As one who is morbidly aware of the nature of local Filipino television, where no matter what context we are viewing it, from game shows to news reports, interviews to scandals, documentaries to topical entertainment, I thought I was aware at the lengths some producers would go to for the sake of getting the ratings they depend on. However, after viewing the extremes on display in Francis X. Pasion's debut cinematic feature 'Jay', I might have to re-evaluate that understanding.
For the first ten minutes of 'Jay', you would be forgiven for thinking you have stepped not into a fictional movie, but a sensational television show, where overbearing orchestral music is played out to seemingly never-ending scenes of crying and despair. We are dragged into a so-called 'news report' where Luz Mercado, the matriarch of a poor provincial family receives the news that her eldest son, teaching in the capital Manila, has been brutally murdered in an apparent gay sexually related incident. The camera-crew are sordidly aware of this event before the family, and so are primed with the cameras ready to catch the misery and heartache that is about to befall them, timed to the assured punctuality of the televised schedules (the family discover their sons tragic fate through a televised news report).
Finally we hit the ten minutes mark, and the film shifts into more traditional, though no-less callous storytelling techniques, as we follow another Jay (this time 'Santiago), a journalist from Channel 8's 'Dearly Departed Ones', on his quest to make great television out of this families devastating loss.
As the means Santiago uses to get the shots he wants steps further and further across the ethical boundary, one wonders whether you should be laughing at the sheer audacity of it, or totally disturbed by how well Paison captures this hell of false-emotions and greedy manipulation. Every moment feels real despite the exaggeration and spectacle of it. We absolutely believe that due to the poor quality of the original footage, the mother of the deceased has to re-enact the moment she identified her son in the morgue. We do not raise an eyebrow when the killer is apprehended, and Santiago decides to un-cuff the suspect to ensure his eventual arrest is caught on camera, and is far more exiting (which in turn results in a hilarious, and technically accomplished chase sequence in the Tondo neighbourhood of Manila, which is a rather difficult locale to film a chase, considering it's the worlds most densely populated neighbourhood). Even when a baby chicken is placed on the coffin (to peck away at the killer's conscience) and accidentally killed, it is offered no dignity, the small body being forced into several gratuitous photographs before finally being buried, a fitting mirror of what is happening to the human characters in the story.
There is no denying that the film hits every note it was designed to, when it wants to be shocking, you gasp at the impudence of the antagonists, when it wants to be comedic, you usually laugh for the very same reasons. In constructing a film where everything is fake and engineered, Paison has (perhaps intentionally) created an atmosphere of alienation. Everyone wants to do their part to please the camera, and there is no one we can stop to feel for, perhaps save ironically the most guilty character or all, who is the only one that behaves genuine. The final, somewhat confusing scene even dares to turn the whole thesis of the film on its head, creating a realm of unreality inside a place already filled with the unreal. It acts as a final reminder from the director that we should be watching on our toes, never to relax unless we too fall for the lies being thrown at us. Biting, funny, sharp, so dark it's practically obsidian, and yet sadly all too poignant.
For the first ten minutes of 'Jay', you would be forgiven for thinking you have stepped not into a fictional movie, but a sensational television show, where overbearing orchestral music is played out to seemingly never-ending scenes of crying and despair. We are dragged into a so-called 'news report' where Luz Mercado, the matriarch of a poor provincial family receives the news that her eldest son, teaching in the capital Manila, has been brutally murdered in an apparent gay sexually related incident. The camera-crew are sordidly aware of this event before the family, and so are primed with the cameras ready to catch the misery and heartache that is about to befall them, timed to the assured punctuality of the televised schedules (the family discover their sons tragic fate through a televised news report).
Finally we hit the ten minutes mark, and the film shifts into more traditional, though no-less callous storytelling techniques, as we follow another Jay (this time 'Santiago), a journalist from Channel 8's 'Dearly Departed Ones', on his quest to make great television out of this families devastating loss.
As the means Santiago uses to get the shots he wants steps further and further across the ethical boundary, one wonders whether you should be laughing at the sheer audacity of it, or totally disturbed by how well Paison captures this hell of false-emotions and greedy manipulation. Every moment feels real despite the exaggeration and spectacle of it. We absolutely believe that due to the poor quality of the original footage, the mother of the deceased has to re-enact the moment she identified her son in the morgue. We do not raise an eyebrow when the killer is apprehended, and Santiago decides to un-cuff the suspect to ensure his eventual arrest is caught on camera, and is far more exiting (which in turn results in a hilarious, and technically accomplished chase sequence in the Tondo neighbourhood of Manila, which is a rather difficult locale to film a chase, considering it's the worlds most densely populated neighbourhood). Even when a baby chicken is placed on the coffin (to peck away at the killer's conscience) and accidentally killed, it is offered no dignity, the small body being forced into several gratuitous photographs before finally being buried, a fitting mirror of what is happening to the human characters in the story.
There is no denying that the film hits every note it was designed to, when it wants to be shocking, you gasp at the impudence of the antagonists, when it wants to be comedic, you usually laugh for the very same reasons. In constructing a film where everything is fake and engineered, Paison has (perhaps intentionally) created an atmosphere of alienation. Everyone wants to do their part to please the camera, and there is no one we can stop to feel for, perhaps save ironically the most guilty character or all, who is the only one that behaves genuine. The final, somewhat confusing scene even dares to turn the whole thesis of the film on its head, creating a realm of unreality inside a place already filled with the unreal. It acts as a final reminder from the director that we should be watching on our toes, never to relax unless we too fall for the lies being thrown at us. Biting, funny, sharp, so dark it's practically obsidian, and yet sadly all too poignant.