Lino Brocka & Manila in the Claws of Light (1975)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, everybody. Casey here, I'm going to start this episode
a little differently today. Millie is also here. Don't be alarmed,
but I'm going to start things off a little differently
this week because, you know, we both try to be

(00:20):
authentic people on this show and bring our real selves
to this show. And something has happened in my life
this week, and too many people's lives this week, that
has really impacted me. Many of you know, I'm from Minneapolis.
I grew up here and I went to Annunciation School

(00:45):
from kindergarten through eighth grade. And many of you heard
that there was a school shooting there this week. We're
recording on Friday and the twenty ninth, and the school
shooting happened on August twenty seventh and Wednesday in the morning.
And I'm very connected to Annunciation. I know a lot

(01:08):
of people who were there during the shooting, and I
know a lot of people whose kids were there during
the shooting. And when we found out that it was happening,
like I said, I know a lot of people who
worked there, and we didn't know who was alive, and

(01:29):
we were texting just trying to figure out if these
people that we know and love are still with us
and Annunciation is a huge part of my life. Like
I said, I went there from kindergarten three eighth grade,
but I was also in their youth ministry program. Aam

(01:51):
all through high school. I was an intern at the church.
In college. I worked for the church in their youth
ministry program. I had my wedding, my marriage blessed there.
We didn't get married there, but we had our marriage
blessed there by the priest, so to fulfill the sacrament

(02:11):
of marriage. There. My nephew was baptized there. I had
my first communion there. All my brothers went there. My
family it's gone to that church for a long time,
and this was a very devastating week for us and
the entire community. I love Annunciation. It's a deep part

(02:38):
of who I am. It's a very creative place. It's
a very creative school. I would I learned all of
my like passion and love for art there. You know,
our creative art teacher. I went there during college. After
I finished one of my films. I wanted to show
our art teacher my film. My grade school teacher, mist Brookland,

(03:00):
who passed away this year, but she was a huge
influence on me and that place, and it fostered a
lot of artists to come out of there. And the church, I,
like I said, was a part of the youth group there,
and you know it wasn't we weren't like super religious people.

(03:21):
I mean, we went to church there, but this was
more of a community space. I would go there to
watch Vikings games every Sunday in the youth ministry room
because it was like open to teens basically to like
go in and hang out. And so it was like
a safe place for us. And to see Annunciation on
the national news and to see like celebrities retweeting pictures

(03:44):
of moms running towards the shooting on the news, it's
really hard. It's really devastating. Feels like a total violation,
and it feels so personal and intimate. And you know,

(04:06):
we were driving to the vigil the other night and
my mom was saying, she was like, I can't believe
I turned on when I turned on the news and
I saw Nunciation on the screen. I thought, that's our home,
that's our safe place. You know. It's just really devastating,
and it's horrible for all these children that were injured

(04:30):
by gun violence and the two babies that were killed
there that day. And I know a lot of people
are affected by this, but I was very deeply affected
by this. I'm still very connected to the place there
and it's had a huge impact on me, and I

(04:50):
just wanted to express that at the top of the
show because I'm dealing with that in real time and
I'm excited to record this podcast with Millie and this
is a joy for me. But to bring my sort
of authentic self to this place, I just want to
discuss sort of what's happening in my life. And I'm

(05:11):
not going to make some you know, grand standing political
statement about this, but I don't understand why we can't
fix the leading cause of death and children when the
answer is a very clear to take away guns. I
don't understand why we can't do it. I don't think
anyone should own a gun, let alone an assault rifle.
And I don't have any delusions that this is going

(05:37):
to change anything. I felt this way before, I feel
it now, but it's just very close to me, and
I just think to not bring it up would have
been very painful for me and inauthentic. And yeah, so
I don't have much more to say about that, But

(06:00):
there are a lot of gofundmes for the children that
were injured by gunfire, and a lot of those are
getting filled, so I might it might by the time
this podcast comes out, those might be kind of already
filled up. But I'm going to post some places that

(06:22):
you can donate to Annunciation School in Church if you'd like.
It would mean a lot to me if you did.
But yeah, it's a very space. I can't emphasize enough
how much a part of me that place is. I
to this day. I filmed a movie in February, and

(06:44):
about a third of that movie is filmed in Annunciation School.
Because I knew I needed a school location, and I
know people that worked there. I knew they would let
me film there for free because I'm like a part
of that community, you know. So Millie, I want to
say thank you for letting me talk about this a
little bit at the top. I know this is tonally

(07:05):
not how our show normally is, but it's important to me,
and so thank you for letting me talk on that
for a little bit. We've got a great show today
and we will be talking about Manila in the clause
of light and We've got a film Regret and a

(07:27):
film Grape, and I hope you're able to enjoy the
rest of this show. Thank you for listening, and we've
got a great show for you guys.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Thank you, and I've got to.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
Love me to check the box.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Welcome everyone to another episode of Dear Movies, I Love You.
This is a podcast for those who are in a
relationship with movies and maybe sometimes it's one sided. Maybe
it's that you have a favorite celebrity and you like
to stare at their picture on a photo album and

(08:25):
then you're like, what would it be like if I
became their assistant?

Speaker 1 (08:30):
Are there any actors that you would go like just
like go see a movie four Like you're like, oh,
they're in it. I need to see that movie, like
Sight Unseen sort of yeah, because I feel like I
feel like my parents' generation, they're like, oh, so and
So's in it. I'm seeing it. I don't have the
same relationship with actors. Does that make sense?

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Yeah, I mean I guess, I mean there, I'm sure
there are several. I mean I think about like, Okay,
I will watch any Dana McBride TV show, sure, Like
it doesn't even matter I was like, as long as
he talks like a braddy, filthy southern middle schooler, then

(09:15):
I'm I'm there for whatever iteration of that.

Speaker 1 (09:18):
But with him, though, there's sort of the understanding that
he's like writing in direct, like he's a part of
the creative process of course, you know what I mean.
So like that gives it a little more oomph. But like,
I don't feel like if I'm like, oh, Tom Hanks
is in this movie, even though I love Tom Hanks,
I wouldn't be like I gotta see that because I'm like, well,
let me see what is this movie?

Speaker 2 (09:38):
I mean, you know, Keanu Reeves is.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Probably that might be the answer.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
I really love him. Yeah, and usually it feels like
now if he is in a movie, it's within the
John Wick property universe, and that's always a yes. So,
by the way, my name is Millie to Jericho.

Speaker 1 (09:57):
Oh, mine is Casey Obra.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I will pose another question to you along those lines
as we talk about Manila and the Clause of Light.
But yeah, this week is going to be kind of
interesting because we're really kind of focusing in on this
one film that is what many people say is the

(10:20):
greatest Filipino movie. Of all time.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
That's what I was reading. They say it's the greatest
Filipino movie of all time. That's quite high status.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
Well, and it's interesting because I would be willing to
bet that most people who consider themselves movie lovers could
not even fathom they're being a greatest Filipino movie of
all time. They were like what, I didn't even realized

(10:51):
they had movies? Do you know what I'm saying? That's
how Yeah, that's how sort of I don't know, relatively
unknown the Filipino film industry is, which is, you know,
like it is what it is type of thing. But
maybe we'll shed some light on it a little bit
this week.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Sure, I hope we do. With your guidance.

Speaker 2 (11:13):
Yeah, and then we have We're going to reach the
mail bag and read a couple of emails that we've
been getting. We've been getting a lot of film gripes
and film regrets.

Speaker 1 (11:25):
I love to see that. I feel like we're really
establishing a community here of people who regret and grape.
And I love that too.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
I love the negativity of it all. We need more
in this film world.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
We do, We truly do.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
So what do you think about I never do this
By the way, I think this might be the am
I opening up the film diary.

Speaker 1 (11:52):
We need your strength, Okay, Millie, you lift more than
I do, so you really should be opening it every time.
I'm just carrying around a fat little baby. Maybe that
that's where my strength comes from, but I'm not. You know,
in the gym, do.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
You think we should like compare? Do you know what
you deadlift?

Speaker 1 (12:10):
I have a million, I have no idea. I bet
you lift more than I bet you can lift. I
bet you can almost lift twice as much as I can.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
I will probably say you're correct on that. But I
haven't actually been weightlifting lately. Yeah, I've been, uh well,
I kind of have taken a little break from it
injuries and whatnot. But I bet even if it's been
a while, I could still probably deadlift pretty well. Because

(12:42):
you know, as you know, the origin story for this
whole deadlifting endeavor to begin with was started on my
old podcast. Yes I saw what you did. And the
whole reason why I even started weightlifting to begin with
is because I wanted to be able to lift the
weight of the actor James Kahn, And it really was

(13:05):
because of the film Misery.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
Oh okay, this makes sense, Yeah, you want it?

