Southeast Asia Film Night: Philippines

Magnifico

Philippines (2003, 120 min) - Tagalog with English subtitles

Dir: Maryo J. De Los Reyes
Screenplay: Michiko Yamamoto
Cast: Lorna Tolentino, Albert Martinez, Gloria Romero, Celia Rodriguez, Mark Gil, Tonton Gutierrez, Jiro Manio, Amy Austria, Cherry Pie Picache, Isabella de Leon

CSEAS is pleased to reprise this classic film for the holidays!

Inay (Lorna Tolentino) speaks for many when she says, ''Life is a never-ending misery.''

Her 7-year-old daughter, Helen (Isabella de Leon), has cerebral palsy, has never spoken a word and requires as much care as an infant. Her teenage son has lost his scholarship and come home from Manila to an uncertain future. Her other son, 9-year-old Magnifico (Jiro Manio), doesn't show much promise beyond being a really sweet kid. Her beaten-down husband (Albert Martínez) has been working on the same Rubik's cube for a year.

And she has just learned that her mother-in-law, who lives with them, has pancreatic cancer. That's one more helpless person to care for, and they have no idea where they're going to get the 30,000 pesos or so (several months' salary for a schoolteacher, we are told) it will take to bury her.

But the hopefully named Magnifico, in the tradition of omniscient innocents in international films, is determined to help -- and to charm everyone the way movie characters occasionally do, just by treating impending death matter-of-factly. But this drama isn't as maudlin as it sounds, thanks to the leading actors' fine, understated performances. -Anita Gates, New York Times

Ticket Information
Free and open to the public

Event Sponsor
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Mānoa Campus

More Information
956-2688, cseas@hawaii.edu, http://cseashawaii.org

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