Cinema
Moral
Marilou Diaz-Abaya · 1982
Synopsis
From 1979 to 1982, four friends, students at the University of the Philippines, follow diverging paths: Joey, without ties, seeks oblivion in drugs and affairs; Kathy, a mediocre singer, strives relentlessly to break through; Maritess, who wanted to write, shuts herself away in a marriage that reduces her to bearing children; Sylvia, a teacher, still loves the husband who left her for a man.
Context
The screenwriter Ricky Lee and the director first wanted a story about two singers, one gifted and the other not, for the two leads of their previous film; when one of them left, the story became one about four friends. Lee wrote this screenplay at the same time as that of a film by Ishmael Bernal, which was pitted against it the same year in the same competition. Seven Star Productions shot it. The censors went after the film, several sequences of which were judged unacceptable, as the director recounted the following year in a British documentary.
Who it is for
One hundred and thirty-eight minutes in Filipino and English, subtitled in the restored version. The story proceeds by touches, with no central plot: one must accept following four threads at once.
Prizes and reception
Second Prize and Best Screenplay at the Metro Manila festival in 1982; poorly received on release, it was ranked twelfth best Filipino film in a 1989 poll.