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah, I basically wanted to be Kathy Bates throwing James
conn around down the stairs, you know, yeah, throwing his
ass around the house. That's what was like. And I thought, Wow,
that's a fitness goal.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
And because that life, what that type of lifestyle wasn't
available to you, and you wanted to make it available
to you to be able to, yeah, to throw men around.

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Grown men. Well, and I achieved that goal. I mean,
and again it was a rough estimate to how much
he actually weighed when he was alive, but it was.

Speaker 1 (13:40):
Like, you had to be close. I think you were
within striking distance at least.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Yeah, let's see what was my PR? I got it
right here, my PR meeting my personal record is that
what I mean? Yes, for the deadlift was.

Speaker 1 (13:58):
Five whoa, oh, yeah, you definitely could. And even if
it was more than that, you know, if adrenaline kicked in,
I think you could definitely deadlift James con Well, okay, Millie,
what have you watched this week?

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Well, I gotta tell you it wasn't outside of the
scope of this episode unfortunately, So essentially, because we were
doing this episode, I watched two films and They are
both directed by the director of the film we're talking
about this week, Lino Burka. I rewatched his film in

(14:39):
Siang from nineteen seventy six. Okay, we've done an episode
of that on I saw, which did if you want
to go back into the feed and listen to it,
it's there for you. And then I watched brand new
Watch for me. I had never seen this before because
it was only made available recently because they did like
a restoration in a blu ray. But I watched Bona

(15:03):
from nineteen eighty, which is another one of Lenobroker's films.
I man, these shits hit hard for me.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
I mean, if there anything like Manila in the clause
of light, that's a that's a tough week.

Speaker 2 (15:20):
You bet YOUA.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
It was a lot beta. Hey, that's my that's language
of my people.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I know, That's why I said it. I I yeah,
it's been a rough, melodramatic, tumultuous, family drama type week.
But I will say I mean in siong you know
my thoughts about that. You just go listen to the episode.
But Bona, Man was really intense, and it was so
intense that that was what I was teasing at the

(15:47):
beginning of the episode about wanting to be in a
relationship where you are obsessed with a celebrity and then
want to become there assistant.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
I see, I didn't see that one over my head.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
I know.

Speaker 2 (16:05):
I think I think it would have been impossible for
you to clock, being that she probably hadn't seen Bona.
But that's the movie. The movie essentially is essentially about
a woman, a young woman who basically is obsessed with
this actor. And he's not even like a he's like
a bit day at he's like a bit player day

(16:26):
like a day day guy. And she becomes so obsessed
with him that she just starts like following him around
on set, you know, doing being his assistant. And then
she like moves in with him and is like bathing
him and feeding him, and he is of course just
like whatever and brings women home and all this stuff

(16:49):
it is, and then of course her family is like,
what are you doing? You should be in school, do
not you know, move in with this guy or not
married to and then she has like a lot of
drama with her but it's it is kind of insane.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Whoa.

Speaker 2 (17:05):
But it's really as we'll talk about shortly it is
kind of in line with all of the other like
Leno Broca movies that I've seen in this way, but
very intense, and also just like like Manila in the
Clause of Light is focusing, you know, on this kind
of I you know, this sort of like ramshackle inner

(17:32):
city life where it's basically they focus in on this
kind of ramshackle really hardcore city life where people are
living in slums, and and it's it's kind of I
don't know, Like I said, it was a nice little
week of movies focusing on Lino Broke but also deeply.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Depressing, deeply Jesus, I don't know if I could. I don't.
I mean, we'll get into it with Manila in the
Clauset of Light, but I don't know if I would
rush to watch another movie of his immediately after that one.
You this is such an aside, but have you ever
seen the German film Der Fan from nineteen eighty two?

Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yes, are you about to tell me that you watched
it for your film dire No?

Speaker 1 (18:19):
I didn't, but it just reminded me of what you
were saying and in that movie, I'll give us I'm
just going to give a big spoiler. In that movie,
she's obsessed with the lead singer of a band. She
follows him, they have a relationship, and then she kills
and eats him, and it's a very satisfy.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
Yes, I think maybe we should do we should do
like a little mini film festival one week of the
podcast where it's like obsessed fan movies or.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Something sessed fan movies. Yes, that's good. Yeah, I think
that's great. Okay, I actually didn't watch any movies this week,
but uh, I watched so many movies the week before
then I and I didn't bring up too so I'm
just gonna bring those up from this little film diary here.

(19:09):
I saw Steven Soderberg's presence. Have you seen this?

Speaker 2 (19:14):
No?

Speaker 1 (19:14):
Is that the It came out in twenty twenty four.
It's a ghost movie. Basically, the catch is the camera
viewpoint is of a ghost. Woh, and it like is
like floating through the house. It was pretty good. It
did make me think, like, you know, he's spying on
people and people don't know the ghost is there. It
did make me think about farting alone and if a

(19:39):
ghost was in there hearing and smelling my farts. I
don't know. That was what I was thinking about in
that movie.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
That's a very attractive man in that movie.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Oh he's the Sun. Yeah he's a hottie. I thought
you were talking about Chris Sullivan, who's in this is
a Oh yeah, Julia Fox is in it. Very briefly.
It's a it's good. I enjoyed it. I mean, Steven Soderberg,
I love. It's a pretty light, little horror ish movie.
And then I watched a little indie called We're All

(20:13):
Gonna Die from twenty twenty four. This is a post
apocalyptic kind of like romantic comedy where in the future,
a giant alien spike appears. It's like a huge spike
into the earth, like the size of I don't know,
It's like a mile wide. It's like this huge thing
and it just keeps kind of moving around the earth randomly,

(20:34):
and so people are like dying randomly all the time.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
There's a very attractive man in that movie too.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
There is another Asian fellow.

Speaker 4 (20:44):
Good.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
It was good.

Speaker 1 (20:45):
It was I think the script was lacking a little bit,
but I thought it was a good concept. And I
always love low budget indie sci fi post apocalyptic movies.
So yeah, I enjoyed it. So those are the two.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
Well that's oh very good. Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yep.

Speaker 1 (21:02):
Well, we have a lot to talk about with Manila
in the close of light. So why don't we just
get right into it and close up the film diary?
Could chunk coud chunk it's closed, Millie, you suggested watching

(21:32):
this movie.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
I did. It's not surprising if you know me.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Why did you do that?

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Well, I think for a couple of different reasons. Number one,
you had mentioned recently that you have Filipinos in your life.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
I've got a few. I've got a wife and a daughter.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Right, and you have a podcast Extended.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Family, and I have a podcast the most intimate Relation
and tips in my life. Wife, daughter, podcast co host
are all Filipino.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
That's right. And you know, I was like thinking about
a movie like this recently because I don't know what
it was that I was watching, but you know, I
was starting to think about like my favorite melodramas. Sure,
and you know you hear about the kind of the
baddies of melodrama, like the directors, right, the batties, the baddies,

(22:30):
you know, people like Michael Curtiz and Douglas Cerk and
you know Fastbender and Todd Haynes and you know, sort
of these like classic directors that are either doing like
classic melodrama from the you know, nineteen forties and nineteen
fifties to kind of like little reworkings of melodrama. I

(22:56):
would say in the Fastbender and Todd Haynes' universe, and
that I was like, oh, you know who is actually
my favorite One of my favorite directors of melodrama is
Leno Broka, who is a Filipino filmmaker.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Would you say goat?

Speaker 2 (23:15):
I would say he's the goat, to be honest, And
we'll get into that a little bit more because again,
unbeknownst to I think a lot of people and even me,
they're the whole world of Filipino cinema is really interesting
because they have multiple Golden ages is what they would
call it, or and then there's actually a new a

(23:37):
Filipino new wave that's kind of happening right now, which
is really interesting too. But you know, a lot of
times when you think about countries other than the West
in maybe like Japan or something, or even like South Korea,
like one of the you know these you know countries
that you think about around the world that has these

(24:00):
really robust film industries, you don't you basically don't think
about countries that are not in that view having multiple
iterations of like film ages, right, you don't think, oh,
what's a nineteen thirties Filipino movie or you know what
I mean. Like it's just such a come to mind.

