a cellphone of her own, but Kosko was short of funds. Kosko mainly depended on his former high school classmate Marco (Nathan Sotto), now a businessman who bought all the shellfish that Kosko caught. However, when Marco stopped coming over, rumors began to circulate that he found a valuable pearl in one of the clams that Kosko caught for him.
Since "Magkakabaung" (2014), Allen Dizon has been recognized as Best Actor in several local and international indie film festivals, and he continues to be one of the most active lead actors in the indie circuit today. His Kosko was driven mad by the pressures of being a good father and provider to his daughter, and you can see that psychological transition gradually progress in his facial expressions. Those scenes of Kosko feverishly shucking scallops and clams to search for an elusive pearl had an intensity reminiscent of Toshiro Mifune.
Christine Mary Demaisip was one of the three child actors in Tara Illenberger's "High Tide" (2017), which also had a story about poverty, island life and shellfish, as well as TM Malones as cinematographer. Demaisip was singled out as a nominee for Best Child Performer at the Star Awards that year. From a girl picking up clams in low tide in her first film, Demaisip now dons the rounded flippers (called "yapak") herself to actually dive for scallops. She is a natural actress, effortlessly able to deliver deep emotion even in her quiet scenes.
Co-writer, cinematographer and director TM Malones told us this potently-dramatic father-daughter story with picturesque Gigantes Island as backdrop. He was able to effectively build up the compounding series of circumstances that weighed in on Kosko's sanity -- from his ex-wife's looming threat for taking Arya away, to the gnawing thought that his friend Marco hit the jackpot from one of the clams he sold him, plus how the government regulations for marine protection was regulating how he earned his living. 8/10
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