THE passing of the great Filipino director Eddie Romero last week is a sad occasion for Philippine cinema and for the nation as well. Among the giants in Filipino film, he stands in the company of Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, and Mike de Leon – film makers who understood the value of art and film-making beyond its commercial purposes. Their body of works are sharp, comprehensive, and timeless interrogations of the Filipino soul.
Romero’s film “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?” is an exemplar of this type of Filipino film classic that problematizes the unfinished journey of the Filipino nation towards sovereignty and self-determination. What sets the film apart is the use of comedy as a vehicle for its serious political message.
Perhaps, there has never been a character in a film as endearing yet frustrating as Kulas played by the young Christopher de Leon. Kulas was the orphaned young boy whose innocence was swept into the turmoil of that period between the Filipino revolution against Spain and then America. The film unravels by way of Kulas’ coming-of-age journey from a persona that was always a victim of power and circumstance which always brought him in comical situations. Eventually, he would transform to a person with selfless-courage and determination amid his learned subject-position vis-a-vis the societal upheavals of his time.
Kulas and his journey, of course, represent the birthing of a nationalist consciousness. My own take of the film is that it was really Romero’s ode to activism. Produced in the equally tumultuous period of the 70s when censorship was rife, the film was a subtle call to arms over the unchanging colonial and elite culture that existed during the dark period of dictatorial rule.
There is Trining, played by Gloria Diaz, who was a persona we would describe as a social climber these days. She was Kulas’ love interest who spurned the pure love of the innocent in exchange for her practical attraction to power and wealth. Don Tibor, on the other hand, was the representation of the local elite who also served as Kulas’ rival for Trining.
Romero achieved an ideologically sharp characterization of Don Tibor by portraying him as a greedy member of the principalia class ready to do the bidding for his Spanish and then American colonial masters for his own gain.
Kulas’ journey took a turn when he met the revolutionary Onofre “Kidlat” Baltao in prison. Through the character of Kidlat, he learned that people of his kind were being persecuted because of their aspirations for independence even against the new American colonial master. These revolutionaries referred to themselves as Filipinos.
But it was the death of a working class Chinese man, Lim, who sacrificed his life so that he and Kidlat can escape that brought maturity and political consciousness to the innocent and heartbroken Kulas. It was a birthing of what we refer to in the discipline as the “sociological imagination.”
In a line from the film that I strongly feel will be remembered in the future when they look back upon our struggles towards nationhood, Kulas uttered these prophetic words to young boy Bindoy, who represents the future Filipino youth: “Hindi kamagigingmasaya kung nasaiyonaanglahat. Angnagbibigayhalagasabuhay ay iyong may pakinabangkasakapwa.”[paraphrased]
This singular line provides a simple yet fair portrayal of what activism really is. Kulas’ response to his milieu was to reject the opportunism of Trining and Don Tibor and instead join the “Filipinos” in the mountains as they struggle for sovereignty.
Ultimately the challenge of the film, and one that, in his sad passing, Eddie Romero leaves us with to resolve as a people, can be deduced from its title. We are asked if such activism is still necessary 100 years after Kulas’ crusade and close to forty years after the film was made.
In the midst of the many Trinings, Don Tibors, and their ilk that still dictate the fate of our nation and who argue that Kulas’ brand of activism is passe, I leave you with another of Eddie Romero’s memorable lines uttered by the character of Bindoy: “Anggandangsuot mo. Madapakasana.”
Alamon: “Ganito kami noon, ganito pa rin ngayon” (sunstar.com.ph)