Cinema
Pakiusap
Octavio Silos · 1940
Synopsis
Don Andres and his son Ernesto love the same young girl from the barrio, Amparing, whose father works on the former's hacienda and forbids her to accept the slightest gift. Ernesto passes himself off as a peasant from the area in order to approach her without saying who he is, and, amid songs and misunderstandings, the silent rivalry between father and son forms around her.
Context
Excelsior Pictures shot the film in Tagalog from a story by Luis F. Nolasco and showed it on 28 March 1940 at the Grand Theater in Manila. It is based on a kundiman by Francisco Santiago, a song the public knew by heart, and brought together the couple followed at the time from one title to the next, Rosario Moreno and Rudy Concepcion; the latter died of a perforated ulcer the following year, aged twenty-six. The cast also included Naty Bernardo, Elsa Oria, Nati Rubi and Pedro Faustino.
Who it is for
Eighty-six minutes in Tagalog. The only accessible version is a video copy with muffled sound and a dirty image, in which the songs come across poorly: better to know this before starting.
Prizes and reception
One of the five pre-war Philippine titles long thought to be the only ones surviving, until a sixth was discovered in a Belgian archive in 2025.