So I know that this is a beauty blog, that I haven’t updated
this with product reviews and stuff, and that It’s a Good Friday today, but I
just know that this might be right. After all, this blog was born out of the
ways that women, or people alike, are seen.
Last night, I came from a Visita Iglesia with my family. I
really like spending time with them during these days, especially in a
religious setting. I needed to spend time for Him especially, and reflect on a lot of
things. Everything was really beautiful, especially as you can see below, I was
really stunned by the statue of Mother Mary in the church where I grew up in
Valenzuela, Our Lady of Fatima.
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| Mom with my Aunties at Intramuros near the church |
And after, I planned to watch one of the DVD movies that I
haven’t seen before. I wanted to watch Passion of the Christ but I told myself
that I should watch it on a Good Friday, so I watched The Mistress. I just knew
that a Bea Alonzo – John Lloyd movie could be a very interesting one, something
that could always influence everything and reflect Filipino love, culture,
morality, power and a lot of things – as One More Chance did in a way that I
don’t agree with.
Before the climax, I was really falling in love with it – in
a film-technical level but also on a deeper one: The flaws and openness in a relationship, some
truths about mistresses and how finally one mistress could be saved by a boy
who really loves her no matter what, the
son who would pursue his dreams despite what his parents like for him, the way
Filipinos care for families, and help each other believing in the concept of “utang
na loob” that's so strong it made the mistress a mistress.
But as with any Bea-John Lloyd movie, Star Cinema would
always put the woman in a lower level in the ending, oh well, aside from a “deus
ex machina” wherein a person would die and everything will be ok. It always has
to be that a woman is placed in a position where she has to suffer and pay real hard.
My favourite
feminist and literature teacher Katrina Stuart Santiago has always taught me to think critically and she wrote a book
called Of Love and Other Lemons where I realized the limitations of
feminism, especially on a very powerful idea called “Love”. What I greatly learned
from the book is that we need to speak, because no one will.
Why did I feel that Bea needed to apologize to everyone? Shouldn’t
it be John Lloyd and the old man really meaning to say sorry to her? Why did she
even have to pay “utang na loob” in that way and be required to be sin? Why didn’t the movie end in a happy way where
it was the perfect plot for a man and a woman to finally be together, love
unconditionally and be free? If it was love of the family, or the love of the
people in the corporation – which by the way oppressed and caged Bea and John
Lloyd respectively (maybe because of how strong Filipinos love their families),
why is it also not about love of the oppressed woman who's always treated
like shit?
I’m so frustrated I had to write this right away. I already planned
on reviewing a movie I also watched last December in the MMFF called “Aswang”
where these creatures continue to be carnivores, and couldn’t do what is right
and just, JUST because they love their families. Maybe sometimes we have to
consider using “love for the family” when rationalizing our deeds. I love
my family and here in our country we are taught to do everything for them. AND
I WILL. But I always believe that it
should be in a way that would not step on people along the way. And if I will be placed in that position, I will really really try.
At the end of it, I just remembered back in college, in
Theology classes, I really liked reading how Jesus loved and accepted the oppressed
people – women, sex workers, all kinds of people discriminated against, and everyone
not given a right treatment. And that’s how I’ve always believed in
Christ. And stayed with faith. Because I know that even with how imperfect I
am, the LGBT, or Bea Alonzo, or mistresses, or the poor people, or women, He would still die for me.
He will for everyone, regardless of anything. And I will be forever thankful, loving and serving a life that is for Him.
Have a Good Friday, girls!
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