What a waste of my time!!!

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

good back-story, and good acting

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

The tone of "Metro Manila", a brilliant neo-realist drama, is well captured in the bleakness of the opening voice-over, when our lead speaks of how a man condemned to death by hanging needs not fear drowning in the water below him if the gallows are built high enough. The film does not necessarily make for grim, nihilistic viewing, but it is, for a lot of its runtime, very real and very authentic in a rather grim place. Its director, a Briton called Sean Ellis, peppers the film with a very distinct sense that hope, even affluence, is right there, but only if you can uncover it - people seem to be able to carve out decent lives for themselves in a zone that is fairly impoverished, but getting that 'break' remains inherently elusive. It is as if you can reach out and touch the success, but it is always just far away enough. Aside from anything else, this is a terrifically well-crafted film - its movement from one thing to another, never settling into one genre or deriving its influence from one place for too often, is a joy to behold. Indeed, the places to which "Metro Manila" ends up going nearer the end demonstrate absolutely no evidence of being there for the first half of the piece, which draws on the likes of Iranian film-maker Mohsen Makhmalbaf and even the early films of the Italian neo-realist movement concocted on the streets of post-war Italy. Jake Macapagal plays Oscar Ramirez, no one any more or less extraordinary than anybody else, who lives on a rudimentary farm in the Filipino countryside with his young wife Mai (Althea Vega) and infant children. Life on the farm is humble, peaceful and simple but complications to do with costs and market forces result in the Ramirez family not earning enough for their rice crop to get by for the next year. As a result, the leads are torn out of their environment and into something very different: the cauldron of the bustling capital of the titular Manila.The transition quite literally feels like an eviction: the city is busy, noisy - men of working age huddle around noticeboards looking for working opportunities and all manner of danger and thievery are rife. It is when our family lose their remaining currency and residency through a confidence trick that things become desperate, Ellis essentially beginning the film all over again with a second initial incident to re-ignite what life in the city, this time, is all about. It forces the two parents into employment at any cost: Oscar moves into armoured van transportation and Mai into what we shall describe here as bar work. Oscar's taking of the armoured van job moves the film into an altogether fresh direction - we are aware of the nature of life in Manila at a very grounded level, and so is Oscar. So much so that the audience and character experience them for the first time together: there exist hundreds of people living fairly desperate existences and will be aware of the vast sums of money now sharing a space with our lead. When he senses danger, we sense it with him. His work-colleague and co-rider in the truck is Ong (John Arcilla ), who seems to bury this stark and important reality in his brashness and drinking. Director Ellis' use of the juxtaposition between the classical music Ong listens to, and the rap music a suspicious car of thugs which keeps tailing them blare out, speaks volumes for the contrast we entrust to be true at the time, although is cleverly deceptive for reasons I will not reveal.Likewise, Mai's position at a local nightspot outlet she must undertake to help with the family finances enables Ellis to break-down certain stereotypes which have become synonymous with young Asian women from this part of the world. Gone is the 'love-you-long-time' cliché; in its place, a very cold composition of the character in her underwear amongst a bevy of other young women staring off into space as she, one assumes, realises this is what she must do to get by. Mai and the other women are not photogenic backdrops to a film about somebody else - Ellis has really got under the skin of who she is and why she is there. Reading about the production of the film, from the moment Ellis got the inspiration for the piece by looking at two armoured guards having an argument beside a truck during a trip to the Philippines, right the way through to the eight month edit process by way of shooting on a shoestring budget with no real money in a language he didn't speak, it is to everyone's credit that "Metro Manila" is as good as it is. The film is unnerving, heart-wrenching and thoroughly involving; right the way up to its chilling final few scenes and is thoroughly recommended.

The film Metro Manila was my first ever foreign film. The film was definitely different from the common American movie. Until this film, I had not heard of Manila. The most significant contrast to an American film would have to be the way they ended the movie, because a large percentage of any American drama/thriller always ends with a happy ending for the protagonist.The protagonist is a poor tenant rice farmer, Jake Macapagal, as Oscar Ramirez who has a wife and two girls. The countryside they live in at the beginning of the movie is beautiful but the price of rice is so low that they are forced to leave. With hope and desperation they venture to Manila by a ramshackle bus and while carrying their belongings with them. If I were put in the shoes of Oscar Ramirez (the protagonist) I would not have stayed in Manila for as long as he and his family had stayed. To experience having my rent money stolen, running out of food for himself and his family. Nor would I work all day only to be given sandwiches as payment. Then get hustled out of a place to live. I would have listened to Ong and gone along with his plan to steal the keys. Then I would head to the next best place for my family after I had acquired enough money. The immense impact that the film had on my global perspective is definitely due to the fact that my first time hearing of Manila is in a film showing the worst parts of Manila.The ending has real emotion and the soundtrack is very powerful. Depicts life in the third world convincingly. I would strongly recommend the film Manila to another student or teacher.

Review/Reaction:I loved Metro Manila. I thought it was an excellent story, but more importantly, I thought the way it was filmed and scripted was even greater. The flow of the film is very natural throughout and at no points did I think the production was poor. One of the moments in particular where you can see this is when Oscar goes out with his coworkers for the first time while his wife is dancing at a bar exposing herself for pay. The visuals in this moment become very clear, while any noise is silenced by the ominous music playing as it switches back and forth from Oscar to his wife. You can almost feel the characters pain of depravity from their situation in the moments watching that. That's powerful fiction right there, and that is why I enjoyed the movie thoroughly, from the beginning to the very end. Aside from what I thought was impeccable production, especially from an Indie team, the presentation of the situation that our characters are in is done in a superb display. All throughout the film, you can see the corruption going on in Manila, you can see the poverty, you can hear the noises of the city, you can see the desperation on all the characters faces when they learn they're being evicted or have to go hungry. All the little side occurrences in the movie are masterfully directed, in my opinion, and I believe that's why the film at large was a great movie.

Metro Manila is about a family that struggles to survive and the sacrifices that have to be made. Overall I really enjoyed the film. While struggling with poverty, Metro Manila shows how a man and a woman provide for the family, and the kinds of jobs that are available. It is interesting to see how the roles of men and women are a little different in the Philippines, than they are in the United States. In the Philippines, the movie, depicts a woman's role as a homemaker that does not work, or there is little opportunity for work. Unlike in the United States, many women peruse a career/work or takes care of the house and has a full time job.I also enjoyed the ending. I did not expect the ending to be carried out the way it was, but I felt that it did the movie justice. I would not have changed it because the themes of family and sacrifice are tided together in such a way you can not help but feel moved