The women of "Mga Kuwentong Barbero" and "Virgin People"

Though Jun Lana's "Mga Kuwentong Barbero" (Barber's Tales) is set at a specific time and place - in a rural province at the time of Martial Law - its theme is undoubtedly of a universal import:a woman's place in society. On the other hand, even if no specific period and locality are explicitly given in Celso Ad. Castillo's "Virgin People" (1984 original version), it can be likewise argued that it is about women's plight. Thus, in a certain sense, both "Mga Kuwentong Barbero" and "Virgin People" are women's films. 

In the former film (shown a couple of weeks ago), the women are consigned to domestic duties, or fated to spinsterhood, or regarded as mere childbearers or outlets of sexual pleasure, or locked in an abusive relationship. They are perpetually in the shadows of their men. While in the latter film (also recently shown), the treatment of women is much more myopic and voracious:they are continually at the mercy of the sexual predators that are the men. It's like they are solely made to satisfy men's carnal appetites. Lana's film chronicles the trials, struggles and, eventually, empowerment of the women in the most low-key of ways and with clear-cut precision. A neat storytelling is very much on display here, the classic type wherein a given cause brings about a particular effect, or an action is met by a corresponding reaction, or the scheme of things is designed to reach its boiling point and catharsis. Remarkably, it's a feminist film that doesn't show its being so with raised fists and was sincerely made by a man - a beautiful irony. The only other powerful women's film that I can think of that was likewise made by a man is the French film "The Story of Women" by Claude Chabrol, which tackles a more grave subject - abortion. 

While in Castillo's film, the allusions are much more pronounced. There's no attempt whatsoever at subtlety and grace. What it utilizes instead are symbols and archetypes, which we may start to appreciate if we look at the film as working like a parable - and at that, a Biblical parable. It can't be mistaken:the setting as the Garden of Eden;the men (the "outside forces") as sexual vultures;sexual awakening as a serpent's path;Christ as a father-figure;women as lambs perennially exposed to the wolves' voracious eyes;divine retribution for one's travesties;sin as being attendant to the knowledge of good and evil. While sexual knowledge and experience may bring about some form of emancipation and empowerment for Castillo's virginal doves, it's not without some price to pay. Thus comes the hard blows of abandonment, disappointment, abuse, rivalry and even death. At its striking best, the film's prevalent mood of animalistic cravings gives hints of a Shohei Imamura masterpiece. 

Yet, how "Mga Kuwentong Barbero" and "Virgin People" each bring to a headpoint the fate of their women is something that is open-ended in nature and, as it is, not without the entailment of some form of sacrifice. In the first film, the main character's (Marilou) penultimate self-realization and -liberation doesn't exactly happen until after the loss of some dear lives and the commitment of a brutal act. By the end, it's up to us to weigh down the matter of whether or not Marilou's decision to live a radical new life is a signal of better things to come. While in the second film, the youngest daughter's (Talya) eventual trek from the bastion of "Paradise" into the town of "Sodom" doesn't really materialize until after the downfall of her tightly-knit family. Whether the final frame suggests a life of further bliss and peace or of even more temptations and sufferings for the young woman in her newfound "home", it's up to us to think. 

Lana's "Mga Kuwentong Barbero" and Castillo's "Virgin People" may differ from each other in regards thematic and stylistic concerns - the former has political tones, while the latter has allegorical conceits. But the two films, while about three decades apart from one another, essentially share an affinity in regards putting women's place in society at the center, whether in broad (the first film) or specific terms (the second film). 

("Mga Kuwentong Barbero" and "Virgin People":All about Eve)