(24:22):
But so when I was doing research, both now but
also in the past, what I was doing in Sianga,
when I've just done film research as a film historian
or whatever, You're like, oh, they've had movies in this
country for over one hundred years, and you know, as
people who live in America, you don't have access to

(24:43):
them for the most part. And why is the big
question I always have. Why is it that I've only
seen like a handful of Lino Brookeo movies, who's arguably
the most famous director of Filipino cinema, and yet he's
he made and dozens of films. So it's just interesting

(25:03):
to me because I just felt like this was like
a week where we could talk a little bit about that,
just about yeah, you know, like world cinema, but also
world cinema that's not like French or Italian or Australian
or whatever.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
So yeah, no, I think that's great. And the timing
of this is sort of bizarre because the cinematographer and
producer of this movie, who is also a famed Filipino
filmmaker named Mike de Leone, he died yesterday.

Speaker 2 (25:30):
He died yesterday, yes.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
And he's the cinematographer and producer of Manila in the
clause of late.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
So yeah, yeah, he died yesterday, which is actually pretty
crazy that we're doing this episode today and Mike DeLeon
did his own films, which I feel like now are
being released in America on like kind of these boutique
Blu Ray labels like Canny Releasing. Canny Releasing is actually

(25:59):
an interesting little boutique Blu Ray label and it's ka
and I. By the way, if you want to go
to their social media to check them out. But I mean,
they're releasing great Asian cinema, like stuff that's like contemporary
but also stuff from like the seventies and eighties, and

(26:22):
it's across the board Hong Kong, Philippines, Japan, Like that's
I think I logged that movie. My heart is that
Eternal Rose I don't know if I logged it on
my letterbox film diary, but they released that Blu ray,
so his movies are kind of getting out there too.
But yeah, he was the cinematographer for this film and

(26:46):
was kind of a really good filmmaker in his own right. Well,
I was wondering, did you want to do a little
synopsis of Manila in the Clubs of Light?

Speaker 1 (26:53):
I would love to. This movie felt like a novel
to me. It felt like huge and there's so much
he goes on, so many trials and tribulations. It's kind
of like a Picicerresque story. I believe I'm using that
term correctly. But we're in Manila, Philippines. Julio played by

(27:18):
Raphael Rocco Junior has moved to the busy metropolis from
his island home. He is searching for his lost girlfriend,
Legaya played by Hilda Coronel, who was coerced to move
to Manila from their kind of island village by this
duplicitous and mysterious Missus Cruz. Julio and Legaya's family has

(27:43):
They've lost all contact with her. They don't know where
she is, and he doesn't really even know where to
kind of start. He's just sort of following up the
best leads he can. He thinks she's in this apartment
building that he frequently goes back to, but he doesn't
quite know if she there, but he thinks she might
be there. But while he's in Manila, life is so hard.

(28:06):
It's really hard to find work, and the work he
finds is like very dangerous. He was like working on
a construction site and a guy was killed and he's
sleeping on floors and his life is just really terrible
and dangerous. I mean he even is forced into sex
work at one point in the film. But he does
find community with all of these struggling men, and he

(28:30):
finds many friends who are like so sweet and help
him along the way. But you know, will he ever
find the Gaya, is she even alive? And will he
ever get out of Manila? Those are the questions we
have leading into this conversation. There isn't as much of
a like strict plot. It is sort of like a
series of challenges he faces through the movie.

Speaker 2 (28:56):
Yeah, you're also kind of not sure of like where
you're being dropped into kind of temporally, right, because.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Yeah, it seems to jump time as well, and he's
been there for a while, so you're like, not sure.
It's not like he just arrived in the city. He's
been there for like a year. And that's when we're
dropped in.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
Yeah, and then there's all these flashback sequences to back
in their village where they were together and then her
kind of subsequent kidnapping.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Really yeah, and the village that they flashed back to,
it couldn't be more I mean, it looks like Heaven,
it looks like paradise in the flashbacks. And then you
come to the present and Manila is portrayed as so
dirty and dangerous and scary and just the life he
has to lead is so horrible. I mean, it really

(29:54):
is a bleak picture. He is painting of life in.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Have you ever been to the Philippines.

Speaker 1 (30:03):
I haven't. My wife has been a couple times. I
think the most recent time she went was about ten
years ago. But her parents are from the Philippines. Yeah,
and you know, her dad goes back pretty frequently, and
she's got a lot of cousins there. Yeah too, she and.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Me both I have been. It was It's actually like
one of the most it's probably the most memorable one
of the most memorable trips I've ever been on in
my life. Obviously, sure, my mom's from Samar which is
in the province of Laity. And it was crazy because

(30:46):
the trip was grueling because basically from Atlanta, you we
at least we did this. I mean, Delta has a
direct flight to Tokyo, so we flew Atlanta too, had
a little bit of a layover, then flew into Manila,
which is the capital of the Philippines, and then we

(31:07):
took a domestic Philippine Airlines flight from Manila to Klobin,
which is the biggest city in the Leati province, and
then got into a fucking jeepney and drove like another
hour to get to like where my family is from.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
Can you explain what a jeepney is for people who
don't know what that is.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
So Jimny, I know it is, Yeah, of course you do.
A jeepni is kind of like a slightly smaller I mean,
I would say it's kind of almost you know how
there's like a small school bus for like churches and schools,
and I mean it doesn't have to be a school bus,
but it's like a tidy bus that seats I don't know,

(31:50):
maybe like twenty people. Imagine that a little bit smaller,
maybe fitting like ten people. And then it's kind of
open error and there's not really like seat seats. It's
kind of just like bench seats that everybody kind of
squeezes onto, and I guess you can hang off the
back if you want to, and maybe even on the
top if you wanted to get a little crazy. But essentially,

(32:13):
the jeepney drivers own the actual jeepney and then they
kind of decorate it to their own family brand or
their own vibe or whatever. So they tend to be
these like kind of you know, they have a lot
of personality. There's always like paintings and drawings and you know,
the Virgin Mary and shit and everything. And so, yeah,

(32:36):
one of my cousins is the jeepney driver. So he
picked us up from the Taklobin airport, which by the way,
did not have it did have at the time, and
this was posts nine to eleven. Mind you, they had
X ray machines and metal detectors, but they were broken,

(32:57):
so we just walked around all of it. And that
was the airport that we flew in and out of.
But yeah, I had to get into a jeepney and
drive like an hour into the woods, essentially the jungle,
to get to where my mom is from. She's like
from a very rural part of town. It's like Western
Simmar basically. And so when I was watching Manila in

(33:21):
the closet light, and when I was watching what you
just spoke of sort of the like flashback sequences of
like him being with Legaya in their like peaceful country
province paradise, and then it's like matched up with like
the grittiness and the poverty of Manila. I experienced that.

(33:43):
I feel like I experienced those two feelings because where
my mom is from is the country and it's beautiful.
And we stayed on the beach and it was just
like heaven, Like it was literal heaven, Like the water
was beautiful. There were all these like rocks and just
like boats floating by, and my aunts were like or

(34:04):
my aatis were my atis, my teitaes and my atis
were washing our clothes in the water with like rocks,
and I mean it was just like so nice, so beautiful.
And then it was like we spent the last half
of the trip in Manila, and that was pretty much

(34:25):
as you see it, and that I think is maybe
one of the biggest things that I feel like I
noticed about having gone to the Philippines and seeing these
movies like these Lineal Broker movies, but especially Manila in
the Closet Light, these movies that are being made in
the seventies and eighties. Got to say, it doesn't look

(34:49):
much different.

Speaker 1 (34:51):
It's so interesting because when the movie started, it starts
in black and white, and I was like, oh, this
is a period film because there's like horse and buggies
going through Manila and stuff. And then it comes goes
to color and I realized, oh, wait, no, this isn't
a period piece. They just have horse and buggies going

(35:13):
through like very urban areas in Manila. Yeah, and I
don't know if it's like that still to the stay,
but in the movie in the seventies it was so yeah.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
I mean there's like jeep knees and rickshaw drivers and
like you know, animals, Like there's animals like everywhere. That
I think is I mean, if you go to certain
parts of Manila, like if you go to Makati by
the way, it which is kind of like the fancy,
it's like where all the malls are and it's fancy.

(35:45):
It's it's up there with like a you know, a
major city in America even but like a lot of
the outskirts and especially out in the provinces where we were,
it's very much still like this, Like it's not modernized
in this way that you would imagine like a city
to be modernized, just in your western brain, do you

(36:06):
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Yeah, absolutely so.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
I don't know, it just felt and I mean that's
the thing about when I watched Madon Miller in the
Closetlight again, where I was just like, wow, it just
feels so that feels like how I experienced it in
a weird way. It just makes it kind of feel
more connective for me.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
I like to talk a little bit about the director
Leido Broka because he I think he's such a fascinating dude.
He passed away in the nineties. He actually got into
a car accident and he was only in his fifties.
I think when he did he was fifty two. But
he's a very interesting director, not just in the scope
of Filipinos cinema, but like also just generally, like he

(36:48):
was a gay man and he grew up really poor
and then had the opportunity to basically go into the
city and go to like a proper college, right, which
was like kind of rare for a lot of people.
It still is, I think in the Philippines. So he
learned filmmaking and you know, the craft of storytelling and

(37:13):
stuff like that, and was starting to make movies. What's
interesting about him though, is that he was Mormon and
was essentially a gay man in the Mormon faith and
was doing missionary work and things.

