cavite -- a review

For a film that had absolutely no budget, Cavite was pretty good. It had its flaws, but overall it was a film worth watching.

The protagonist, Adam (Ian Gamazon) is a docks security officer in San Diego. He seemed to be wasting his life away. Then he gets a call from his mom saying that his father died, so he goes to the Philippines to attend his funeral. When he gets to NAIA in Manila, his mom never picks him up. Then a cell phone rings. Someone slipped one in his bag. Adam answers it, and learns that Muslim extremist terrorists (yes, the Abu Sayyaf) have kidnapped his mom and sister and will kill them unless he follows their orders. And so the film goes....

For those who have never seen the slums of the Philippines, this is an eye-opener, because you get to see the grim reality of the poverty in our homeland. The majority of the film was shot in the squatter towns in Cavite. You see all the trash strewn about, all the little kids with tattered clothes, etc. The Muslim terrorist makes Adam, the Filipino-American, go through these squatter towns, telling him not to be afraid, that these squatters are his countrymen. I can't really describe to you how bad these places are. You just have to see it for yourself. Along with making Adam do more dangerous errands for his cause, he also forces him to experience the heritage he for the most part doesn't know. I really liked how the directors blended the terrorism/Filipino heritage topics together in this film. (As for how authentic they presented the Muslim situation in the Philippines, well, I have to read up on those massacres they talked about in the movie).

The film goes on at a brisk pace, taking Adam around Cavite; the market, the bank, houses, cockfighting arenas, sari-sari stands....it really only stops when Adam stops to take a breath or argues with the terrorist over the phone. It's like we're there with him and we have no choice but to go forward with him. The film goes like this until its climax.

The native music used in the film was pretty good; it lent itself well to the increasing tension towards the end, although it got a little annoying sometimes (they kept reusing some of the music).

The acting....well, as the production story goes, the film was supposed to have a female lead, but the two directors (Gamazon and Dela Llana) couldn't get anyone to go with them to the Philippines, to the slums, with no bodyguards or anything of that sort. So they rewrote the script and Gamazon reluctantly became the male lead. And his acting inexperience showed (like when he gets angry and stuff).

I liked the voice of the uncredited Muslim terrorist though. Direct and very threatening (well, most of the time -- he sang Mr. Suave at a part of the film). It was better that we never saw him at all in the film.

So to me, the best part of the film was the location and the resourcefulness of the directors to pull off a thriller such as this with no budget (they sold their cameras on Ebay after they were done with them to recoup costs). The acting from the main lead could have been better and detracted a bit from the overall film; nevertheless, this is a film worth watching.

Other views:

Positive: LA Times
Negative: The AV Club

Thanks to Amanda, Derrick, Diane, Andrew, Rachelle, and Loraine for coming out and watching the film with me.