Freedomland
Michael Tuviera's The Kingdom is that rarity in Filipino films, a high-concept production that in this case answers the question: what if the Spaniards never landed? What if the Philippines-- here renamed Kalayaan (Freedom)-- remained Malay in culture and tradition?
An ambitious idea but not entirely original; in science fiction it's an entire subgenre, answering all kinds of what ifs: What if the Protestant Reformation never happened (Kingsley Amis' The Alteration)? What if Hitler won World War 2 (Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle)?* What if masked vigilantes were real and Nixon was never impeached (Alan Moore's Watchmen)?
*(Actually Alternate-history Hitler novels are a sub sub genre all their own: Norman Spinrad's The Iron Dream; Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here; Frederic Mullally's Hitler Has Won; Simon Louvish's Resurrections from the Dustbin of History)
Some of the details are worked out fairly well. No Marias or Joses but the king Makisig, his son Magat, his daughters Dayang and Lualhati; diplomacy is done through marriage ties, and there's at least one significant law that helps equalize the gulf between men where any man can challenge another man, even the king, to trial by combat. Not sure how the details are meant to be worked out (imagine a king being challenged every other minute by some plebeian) but points for just thinking up the concept.
Hesitate to call this science fiction, hardly any alternative tech on display and I wish they tried (A biogenetics program? Bamboo computers? Ceramic weaponry, made from volcanic glass and fibers?) but not all science has to be hard science; I'd love to have learned more about the economics and social mores, maybe the philosophy of a nonHispanic society. Are they a trading country, able to provide not just agricultural products but fish and seafood? Maybe skilled expertise in forestry, stonecraft, linguistics, poetry? Is their society communal, or some kind of updated feudal system? What kind of rights do women and nonMuslim tribals have (Apparently the women do get more than a little training in self-defense)? Just spitballing here, but the ideas are fun to think about.
Which makes it a tad disappointing that with all the possibilities the filmmakers confine themselves to family melodrama, particularly the chaotic transfer of power, focusing on the possible romance between a princess and an outcast nobody. I get it, it's a big budget (relatively, for a Filipino film), and has to make money back by attracting a big audience... maybe in the sequel they can cut back the production budget, spend more time on a more speculative script?
Tuviera's direction is more solid than imaginative, maybe a little less so in the action sequences and shootouts (too much fast cutting, not enough physical skill in the combatants); the lighting is almost uniformly bright (the better to see the expensive costumes and sets, I presume); the CGI effects are... well, I always say if you can't do decent digital effects, just do without. Films look better that way.
Of the cast, the surprise would be Vic Sotto in what may be his first noncomic role in a feature film; he acquits himself well enough, but it's such a carefully circumscribed performance you're not sure he should get any more praise than for the fact that he's stretched his neck just... this... much... out of his shell. Comic actors have done serious roles before-- Robin Williams, Albert Brooks come to mind. Maybe a villain role next time around (Williams in Insomnia, Brooks in Drive, both brilliant)?
Of the four films I saw in the Metro Manila Film Festival this is easily the least flawed--not sure that's a high compliment, any more than 'most cautious' is a compliment. Vic Sotto carefully reined in his slapstick instincts-- should he have done so completely? Couldn't his Makisig be a witty and charming statesman-- maybe cut loose on the dance floor? Tuviera has done everything from segments in the longrunning Shake Rattle and Roll horror series to Captain Barbell, to a Mission Impossible parody; I see here that he can do respectable filmmaking, but couldn't he be allowed a bit of comedy, a bit of parodic satire? The movie made a lot of money, and maybe a sequel could be in the works-- could they maybe be allowed to take a few risks, make the second one more inventive?
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