Speaker 1 (37:35):
Is there a large contingent of Mormon people in the
Philippines because from what I understand is that the Philippines
are very Catholic.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
Yeah, it's Catholic, and I think the South Philippines is
more Muslim.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yes, I actually don't know.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
I mean he converted so fascinating. Yeah. I think at
one point he wastioning his sexuality via his religion, right,
kind of being like why was I made this way?

(38:10):
And he was open, I mean, he was not closeted,
so it was like maybe the conversion was a way
for him to kind of I don't know, pick apart
his whole life, I suppose, But he did come back
to Manila and start making movies. And you know, he
was a kind of director who was doing the thing

(38:33):
that someone like Steven Soderberg for example, does, which is
that he was doing commercial things. Like he was making
like bigger movies and doing commercial work, but then he
was like making smaller projects or more personal projects at
the same time.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
Kind of the one for you, one for me type
of thing.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yes, exactly, So, you know, making a bunch of money
on something commercial and then going back and making his
own stuff. Right. But what I think was the most
influential thing to his filmmaking career was the Marcos family
and the Marcos regime in the Philippines, which you know,
I don't know if you know a ton about that era.

(39:13):
Most people probably don't unless you grew up in the eighties.
I mean I remember Marcos because I was a child
in the eighties and my parents referenced it a ton
and there was all you know, if you grew up
in the eighties, you'll always remember the whole Amelda Marcos
having a lot of shoes thing that was like her thing.

(39:34):
Do you remember that? Oh yeah, oh yeah yeah. But
the Marcos family were basically this family of dictators that
took over the Philippines for many, many years in the
seventies and eighties. And there's this really great documentary that
was made in twenty nineteen by Lauren Greenfield called The Kingmaker.

(39:54):
It was basically all about Amelda Marcos and essentially, I mean,
I don't think I'm the first person to make this connection,
but it is giving the Trump family in a way
that you won't believe.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I'm sure. I mean, yes, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
But the whole thing about both Lena Brooker and most
artists in the Philippines during the Marcus regime is that,
I mean, they were taking over everything. They took over
the film industry and they were basically like, you know,
hiring people to be in these committees that were inspecting
all the films, and they were, you know, destroying movies

(40:36):
that weren't, you know, up to their standards.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
And the current president of the Philippines is a member
of the Marcos family.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
Yes, but the thing about Lena Brooker was initially when
he was starting to make movies, he was actually friends
with Imy Marcos, who is the daughter of Ferdinand and Amelda, right,
And so it was weird because I Mey actually helped
with in Siong like when he made that movie. I
think she like produced it or like at least got

(41:08):
it to be screened in the Philippines, but it would
be it's crazy because there there was that at the
same time. Later many years later, he was actually having
to smuggle films out of the Philippines in order for
them to show at like the con Film Festival because

(41:30):
the restrictions against exporting Filipino movies that again were not
up to this like code that they had established was
really hard. So he kind of weirdly had a tie
to the family, but then eventually went against them and
actually was really big politically and was very anti authoritarian

(41:53):
at one point to try to kind of remove their
influence from the country, which basically they had to show
cold on the Philippines for many many years. I mean,
they assassinated somebody who was trying to go against Ferdinand
at one point. But you know, I think that that
is interesting conditions for filmmakers to be working in, no
matter what country you're in, right, And so you have

(42:17):
this openly gay director in a very poor country run
by dictators who is just trying to make his art right.
And so what I think is interesting about the melodrama
component is it's like that was the kind of paintbrush
that he was using, I think for his films, which
many people think that melodrama is lame. Right If you

(42:41):
think about like, melodrama's had such a bad rap over
the years because they're seen as.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Like chicks picks or it didn't like women's film, women's
pictures kind of, it's like it's denigrated because it's just
for women. It's not it's not good, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
And they're seen as being very campy or being very gay,
which of course makes them stupid and you know, you know,
accord to according to like snobby sinophiles that melodrama is
for the women and for the gay is that it's
not serious or doesn't have any serious implications or serious messaging. Right.
But I think we know now that sometimes people do

(43:24):
take these genres and can make really interesting, politically focused art,
even in the scope of a melodrama. Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yeah. I mean you think about a movie like Randier
Werner Fastbenders, Ali Fury, It's the Soul from nineteen seventy four,
I believe, but that is you know, what would be
probably considered a melodrama. I mean it is considered a
melodrama really yeah, but has all these messages about racism

(43:59):
and age and misogyny and this kind of stuff. So yeah,
I feel like you can use these tools that are
seen as you know whatever, like campy or feminine or
you know, maybe they're just like deride it is not
as serious as actual cinema or something like that, and

(44:21):
make like important statements. I mean, that's what John Waters
has been doing his whole career. So but I will say,
if you want to read more about this, and specifically
Lino Brooker, the director, there's this book I'm pointing I'm
showing you and you you can't even see it, guys,
but it's called Marsha.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
It's a beautiful book. It's a beautiful looking book.

Speaker 2 (44:42):
Yeah, but it's called Marshal Law Melodrama. And it's by
a film writer in a film historian. His name is
jose B. Kipino, and he's a really good scholar of
Lino Baroko's movies. But he talks about that. He's basically like,
you know, broke of making melodramas. In the martial Law

(45:03):
eyra of the Philippines being in and because of that
being political, and these movies have political implications, and I
would say Manila in the clause of Light definitely does.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
Don't you think, Oh yeah, absolutely?

Speaker 2 (45:19):
So what were you thinking when you watched it? This
is the first time watch for you?

Speaker 1 (45:22):
Yes? Absolutely? I mean it is bleak as hell. Yes,
sorry about that, Really it really is. I mean it's
it is beautiful and really well, it's a it's a
great film, I mean, but it is bleak, and I
think the thing that I walked away from I won't

(45:44):
maybe not, I won't spoil the ending maybe.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
But.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
It's a dark ending and it leaves you feeling a
little bit hopeless. But I think the thing I think
about with this movie and that really touched me was
the friends he made along the way. I mean, the
male friendship in this movie is so touching. They help

(46:10):
each other out and give each other money when they
have none, they share food, They really help each other
and it just seems like it comes from such a pure,
beautiful place of companionship and camaraderie. And that I loved
that in this movie. It was very touching.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Yeah, and I know you haven't seen Bona, but there is.
There are shades of that in that film too, where
the community that surrounds this person who is at a
very low point or is disaffected or is like facing extreme,
particularly extreme economic challenges becomes like helped or propped up

(46:55):
by the people around them, like they're friends, the people
in the neighborhoods. And I don't want to say that
that's a Filipino quality, but it I feel like it is.

Speaker 1 (47:07):
Yeah, you know, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I mean, I'm just not to get props to my
own people. But we're pretty nice and we're really sweet.
A lot of us are in the medical fields helping
people as nurses and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (47:24):
Absolutely, and we're.

Speaker 2 (47:27):
Family oriented and we like to laugh. So we are
breaking off a bit of our rice and our fish
stew for you if you're hungry. Yes, we'll get you
a couple of packs of cigarettes and a couple of
bottles if you need it. You know, when they need

(47:47):
to look good, wear my shirt to the gay brothel. Yes,
you want to talk about that sequence, by the way.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Because well, the depths to which this character has to
go to survive, you know, he's not I didn't get
any implication that he had any queer tendencies whatsoever. Yeah,
but he saw a friend of his was making pretty
good money doing sex work, and so he does it,

(48:17):
and you can tell it's so unnatural and awful for him,
but he does it to survive, to get money to
find his girlfriend, and his friend takes him to a
brothel where it's just all these fabulous men working there
and they, I mean, they seemed to be pretty happy

(48:40):
because they were making good money. But it's an uncomfortable
scene because Julio is so clearly like I hate this
and I don't want to do this.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, it's such a fascinating sequence because it really is
like a part Well, first of all, you know, to
see even gayme interacting with each other in American film
of the seventies was kind of rare. Let alone.

Speaker 1 (49:09):
I was surprised and impressed by that inclusion in the film.

