Ang Babae sa Septic Tank: A Review

Photo courtesy of juice.ph

I had the chance of watching Ang Babae sa Septic Tank with my sister and I had a good LOL moment. It’s been a while since the last time I laughed out loud in the theater, so this must be something special.

The film deals with the rigors of movie-making, following the journey of up and coming filmmakers (a producer, a director and a production manager) in their road to the Oscars. An idealistic breed of young talents who had high hopes of creating the best, if not one of the best films, this country could have ever produced. Their idealism, however, has been challenged left and right with various obstacles.

For one, they couldn’t seem to agree on which treatment to use – is it indie, docu drama or musical? Add to it the challenge of choosing the best actor to play the part of the lead role, Mila, which eventually landed on the lap of Eugene Domingo, who, by the way, has her own version of an over-the-top melodrama treatment of the film in mind, of which she has no qualms laying on the table.

Eugene Domingo is perfect. I really love her acting style, or maybe, just who she is as a person – talented, witty, funny. The supporting cast is no less exemplary. I was really entertained. However, her character as a diva actress is proving to be yet another challenge to the team as she becomes somewhat of a pain, having so many demands that could jeopardize the project altogether. In the end though, it was thought to be workable.

The biggest hurdle probably is when they made an ocular inspection of the film setting, a dump site somewhere in the metro. There they came face to face with the very reality they are trying to capture – the poverty, the squalor - not only in a visual sense but also true-to-life. They experienced first-hand poverty’s ill-effects on human behavior. Now they had to deal with a big financial loss. Their car got burglarized, and with it are all the money, equipment (i.e., laptops), and most importantly, the ideas they’ve worked so hard into putting together to make this dream project into reality.

Now, if this doesn't make a spoiler out of me, I don't know what will. Absurdly enough however, in a seeming act of deterrence from going all out with it, I was spurred to leave it to readers to find out how the story ended.

Now that's being left hanging.