Manila in the Claws of Light

A pungent slice of neo-realist noir, Manila in the Claws of Light (also, confusingly, known as Manila in the Claws of Darkness and Manilla in the Claws of Neon) is regarded as the greatest Philippine movie ever made. It’s the story of a fisherman, Julio, who comes to the big city in the footsteps of his fiancee, who has gone missing. He finds work on a construction site but comes to appreciate how cheaply life is held here. His experiences expose the exploitation and corruption at the heart of the country.

Lino Brocka broke through to international acclaim with this candid portrait of 1970s Manila. At home, though, avowed film fan Imelda Marcos was dismayed. Artists should play their part in nation building she instructed Brocka — and that meant positive images for foreign consumption and hope for the local masses. The filmmaker bravely took a different view, confronting the empty lies of the dictatorship with a fierce dedication to the truth.

Lino Brocka’s Manila in the Claws of Light begins with a whisper and ends with a howl. In between, there are grace notes, escalating horrors and the peripatetic journey of a country mouse, Julio, in the big city. It’s a story of struggle, survival, endurance and defeat that Brocka, perhaps the most celebrated of Filipino directors, filmed down and dirty in Manila when the Philippines was still in the grip of the dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos. Brocka, a political activist as well as a prolific filmmaker, died in a car accident in 1991 at 52, and is ready for rediscovery.

Manohla Dargis, New York Times

To watch Brocka’s films is to be burned by a flame that never goes out.

Pierre Rissient

The definitive portrait of Manila as one of the lower circles of hell.

Noel Vera, Senses of Cinema