I myself was born and raised in the city; living among those swimming in the sea of obscurity.
I was born and raised in an urban environment; accustomed to the hustle and bustle of city life. “Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag” a brilliant film directed by Lino Brocka, which depicts Maynila as a grim concrete jungle, rich with people desperate to feed themselves and an equal amount of cruelty to exploit their helplessness. For someone such as myself who grew up in the city, the film is quick to shed light on social issues and has done well to enlighten me on the possible dangers that lurk underneath the shadows of familiarity.
My favourite aspect of the film is the use of the main character, Julio Madiaga, a fisherman coming from the Marinduque- far from being familiar with the lifestyle of being in the city. Early on in the film he acquires a job as a construction worker, but due to not being used to manual labour, he collapses from exhaustion. In the scenes following his collapse, his co-worker hits Julio with a warning- that living in the city is difficult unless you have the means to afford a comfortable life. This warning, or rather advice about living in the city is from my perspective, quite accurate. The living conditions of being underpaid, indebted, or worse impoverished is absolutely abysmal here in the Philippines. During my time in senior high school, we were required to participate in community service, in the case of our class we were tasked to help construct housing for the less fortunate. While we were there I was able to talk with some of the residents of the area, and it turns out that quite a few of them work in construction themselves. From what I’ve gathered, they work roughly 12 hours a day only to earn about 50 pesos. Mind you these were 12 hours of manual labor in an extremely exhausting environment, starting from 6am to around 7pm. I’m not saying that I completely understand the circumstances of these people struggling with living in these harsh conditions, but the film, in my opinion accurately sheds light on the hardships of these people.
Later on in the film, it was revealed that the girl Julio had been searching for, Ligaya Paraiso was forced into prostitution and had even given birth. After hearing of this, Julio offers Ligaya a chance to escape with him. Although after Ligaya had not shown herself at the appointed location, she ends up disappearing. The following day Julio is informed that Ligaya died during a struggle. The following events that unfold are quite gruesome, and in my opinion is the highlight of the film where we visibly see Julio breakdown mentally and descend into unbridled anger, acting more like an animal than a person. I assume this is what the film is trying to depict because after being chased by a mob, they corner Julio like a wild beast and the scene zooms into his face as the mob ready their attack.
My take on the film’s symbolism is that the hardships and evil in the city can force one’s character to degrade and push them to do things that they normally wouldn’t, to the point of almost losing all sense of self-control and conscience. Although this might sound like an exaggeration we can see that throughout the film Julio has undergone some form of transformation in his character, brought about by his desperation to survive. He delves out of his comfort zone to earn his keep, although not entirely bad in the right context, in his case he explored things such as prostitution which he himself was visibly reluctant to participate in.
The title “Sa Kuko ng Liwanag”, in my opinion represents the potential of the city’s toxic practices to drive a person to their bare instincts, forgetting their moral compass and making questionable choices. In my eyes, the city is unfair to many and can bring out the worst in people. In a place abundant with light, supposedly a symbol of hope and opportunity; those who truly need that light are left behind, desperately clawing at it from the shadows. “Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag” is not just a film, it speaks on a much more personal level to those struggling in today’s society and serves as a cry for help to those who are able to stay in the light.
FILMLANG-DeLeon Film Review 