‘Hated in the nation’
Nearly two months ago I tweeted a screenshot from the film-focused social platform Letterboxd. It showed the bare-bones page of the new Darryl Yap film (an event in itself lately), “Maid in Malacañang.” Although it didn’t have an official poster or synopsis yet, the film’s page already had 23 ratings and 17 logged reviews, and all of them skewed towards the negative.
Earlier in May, the controversial content-creator-turned-director revealed the pitch for his newest project: a biopic of arguably the country’s most infamous family, the Marcoses, told “through the eyes of one reliable source.” It was opportune, to say the least since the national elections concluded a week prior. And fast forward to now, another Marcos has won the presidency and we are a few hours away from the premiere of Maid in Malacañang.
Going back to the whole Letterboxd saga: as of writing, the film has a 0.6 rating — the lowest ever on the site. While an overwhelming majority of the more than three thousand users that logged the film rated it either half or one star, there are those that remained eager and positive. But what does a niche site for cinephiles have to do with Maid in Malacañang.
If you’re like me, then you like to check out reviews. A good assessment of a product helps the consumer make informed decisions. In this case, deciding whether to watch a particular movie. Reviews, moreover, are an effective marketing strategy. But what’s fascinating about the present case is that the campaign to dissuade moviegoers from watching this film began when virtually no one has even seen it yet. It’s nothing new to Letterboxd, who is very democratic towards its users, but this aggressive pushback from the moviegoing community only means that this is beyond the value of entertainment now. Then again, this is a very special case.
Don’t forget: Letterboxd is a social platform. While it doesn’t have the breadth and transmissibility of Facebook, Twitter, or TikTok, it is still an established and authoritative space among film enthusiasts. And where else do they broadcast their movie musings?
Today, on the eve of Maid’s release, the Carmelite nuns in Cebu denounced the film’s depiction of nuns. A still from the film made the rounds online and showed the religious sisters playing mahjong with the late Cory Aquino. I would like to particularly highlight this part of their statement:
“Let it be known that no one responsible for the production of the movie came to us to gather information on what really happened. Any serious script writer or movie director could have shown such elementary diligence before making such movie.”
While I’m no filmmaker nor film scholar, I think this speaks volumes about Yap’s craft (or lack thereof). I know he wasn’t necessarily going for historical accuracy, but the least he could have done was to have a sense of decency and a proclivity to research. And that I know is part of the pre-production phase in film production.
The bigger question I want to pose, however is this: can a film like Maid in Malacañang exist in our cinema? There have been polarizing entries and big political statements, sure. But what if they disturb, even by a hair, the mechanisms of our history? Then I guess it’s time to leave the movie house.
