REAL REVIEW: Carlos Siguion-Reyna’s INAGAW MO ANG LAHAT SA AKIN (1995).

At exactly 9pm last wenesday, my phone remind me of Cinema One’s feature presentation: Maricel Soriano, Eric Quizon, Tirso Cruz III, Snokey Serna and Mr. Robert Arevalo. Produced by former MTRCB Chair Armida Siguion-Reyna and directed by her son Carlos Siguion-Reyna , the film shows how social forces particularly public opinion and hypocrisy can affect our family’s moral decay.

Set entirely in Ilocos Norte, this daring film tackles about what Mike de Leon put into the big screen through his epic Kisapmata (1981), the family’s incest relationship. When Clarisa (Snookey Serna) returned with her husband Joey (Eric Quizon) (who happened to be a lawyer) from Manila after ten years, because of the property left by her father. However, Peping (Tirso Cruz III) show’s coldness and hatred to the couple due to his latter relationship with Clarisa. Meanwhile, Jacinta (Maricel Soriano) who left with her insane mother and Peping as her husband carried the secret of what happened 10 years ago about the death of her father and Clarisa’s unsuccessful courtship with Peping. When Joey try to know the truth Jacinta attempt to killed him, then all the secret was revealed that Clarissa was raped by his father and Jacinta has a sexual urges to her father. Jacinta also plan to out Clarissa to the family by taken the letters of Pepping to Clarisa so that she will never come back to the province. When her father confronted her with those letters, Jacinta accidentally killed him then her mother, who saw all what happened became insane.

The film show that the incest happened in the traditional Filipino family even we are surrounded by moral institution such as the church and the reason of this is Ignorance and lack of true moral values. Jacinta’s mother is a religious leader in the community and since she was well respected, she refused to accept the fact that her children are now having incestuous relationship to her husband. She considers more on what will the public will say instead of logical reasoning. Poverty and ignorance is not an excused, it just the culture that we have always pretend: we do not accept the fact, we accept what we want the people to be of what we are. I myself also is guilty with that before. I always want to be something because my family always assumed and presumed that I will be someone someday. But deep inside I don’t want to be anything, but in the present society that we have in which all that matters is what you have, isn’t easy to survived. Nevertheless, now that I’m well equip to face all kind of hypocrisy in this world, I can manage.

In the film, Jacinta blamed Clarisa of all her sufferings and lost saying “Inagaw mo ang lahat sa’akin, lahat.”But in the real world, it’s not Clarissa, it’s the society who let them decide to be who they are. What I can say it just-I don’t buy that culture.