KISAPMATA 1981

director: mike de leon

starring: charito solis

             jay ilagan

             vic silayan

             charo santos

the film kisapmata is one of the classic filipino films that made a big impact on philippine movie industry during the 80's. the film is actually based on a true story from one of the articles written by the famous nick joaquin. the article was entitled "the house on zapote street." 

it is a story about a filipino family who had incest issues between the father and daughter. the father (sgt. diosdado caradang) was a retired police officer positioned as a sergeant. he is mean and abusive. the houlsehold is very afraid of him. the mother (adelina carandang) is a plain housewife and the only daughter (milagros carandang) is a bank employee. the family have a lady helper (onyang) who have patiently served them well before she was thrown out of the house. the daughter have a boyfriend (noel manalansan) who later on became her husband who is also an employee from the bank where she's been working. he had a father (peping manalansan), a friend (ernie) with his brother (mario) who is with his wife (cynthia) who continuously support him. there have been mysterious circumstances that have been happening within the family. many have wondered but nobody else knew anything about the truth but the family only. excluding the husband noel and his family. the secret was kept hidden until the tragic incident happened. nobody knew the truth that it was sgt. carandang who got his own daughter pregnant and that he has been raping her for a long time, causing him to be so possessive and psychotic in keeping his daughter for himself. 

at the beginning you'll already know that the film has been a testament of time. at first, i thought i'd be watching a horror film. i expected that because of how the obb (opening billboard) was shown. but unfortunately it came out to be not a horror film at all. as the film goes on, i started to keenly focus on the characters and understand the roles that they portray. by just taking a look at them and their gestures i knew that they have effectively shown and portrayed the characters assigned to them. director mike de leon have picked the appropriate actors for the film that made it also a success. 

the production as a whole was great. every scene was carefully shot and every shot was carefully angled. every lightning has it's purpose and intentions on how and why it was done and applied. but besides the goodness on camera shots and lighting, it created some confusion on why and how it was done. but if you know how to appreciate it, you'll understand. on the other hand, the audio was somehow fluctuating due to its oldness. aside from that, the background music was somewhat fear-provoking. but as far as i have observed most especially on classic movies, kisapmata's background music is the common background music of films on either psycho, suspense-drama and suspense-action films which are usually with gore and violence. but the quality, especially for the dialogue's audio was good. director mike de leon knew how to handle his production team and he himself was not just the director but also a big part of the production crew as well. 

the story was a foretold truth. only that, there have been some changes but the essence of the story remains. in our society as filipinos, family deficiencies has never been new. there are circumstances such as the rapture of husband and wife relationship and marriage, a consistent feud between parents and children, early child bearing and marrying at young age and even incest and crime within the family. this could not be considered as shocking or surprising at all. unlike during the 80's serious immoral family circumstances or issues are very much a concern. during those times, people are conservative or liberated. yes, there will always be a choice of doing immoral and moral. however due to conservatism and fear of embarrassment, people opt to choose moral doings. today, people are more prone to doing what is immoral and express their wants and needs while disregarding others' opinions and points of view. it seems like it's not the person or the people who adapts in the society, it's the society that adapts itself to the people. instead being the person to pull others for good it's the others who pull the person or the people to do bad and be just one them. 

all this time, filipino culture has been known for family ties and close relationships. other than that, conservatism was established on the early days that made moral values as a complete concern. our grandparents will often tell us, that in their younger years or during their time, there are a lot of don'ts and limitations because it is the way they're raised due to the traditions and culture. these has been pass on to the descendants up until today. BUT! there's a huge difference. the filipino culture today is gradually being taken for granted. yes, family ties and close relationships are still observed at most of the filipino families, but the number of broken families are increasing. in addition to that, the number of crime incidents, harassment, abuses and incest are also increasing. those were not considered as part of the culture or any of the filipino traditions at all. morality is now being taken for granted, people have been more selfish and have been acting like not in their correct mind settings. culture has been bi-passed. it's been selfishness that keeps them away from doing what is proper and right. the concept of family and the sanctity of marriage has been disregarded by many and that causes for our filipino culture to fade away. 

for me, family is the principal institution for the socialization of children. it must work as a whole to be called as such. having it broken by various reasons can not be considered as a family. i, for myself strongly value family relationships. that each member must respect one another and must value each other. if those factors and values were lost, a family will be dysfunctional. a right establishment and foundation will result to a moral and proper raising of children. what is being done inside the family will be adapted by the children. and as family members become a part of the society, their upbringing will have an impact in the society based on how they'll treat people. it is normal to have various of family problems and conflicts. but if there's proper guidance to each member and with faith to the lord, it is not impossible to mend any broken relationships and circumstances. we as filipinos must always put in mind that our families help us to establish ourselves as a person. being in an ideal family is quite hard to build but we can achieve it if we choose and strive to have it. parents must know how to be responsible for they are the ones accountable to their children. children must know how respect and obey their parents for it is a commandment given by the lord. but in the kind of situation kisapmata have showed, children must also learn to know to respect themselves and fight for their rights as humans. yes children must obey their parents at all times but they should know how to value themselves as persons not just being children alone. parents must be respected by children but children must be respected by their parents as well. there's a saying that respect begets respect. in a family, it is important to have this kind of value in order to maintain its wholeness and sacredness as a family joined by god and to produce respectable and inspiring members of the society who deserves to be praised and not to be mocked by others. kisapmata is an eye opener. for me, it made me realize that family, culture, values and society correlates with one another; and for that, we must start to do what is right with ourselves. do our parts as members of the family to prevent these kinds of circumstances from happening and to establish a good example to others.