Speaker 2 (49:14):
Yeah, it felt very inherent to the storyline, and it's like,
basically the vibe is his friend brings them up to
this building and there's like a bunch of you know,
Filipino gay men who are kind of congregating, and they
seem to all be friends, they kind of know each other. Yeah,
it's almost kind of like a club. But then like

(49:35):
you know, obviously customers who are friends with them kind
of come in and pick out the boy that they
want or whatever for the night, and then they go
back into one of the rooms. And this part was
hilarious to me because it was just so absurd. But
like one of the guys that comes in has himself a.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Small dog, and we love this little Pekinese we were
I loved this this little dog. And he I think
they're engaging in sexual activity on the bed and this
little dog is like right next to their heads, and
the guys he like refuses to put the dog on

(50:16):
the floor or too far from them because it's just
kind of always interfering with what they're doing. And loved
that little.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yeah, little it was this little baby, and he was
just very much like scolding his baby while he was
with his Julio for the night. And it was so
I mean to me, it was kind of cracking me up.
But there was, yeah, the there was abject terror in
the eyes of Julio.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
But I think that that was interesting too because the
sex work was not presented as particularly frightening. It was
like it was very clear he could he had control
the situation. He could only go. He would only go
as far as he was comfortable, and even with this client,
the client was lying, if you want to make more money,

(51:02):
you have to do more stuff. But he wasn't forced
into doing it. Yeah, you know, like I think he says, like,
learn some tricks. So it was presented in a way
in the film as that part actually wasn't scary. I
mean it was more that he was just like, I'm
not gay and I'm not comfortable engaging in this type

(51:25):
of work, but I'm willing to do it.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
Yeah. I think there's the added layer of this and
basically this entire film when you want to get down
to brass taxes that the actor who plays Julio is
Raphael Rocco Junior, who actually goes. I looked it up
and he is still alive. He has no hair at All's.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Well, it was funny reading about him because he's like
such a cutie in this movie. And then but if
you read about him, it's like very shortly after this movie,
it's like known for his cube ball the head and
he became more of a villain actor. Yeah, because he
was like bald, But I'm like, that's so funny because
he's just like the most sensitive. I mean, he looks

(52:10):
like he should be the lead singer of an indie band.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
Oh my god, I couldn't get over it. And he's like, yeah,
now he looks like yul Brunner, but like in this movie,
he has the sweetest face with the like it really
does the most perfectly like poudy little lips, and you
just want to hold him in your arms. And I'm
just like, this poor guy cannot catch a fucking break.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Like I'm like, oh my, I mean, things go so
badly in this movie that you're like, it's we're almost
veering into the comical. Like there is a part where
he's gonna go give money to the sister of a
friend who got killed and she lives in the slums.
And then we'd been to this place many times and

(52:57):
they go to give her money and it's an pit
and everything is burned down. I was just like, these
people in this film, it's like insane how bad their
luck is.

Speaker 2 (53:09):
Yes, And I think that's the melodrama part, is the
idea that it's so bad that it's almost comical, right,
because you're.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
Just like, it's it's close to ve because it's like, oh,
they cannot catch a fucking break the entire movie.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Yeah, And I think that, like it just is so
compounded by just his sweet little face and you're just
like no please, and Legayah who held the coronel place,
Legia who is his girlfriend, she's also just so beautiful,
beautiful and like innocent, And it's that whole feeling of

(53:47):
you really get the sense of like, these people who
were living in their little hometown should have stayed there.
They should have stayed there and like stayed beautiful by
the ocean and the sunset forever. Right.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
Well, so much of this movie is about capitalism, right.
I think part of the horror of capitalism is you're
kind of always pushed that, oh there's always a higher
level you need to go to. Oh there's always a
better place you can go to. Oh you can always
be making more money somewhere. And she leaves this like

(54:25):
Paradise Island, because oh, you can make more money in Manila.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
You can go to school. We'll take you to school
if you are, you know, for us, And you know,
of course it's all a lie because basically she ends
up you know, being human trafficked by this.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Yeah, she's sex traffic.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
Yeah, by this ati, this evil atti that she trusts
or her family trusts. But yeah, that is I think
the message of a lot of Lena Brooka's films is
the idea that poor people are always going to be
destroyed by capitalism because they are the desperate and the

(55:09):
hungry and they they need they need it, like they
need money to survive. And there and his characters seem
to always be you know, maybe not motivated, but they're
drawn into or seduced by capitalism essentially, and it always
has terrible results unfortunately. But honestly, yeah, I mean, I

(55:34):
hate to make you watch such a bleak film, but
it was.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
Oh no, I was. It was a joy. And Tricia
watched it too, and I think she was very affective
because her parents are from Manila. Yeah, and it was.
It's a very moving film. It was definitely worth watching.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
Yeah, I get so. I mean, I think part of
maybe why I love Leno Brooka so much is because
the movies that I've seen of his that taking place
in these times, Like you know, the majority of the
films that I've seen of his are from the seventies
and early eighties, right, And this is like peak my
mom because I was born in seventy nine, right, and

(56:16):
they I think because my mom and dad, I think
they got married in seventy two in the Philippines, lived
there for a while, and then they moved to America,
which is when they had me in San Diego. Like,
my dad was in the military, obviously, if you couldn't tell,
that's why I'm half white and half Filipino, right, much

(56:41):
like my daughter patients, Well, if you were in the military,
that would make complete sense. I think you're an aberration
in that way. But there's a joke by the way
that a lot of like half Asian kids are the
product of military marriages. But and not just Filipino, but

(57:04):
like Korean and Japanese, so anyway and others. But yeah, my,
so when I see like Legaya, or when I saw
Bona and Bona or like any of the women like
like this is like my mom. My mom was this
age and in this like if you look at old

(57:26):
pictures of her, it looks like there she's in Aleno
Brooker movie, like the clothes, the backgrounds, everything. I get
so affected by watching his films because it feels like
here's my mom and her sisters walking around Manila, like
you know, hanging out and here are the guys, my

(57:49):
uncle's here's like you know, people in their orbits. So
I don't know, it just visually really connects with me.
I don't know if Trisha felt that, but that's certainly
like it was.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
My Yeah, I think there was certainly. I don't want
to speak too much for her, but I think there
was definitely some of that going on, you know, and
she's you know, you and her are American born Filipinos,
and there is sort of, you know, a desire to
connect to her heritage, and so just seeing that I
think was affecting.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
Let me ask you this. Yes, there's this whole section
of the film where he is working on the construction site, yes,
which is shockingly not up to snuff from a worker's perspective, right,
it was pretty.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Couch old, Tricia. While we were watching it. I wouldn't
step foot in that building that they're building.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
There are no hard hats. People are working in slacks.
So there's like this whole sequence where basically the other
construction workers are telling Julio like here's the vibe. Okay,
you are going to get paid nothing, and then sometimes
when you come to get your nothing paid, they are

(59:01):
going to tell you that they don't have any money
to pay you. But then you're gonna have to borrow
money from them at a price with like you know,
a little bit of I guess some loan tax taken
out by them. And yet you it's your wages, it's

(59:21):
money you earned that you are now borrowing at a
fee from your employer. How quickly would you quit that job?
Like I'm I'm just asking.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
That's the thing. Yeah, they called it a Taiwan. They
were like, it's a Taiwan. It's like, oh, we have
no money, but you can borrow money from the company
to get your money now, but it'll be you know,
we take a cut of that. I guess could you
be like, I'll wait till you get the money. I
don't think they that you could do that with the
the company. It seems like that's not actual.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
You're not just gonna wait for it and then divest
your funds. You're just gonna be like, I mean, you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Do need to eat, you need to eat. I But
the thing is, it's like what other job would he have?
You know? That's the thing. There's no other like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
I cannot believe how shitty CAPITALI is. He just was
like the whole reiteration of wow, capitalism means evil. I
think there's probably modern versions of that as we speak.
Am I right about that?

