After a year of preparation, Cinemalaya comes back from a semi-hiatus. There are a lot of things to be excited about in this year's festival, including partnerships with Eiga Sai and film screenings for interesting films from the local independent scene and abroad. In a way, it's appropriate that the opening film for this year's festival is a film made by an alumnus.
The film in question is 1-2-3 (Wan Tu Tri, no relation to the Tito Vic and Joey film) by Carlo Obispo, who was responsible for 2013's Purok 7.
1-2-3 deals with underaged workers in the sex industry. The Philippines is a hotbed for underground sex tourism, and greedy or desperate individuals are all too eager to provide the supply of flesh. The industry does not discriminate between genders, either; throughout the film we see both male and female sex workers serving their foreign (and sometimes domestic) clientele.
The story is framed through the eyes of Luis (Carlos Dala,) a teenage boy in search of his sister, who left their sleepy fishing village through rather dodgy circumstances. He eventually finds his sister, Lulu (Barbara Miguel, who notably played the lead role in Cinemalaya 2013's Nuwebe) working in a brothel in the city. She's paid well for her activities, and although Luis would want nothing more than to take his sister back home, she has no intention to do so.
It all sounds like heavy stuff, but surprisingly the movie is lighter than expected. There are a lot of scenes where the main characters are just being kids - fooling around, playing with friends, and falling in love for the first time. It feels like the juxtaposition of childhood innocence and the grim reality of drug related executions in Obispo's Purok 7. In both cases, the tonal dissonance seen in the two films could be interpreted as the film rebelling against a premature initiation into adult life, a dogged insistence that these kids are still kids, despite the shit they are going through. In many scenes there are short cuts to children playing and living normal lives - something the characters yearn for but are unable to do. The characters in 1-2-3 are slaves in gilded cages, privy to small luxuries that they receive from their patrons. But they have little to no freedom over their lives or their bodies.
The performances from the three main leads help the film immensely. Talented child actress Therese Malvar rounds out our trio of protagonists, and her scenes with Carlos Dala's character are natural and brimming with chemistry. Barbara Miguel has leveled up from her days in Nuwebe, perhaps partly due to the fact that this film has a better script.
The film does have a few problems. While it does have a satisfying emotional arc, the last act of the film feels a bit rushed. The discordant tone of the film may be a hard sell for people looking for something a bit more serious, and it could be argued that it may take away from the gravity of the subject matter. Rather ominously, the final scene reveals that although things for our protagonists have changed, the status quo remains the same.
1-2-3 is a mixed bag, but personally I had a good time with this one. It's a bit darker than the film that came before it, and the way it was constructed might not sit still with everyone. But some amazing performances really help it in the end.
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