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
I'm sure there is. I mean it seems so. That's
the thing. It's like these men in this movie have
no power in this society whatsoever, and they just have
to eat shit like and just take it because it's
like all the and say like thank you for giving
me shit to eat, you know, and it's just so

(01:00:43):
depressing and I think I am going to spoil this movie.
I guess do it. So I think that's sort of
what makes the end interesting because you know, in movies
like this, it's very easy to be like, oh I
would have done this, or he had this other option
to do, you know, to survive. But in this movie,

(01:01:04):
I feel like he literally tries everything. He even tries
sex work to survive. You know, he does it all.
And I'm not saying sex work isn't legitimate work. I'm
just he did not want to do that type of work. Yeah,
you know, he tried every possible avenue and he gets

(01:01:24):
to a place at the end where he finds what's
her name, Legaia, He finds her, they come up with
a plan. She has been basically kidnapped by this guy
and she has a son with this guy, and they
come up with a plan, and you think he's going
to succeed, but then he kind of makes I feel like,

(01:01:45):
he makes one mistake. He like doesn't help her escape.
He's like, I'll meet you somewhere, and she ends up
getting killed by her husband. And I think it's just
interesting because it's like, even if you try to do
everything in this society, in this film, it's like, if
you try to do everything possible to get to like

(01:02:07):
to have a good life, he worked every horrible job
he could, he gets to a place where he can
get his girlfriend back, and yet he kind of makes
one tiny misjudgment and it all falls to shit. Yeah,
just the the the margins for error are are razor thin.
H And I don't know it made it made it

(01:02:31):
more affecting because like at the Antricia and I were
both like, why didn't he like go in and to
the house and just pull her out, you know, but
he didn't and she died. You know. I don't know
it made it more affecting that like little misjudgment. You know,
you're not allowed to have a misjudgment when you are

(01:02:51):
in this sort of horrible capitalist society.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Yeah. Well, you know what's interesting about the ending too,
Now that you've spoiled it, we're going to go for broke,
I suppose. So the director Sean Baker, whom everyone probably
knows by this point, he made a little movie called
Anura a Duh and made you know, many other great films.

(01:03:15):
Sean Baker has always been a champion of Asian films.
By the way, I have to shout him out. He
I follow him on Instagram and he was.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
The one follow too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Yeah, he's really good. He was the one that even
told me about not me, but you know, he's the
actually made back up.

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
In an intimate conversation you had with him, he revealed
to you this information.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
No, I was gonna say. He posted about Bona when
he was at cann in twenty twenty four because basically
he was like, oh, that's this brand new restoration and
uh and I'm seeing it for the first time and
I'm so excited. But he's always had pushed canny releasing
because he's a big physical media guy. But he was

(01:03:57):
the one that even told me about Bono to begin with.
But he I know, he's a fan of both Mike
de Leon and Lino Broker. But he said something I
think in his letterbox review of Manila in the clause
of Light, where he was like, did you feel that
the ending was sort of similar to Taxi Driver? I
read the same thing, yeah, and I just was, Wow,

(01:04:20):
that's interesting because they were released in the same year.
I think, right, seventy six or maybe. Yeah, Manila, the
clause of Light was probably seventy five, maybe, but that
Taxi Driver was seventy six. But he was like wondering
if maybe the ending of Taxi Driver was influenced by
Manila in the clause of Light. But then but that's yes, good, good,

(01:04:44):
go ahead, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (01:04:45):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
I was just gonna say, but that's interesting because but
Travis Bickel does what I'm saying, our main guy in
that Julio should have done in this movie. Like Travis
Bickel goes in Guns of Blazing, and I think if
Julio had done that in this movie, they would have
gotten out. Yeah, Scott Free, I don't know, but yes, continue.

Speaker 2 (01:05:03):
Yeah, but no, what I think is actually funny about
him saying that is Scorsese was effectively the guy that
helped put Manila in the Clause of Light back into
the film world because of, you know, the Film Foundation,

(01:05:26):
which is his nonprofit, and he basically helped fund the
restoration of Manila in the Clause of Light and then
released it on the Criterion collections. His imprint, he's kind
of kind of like a little mini imprint on the
Criterion collection called the World Cinema Foundation, and it was
basically you know, his you know, restorations that he's helped

(01:05:51):
fund that are you know, kind of these gems, these
hidden gems of world cinema. They also did this incredible
self Korean movie called The Housemaid from nineteen sixty which
you want to talk about an ending, amazing ending there, Okay, but.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
Yeah, because this movie, I think they have a little
disclaimer at the beginning of the movie and about how
it was restored, and it sounds like the original print
was in pretty rough shape of the film and they
had to do all this work to like re scan it,
and Mike de Leone like sat in on the coloring
sessions and it looked great. But it's just like, it's

(01:06:29):
just interesting how you can just like lose this movie
could have been lost by disintegration, you know, Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
Mean it's that's why I'm always a big fan of
these archivists and these people that do restoration work, because
otherwise you would not see any of this stuff, Like
you really would not see pretty much any foreign title
if you were an American, you would not see any

(01:06:56):
of the stuff. It wasn't for that kind of stuff,
Like you would not be able to access this entire
swath of filmmaking if it weren't for people who were
doing restoration work, archivists, film historians, people who are in
positions where they can fund things like that, like maybe

(01:07:17):
Sean Baker or Scorsese or whomever, which I think is lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:07:24):
Yeah, anything else on Manila in the Clause of Light
or are pal Lino Braca.

Speaker 2 (01:07:30):
I don't know. I would, He's a fascinating director. I
would seek out. I know that MoMA in New York
has a couple of his films that are not kind
of commercially out there right now, because there's maybe I

(01:07:51):
would say, probably, well there's a bit. There's at least
three of the films that are available on Blu Ray right,
including Manila in the Clause of Light, but Bonda and
Nciog and I feel like there are other films of
his that have had some level of restoration work, and

(01:08:11):
I think Mama owns a couple, and I feel like
maybe more of his films are coming down the pike
as they're going to be made available to, you know,
the States, because he made a lot of movies. And
there was a couple actually on Amazon Prime. If you
really go digging on Amazon Prime, you will find a

(01:08:34):
couple to rent. But I don't think they have English subtitles,
or at least they're not like really inherent to the
to the video, so it maybe they had to turn
on your auto subtitles and pray. But it's yeah, I
feel like we need more, We need more. I need more,

(01:08:56):
but we need more.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
All right, Well, Millie, thank you for introducing this movie
to me and this filmmaker. I loved learning about Filipino cinema,
and I hope to watch more movies from the Philippines.
It's a country I hold near and deer and I've
never even been there, so I would love to explore
their cinema more.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
Me too, I think we've got nowhere to go but up.

Speaker 1 (01:09:18):
So we are on the fucking floor. I can tell
you that much. All right, moving on, we are going
to read some We got a gripe and a gret.

(01:09:40):
We've got a gripe and a gret.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
How about Casey, Since you're a musician, why don't you
create a song called Gripes and grets.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
Gripes and grets.

Speaker 3 (01:09:49):
Gripes.

Speaker 2 (01:09:50):
Yeah, pull out that guitar. Come on tuned, he actually
has a guitar. Everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:10:01):
Let's see what what genre music should this be.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
I'm gonna let deal dealer's choice. You figure it out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:08):
Let's see gripes and grats. It feels like a country song.

Speaker 5 (01:10:16):
Gribes, grits, scribes and grits, take me down, Take me down,
grit grabs and grits, scribes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:29):
And grid take something like that. I can't believe he
just if you don't make that the standard opening to.

Speaker 1 (01:10:53):
This section, Okay, and I'll perform it live maybe every
single time. Uh, all right, so we're doing uh, we're
doing gripe first, Okay, him million, Casey. My name is
Ronnie and I run and operate a four screen independent
movie theater in northeast region of Pennsylvania called the Dietrich Theater.

(01:11:15):
Cool sounds like a dream. We do first round programming,
film festival programming, and classics throughout the year. But enough
about me. I was just listening to your Showgirls episode
in your chat with Alicia Malone about the empty coffee cups,
and that got me thinking about something very similar. My
film Gripe is with the children in films who come
down before heading off to school, where their mother has

(01:11:36):
created a five course breakfast fit for a king, prepared
on the table for them, and they grab a slice
of toast and run out the door, or a piece
of bacon. I feel like this is me editorializing here,
but I feel like a piece of bacon happens often.
It happens constantly. I see pancakes, I see fruit, I
see French toast, I see eggs. It's unbelievable. Why do

(01:11:56):
movie creatives insist on having this elaborate disp of breakfast
just for every child to run out the door with
a piece of toast. I half expect every single mom
to flip a table after it happens. Anyway, that's my
film Gripe. Do you concur Ronnie, this is great because
this is good too, because this is a gripe. This
is kind of a different subset of the film gripe.

(01:12:18):
It's like gripes things that happen in the movie where
we talk about people bothering us at the movie. You know,
so I think this is great. What do you think
about this? I agree too, Like, uh, this isn't a child,
maybe a man child. But in Peewee's Big Adventure, he
eats like two pieces of the mister t cereal and

(01:12:40):
he's got this giant breakfast laid out before him and
he runs out the door before eating any of it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
I mean, Ronnie, you're asking if we concur Hell, yeah,
we do. Here's the thing. I love breakfast so much.

Speaker 1 (01:12:55):
Me too.

Speaker 2 (01:12:56):
When you see a movie breakfast that bumptious and enticing,
especially with the stack of toast. Oh my god, I
love a stack of toast.

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
Stack of toast, Like I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
Not talking about two shits, I'm talking about four, six,
eight stacks of perfectly buttered toast on top of.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
The triangle style.

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
Oh, oh my god. And the fact that that kid,
usually a high schooler, is such a dumb ass, and
it's like, no, just juice, just juice.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
Gotta rip mom, bye busses here. I'm oh, mom, I'm just.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
Gonna grab one triangle, one triangle.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
I feel like this frequently happens to that kid runs out,
grabs one triangle, husband comes down, Oh honey, I made
breakfast you. I only have time for coffee. Bye hone
And they're out the door too.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
You know, this is why many women of a certain
age get divorced and live alone and go out on
bruises with their girlfriends drinking Margarita's because they can't take
the indignity of the family just shitting on the fucking
breakfast that she made. And I personally have been a

(01:14:14):
teenage kid who has been in that scenario. I don't
know about you where I'm like, listen, I love breakfast
so much. I'm skipping school to eat this shit. Like
I'm not running anywhere. You may scrambled eggs, like a
giant plate of scrambled eggs. Did you put cheese on
those eggs? I'm staying well.

Speaker 1 (01:14:32):
Also, I feel like my that always felt like such
a movie thing because I was as a kid was
always like my mom would never make me breakfast or
like prepare a large breakfast on a school day, you know,
like we're eating lucky charms or something. But yeah, I
totally agree with it's it's it's bad form. I don't

(01:14:58):
like that in movies and general where people don't eat
or drink all their food. They are they like, you know,
you go to a bar, order a beer, take a sip,
and leave like all the beer. You know, that's annoying too.

Speaker 2 (01:15:10):
No, you need to be like Elizabeth Taylor in Who's
Afraid of Virginia Wolf and just like hoofing down that
chicken leg like you need to be taking bites and
getting it all over your face. That's what That's what
real movie eating is about.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Can I say thank first of all, thank you Ronnie
that amazing film Grape. I'm gonna throw this out there.
This is totally in aside. We can totally sure delete this.
I've recently come to an epiphany, which is that people
whose names end in the hardy sound are cute like you,

(01:15:53):
like me, like Ronnie, are cuter and maybe a little
bit more mischievous.

Speaker 1 (01:16:01):
You think I'm going to disagree with a fact of nature.
I agree, howleheartedly. I love having a cute name. I
feel like, honestly, when I if like I see a
name on paper and you're like, you're about to meet
so and so, and they have an hardy sound at
the end of their name, I'm like, I already kind

(01:16:22):
of like them a little bit ahead of time. Like
it's like I feel like I like them already.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
Think about the bull, Like you won't think about this,
but I will. The boys in your school that were
always like so cute but like so bad. They're always Tommy, Ricky, Ronnie, Bobby, Stevie, Casey.

Speaker 1 (01:16:48):
Perhaps Casey question Mark. I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:16:51):
I'm telling you you would never go like eight pages
in your diary about Ronald or Thomas.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
You think, or you think Spencer is making the diary.
I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (01:17:09):
I don't know anything about Ronnie. I don't even know
if his full name is Ronald, but I do know
that Ronnie had a motorcycle when we were in high
school and was a total badass and drove it around
and all the girls wanted to, you know, hop on
the back and go up to the taco bell.

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
That's the kind of name you have, I think, And
I like adult men who have the E at the end,
because I feel like it is a little bit more feminine.
I would say, having the hardy at the end, and
I think if you're a grown man and you have
that at your it's kind of a softening. I like

(01:17:43):
you more, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:45):
Yeah. I remember one of my friends who has a
hardy uses a hardy nickname for his full name, much
like me. I remember he was like, we should go
back to our full names when we become adults because
nobody will take us seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:18:03):
That's the thing. Everyone's worried they're not going to be
taken seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
I was like, do people not take us seriously? Look
at us? Look at you and I. We're at the
top of our phone.

Speaker 1 (01:18:14):
We host a podcast, anyway, the most respected profession I agree. Okay,
let's move on to the gret here film regret, longtime listener,
third or fourth time emailer. I am going to preface
this with I am not a film scholar. That's okay,

(01:18:36):
I'm not either MILLI is a film scholar, nor was
I a film major. I unfortunately was a film major.
I'm editorializing here. I am just a gen exer that
loves movies. My film regret was watching Ty West's Trilogy
or threesome if you will, of X, Pearl, and Maxine.
I heard all the hubbub, so I was actually really

(01:18:57):
looking forward to them. I watch them all this time
week on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, so that the story
would be fresh in my mind, and I was bummed
and boared. I feel like he is trying to evoke
the same relationship dynamic of Tarantino and Uma Thurman. I
feel like the movies were pretentious, slow, and predictable, and
I'm not even a huge Tarantino fan. What were your
thoughts on this threesome of films? Thanks for the laughs, Teresa.

(01:19:21):
I think ty West is a particular flavor of filmmaker,
and I can see why you wouldn't be into these
types of movies. But I loved all three of these movies.
I thought they were great, did you now, yes? And
I thought one was better than the other. I thought

(01:19:41):
X was my least favorite, and then I like but
I liked it, and then I liked Pearl more than that,
and I think I liked Maxine the most. I don't know.
I liked this kind of nostalgia nostalgic feel of these movies,
and I like the pace, and I do like Mi
a Goth, I'm a fan, so yeah, I but like
these are slow. I think ty West movies are slow.

(01:20:04):
And I think some horror fans don't like him because
his movies can also not be that scary scary, you know,
but I don't know. That's my opinion.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Well, you have your opinion and everything. No, I'm kidding, Teresa,
you know I get it. I totally get it. I
think I'm with you. I First of all, every fucker
in my friend group was juice on these on these movies,
this trilogy, they were juice. They wanted it. Like every

(01:20:42):
movie that came out beyond X was like a Thursday
at midnight must see, like they were going to the
Thursday midnight uh screening. That's how Juice and Jazz they were.
I won't say that I had the fervor that they did,
but I think to your point, like I liked the weird.

(01:21:04):
The weirdest part for me is that I think I
like Pearl the best.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
I might have liked Pearl the best, yeah too, so Pearl.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
Was probably my favorite and then X, well, no, it
would be like Pearl, Maxine and then X. I think
that's my order.

Speaker 1 (01:21:16):
Sure me too.

Speaker 2 (01:21:18):
Maxine had a lot of batties. Did you know that?
Like not just me a god?

Speaker 1 (01:21:22):
You think you think I'm not gonna like a movie
with Elizabeth the Bicky, right, or Lily Collins or Lily Collins.

Speaker 2 (01:21:30):
I mean even or fucking Hall in her Linda Dano
from Attitudes on Lifetime haircut in that movie. Yeah, there's
a lot of haughty baddies. Michelle Monahan's don't forget Her.

Speaker 1 (01:21:45):
Oh I did. I did forget Michelle Monahan. I love
the Maxine is such a riff on body doublet which
is like one of my fucking favorite movies. And so
I was pretty I was I was an easy mark
for Maxine.

Speaker 2 (01:22:03):
Yeah. I think ultimately that is kind of how I
see these films is that they seem to be kind of,
you know, in the same way Teresa that you mentioned
the Tarantino thing. They are almost kind of like homages
to film genres or like other films, right, because.

Speaker 1 (01:22:20):
They're kind of in conversation with other movies, right.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
Because to me, Maxine is absolutely de Palma like eighties,
like you know, I would throw like Abel for her
and their and then Pearl to me felt very almost
kind of like I mean it was kind of like
a Herschel Gordon Lewisy type of movie, like a country bumpkin,

(01:22:47):
like a like kind of like a motel.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Hell yeah, it kind of reminded me of like Children
of the Korn even, like, yes, rural setting.

Speaker 2 (01:22:59):
Yeah, and then of course, you know, I think X
felt sort of very you know, kind of slasher, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:23:09):
Classic chis Chainsaw, massacres.

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
Classic kind of seventies gridehouse. So it's like, that's what
I think is kind of fun about the movies is
that they're kind of throwbacks to other things. But yeah,
but I can also see her side of it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:25):
I watched The Innkeepers and I like enjoyed it, but
I was that's another Thai West film from twenty eleven.
But I was like, this is too slow. You lost
me a little bit. So I understand. But I also
feel like I want to empower you. Teresa. Never like
a movie because a bunch of other people like it.
You know, if it's not for you, that's great, move

(01:23:47):
on and leave it dead in the side of the road.
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:23:50):
In fact, we might even promote the idea that you
could be a shithead and hate a movie because everybody
likes it so much.

Speaker 1 (01:24:01):
Yeah, oh, there we go.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
That's a classic shithead move, wouldn't you say?

Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
Oh yeah. I think when things kind of topple over,
they get a little too popular, they go to the
other side of the parabola, and you start to dislike
them because other people like them too much. I mean,
I spent so much time in film school being like,
oh yeah, I love that movie, maybe one of my favorites. Meanwhile,

(01:24:26):
I'm like, I hated every second of watching that movie.
You know that that happened. I feel like that happened
a lot with Godard films. Like I was like, oh
my god, I moving and I was like, I thought
that sucked in my mind, in my head, but I
didn't voice that until later.

Speaker 2 (01:24:44):
That's a huge gret for you, A huge, great.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
Huge, huge gret, huge gret. Yeah, exactly. When I saw X.
I saw it at the Highland Park Theater, which has
now shuddered Island Park, Los Angeles. We walk in. If
you know the movie X, there's a lot of nudity,

(01:25:07):
a ton of nudity, and it's insanely violent. Well, we
walk in, sit down, and a family of like seven
walked in with like the ages of like I would say,
there was like a five year old, a seven year old,
a ten year old, and a twelve year old and
they watched the whole movie. I could not believe a

(01:25:30):
little kids watch that movie with us. I hope they
had a good time. I hope that was a important
event in their life.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Oh goodness, all right.

Speaker 4 (01:25:42):
Well, you know, kind of wrap things up here, grab
and grids, scraps and grids.

Speaker 3 (01:25:58):
Ah, got something to get off my grab some grids, okay, And.

Speaker 2 (01:26:10):
I'm in the background twitching, gohing. You're the man for
the grant. I can't believe what a man? What's that
Edward something in those zero magnetic zeros?

Speaker 1 (01:26:25):
Oh shit, yeah, that's been going around. You're a my
land how.

Speaker 2 (01:26:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:26:38):
That type of music was so big in like twenty eleven.
I saw Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros in concert
at the Sunset Junction concert, which doesn't happen anymore in
silver Lake. I remember it was a big thing. Anyways,
trying to move on to employee these picks. What do

(01:27:02):
you got, Millie?

Speaker 2 (01:27:03):
What do I have in my little purse? So my
employee pick for this week is so such a layup
honestly when it comes to melodrama, because I'm that's the
route I'm going. This week is going to point you
to another classic melodrama. Definitely less grimy than Manila in

(01:27:24):
the Closet Light, but I would say a standout in
the genre, and that is the film from nineteen fifty
five called All That Heaven Allows, directed by Douglas.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
Circ one of my favorite. I'd say that's my favorite melodrama.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
Oh it's hard to beat. You got Rock Hudson playing
the hunkiest little gardner, hippie bohemian guy you've ever seen
in your life, Like maybe the movie character that all
men should be based on. I mean he is, he's
the dream quite stunning.

Speaker 1 (01:28:04):
He's creative, he owns his own business. He's sensitive, he's hunky.
Where's a flannel? Really?

Speaker 2 (01:28:11):
Well, he has like interesting people come into his little chalet.

Speaker 1 (01:28:15):
Note he's got like all these bohemians come in with
lobster and shit. And yet.

Speaker 2 (01:28:26):
Ronald Reagan's wife shows up from her you know, stuffy
New England town where everybody judges you and looks at
you weird and is like make me a free wheeling lady.
But her kids, I mean the melodrama is really about
those fucking kids, which if you've seen the movie, you

(01:28:48):
know exactly what I'm talking about. But those fucking kids
some of the worst kids you've ever seen in a movie.
And that's all I'll say.

Speaker 1 (01:28:57):
You know, those kids are victims of the capitalist system.

Speaker 2 (01:29:00):
Would say, oh yeah, they're completely indoctrinated into the you know,
television set.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
That scene when they wheel out the television for her
and the look of devastation on her face, it's one
of cinema's greatest scenes. I mean, I feel like that
was the that was the straw that broke the camel's
back for her. I feel like that was a motivating
She's like, I can't just be an old lady who

(01:29:29):
watches TV all day.

Speaker 2 (01:29:30):
I mean, you think that a mom was offended when
you didn't eat her eight layers of toast in the morning.

Speaker 1 (01:29:37):
Yeah, this mom.

Speaker 2 (01:29:40):
Getting red to absolute filth. Decimated ratio.

Speaker 1 (01:29:47):
They're basically saying, like you have ratioed. They are basically saying,
you have no point to your existence, So why don't
you live the rest of your life staring at this box?
And it's horrible anyway, That is definitely my recommendation. That's
a great movie. That's a great movie. I have kind
of an unusual staff pick. Well, it's not unusual, but

(01:30:11):
it's a short it's a short film and it's made
by a friend of mine. We went to film school together.
We were in the same thesis class. The filmmaker is
named Andrew Stephen Lee and he is of Filipino descent. Hey,
and he is a filmmaker and a successful filmmaker at that.

(01:30:34):
He made a movie in twenty eighteen, in a short
film which you can watch on Vimeo, and it's called
Manila is Full of men named Boy. And I'll read
you the synopsis on the website. Manila July seventh, two
thousand and nine, as Michael Jackson's televised funeral plays throughout

(01:30:57):
the Philippines despite terrorist attacks in the south and a
strange son purchases a child who can drink and smoke
to impress his father. Check it out. It's beautifully shot,
shot in Manila. It's great. Check it out, twenty one
minutes film. Yeah, you'd like it too, sounds awesome. Yeah,

(01:31:20):
And there were characters named boy in Manila in the
clause of light. There you go, sore, you go.

Speaker 2 (01:31:29):
Great? Employee. That was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:31:32):
Right back at you, fellow co worker. Well that's our show, Milly.
I just want to say thank you again for letting
me speak about the tragedy at annunciation at the top
of the episode. That was very meaningful for me and
I'm glad I was able to express that on here,
So thank you so much. In if you'd like film advice,

(01:31:53):
or if you'd like to send us a film gripe
er gret, I'm not going to get out the guitar,
but if you want to send in email us at
Deer Movies at exactlyrightmedia dot com. You can also send
us a voicemail. Just record a voicemail on your phone
and email it to Dear Movies at exactly rightdia dot com.
Please keep it under a minute and record in a

(01:32:14):
quiet place.

Speaker 2 (01:32:16):
You could also follow us on our social media accounts.
We're at Deer Movies I Love You on Instagram and Facebook.
Our letterbox handles are atk cli O'Brien and at md'jericho.
And I'll implore you to listen to Deer Movies I
Love You on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you get your podcasts. And honestly rate and review the show.

(01:32:37):
We would love it. Rate it high five stars. Please,
we would love it, And that's your mission.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Amazing next week. I'm really excited about next week's episode
because I have I've always wanted to see this movie,
but I've never seen.

Speaker 2 (01:32:52):
Oh shit, You're in for a wild Ride.

Speaker 1 (01:32:55):
Everyone has talked about this movie ad nauseum. To me,
it is two thousand, two thousand and four's dig exclamation point.
It is a rock doc. It's kind of a famous one.
I feel like people really, oh yeah love this movie,

(01:33:16):
directed by Andy Timminer, and it's about the music of
the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the Dandy Warhols and those
crazy guys in those bands. And I'm excited. I'm excited
to watch. It'll be fun to talk about kind of
like rock docks in general too.

Speaker 2 (01:33:36):
Yeah, And I feel like there's been I don't know,
I feel like I've seen I don't know if it's
because Oasis is popular again, but like I just have
been seeing more and more about both the Dandy Warhols
and Brian Jonestown Oscer lately on like TikTok interesting, so
interesting famous feuds. I think is the connection pla famous

(01:33:59):
fear dudes. Yes, well, Millie, that's it. That's a rap.

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
That's a rap. Thank you again for being a great
fellow co worker.

Speaker 2 (01:34:10):
Hey, thank you for being a great fellow co worker.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
All Right, everybody have a good one.

Speaker 3 (01:34:15):
Hy.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
This has been an exactly right production hosted by Me
Milli to Cherico and produced by my co host Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 1 (01:34:24):
This episode was mixed by Tom brifol. Our associate producer
is Christina Chamberlain. Our guest booker is Patrick Cottner, and
our artwork is by Vanessa Ilac.

Speaker 2 (01:34:34):
Our incredible theme music is by the best man in
the entire world, The Softies.

Speaker 1 (01:34:39):
Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia Hartstark,
Daniel Kramer and Milly to Jericho, we love you.

Speaker 2 (01:34:46):
Goodbye, Beker

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