War games

By Noel Vera

DVD Review
Sundalong Kanin (Rice Soldiers)
Directed by Janice O’Hara

(Belated tribute to Janice O’Hara, 1980-2016)

TO SAY Janice O’Hara’s Sundalong Kanin (Rice Soldiers) is clumsy isn’t I think a false or fatal flaw — it is clumsy. But it is also by story’s end an engaging, suspenseful, even powerful film, a fitting successor you might say to her uncle Mario O’Hara’s wartime classic Tatlong Taong Walang Diyos (Three Years Without God), which had its own moments of awkwardness but still managed to be great.

Janice working off a script by Jerry O’Hara tells the story of four friends — Nitoy, Benny, Carding, and Badong — and for the first 10 or so minutes it’s a cliche depiction of youth. The four are pushed around by Dado’s rival gang, respond by stealing said gang’s clothes while they swim in the river, enjoy the warm if fragile innocence of childhood to the strains of TJ Ramos’s lyrical music.

One early sequence suggests that this won’t entirely be that kind of film, though: Carding’s father Tomas is the school principal; when Tomas learns that Dado — son of Tonyo, the school janitor — had beaten his boy, the furious father marches to his employee’s hut and threatens the family with a gun. It’s an uncomfortable moment with none of the sentimentality of the previous scenes, and shows in sharp relief the class tensions and privileged thin-skinned machismo holding their social order together.

That order is flipped upside-down by the Japanese of course. Janice introduces them gradually: a rumor at first, then a radio broadcast; finally when Lt. Tanaguchi and his soldiers march into town and up Tomas’s wide staircase they’re as implacable and enigmatic as the townsfolk fear they might be. Tomas makes the mistake of welcoming them like fellow Filipinos, with warmth and open arms; he gets slapped in the face for his pains. Tonyo having learned Japanese from a previous employer is promoted to the position of liaison and translator, becoming the town’s de facto leader.

Tomas the principal now pleads for mercy for him and Carding; Tonyo the janitor is now an authority figure, and, unlike more soft-focused depictions of poor folk, the change unbalances him. When a Japanese soldier dies, Taniguchi through Tonyo holds the town accountable: the killer must be surrendered, Tonyo declares, or everyone suffers.

Even in this new regime appearances are deceitful. A brief scene reveals that Taniguchi abuses Tonyo the same way Tonyo abuses his neighbors; the former janitor is driven not just by lust for power but by a very real fear of failure. Later Taniguchi himself reveals a hidden sense of compassion: when someone finally confesses to the crime, the lieutenant praises the culprit’s bravery:

“You should be a soldier.”

“I don’t want to kill anyone.”

Taniguchi considers this reply. “That’s very wise of you.”

The film goes on, weaving a spiraling web of vengeance and betrayal that recalls Vittorio de Sica’s Shoeshine, only with higher stakes than a mere horse. By film’s end, Filipinos are pitted against fellow Filipinos, and the Japanese loom like a Damoclean threat over all.

The cast of adults is excellent; Paolo O’Hara as the swaggering (later craven) Tomas; Marc Abaya as the simple (later volatile) Tonyo; Art Acuña as the rigid (yet somehow appealing) Lt. Taniguchi; Peewee O’Hara as Carding’s tragically foresighted grandmother. The children are less consistent but Nathaniel Britt as Nitoy, Akira Moroshita as Carding, Elijah Canlas as Badong, and Gelo Martinez as Dado all have their standout moments; even the young Isaac Cain Aguirre (who plays Nitoy’s younger brother Benny) is effective just kneeling (and later standing) on a riverbank, weeping.

I mentioned a handful of O’Haras — Jerry is Janice’s father, who adapted an old script by Mario (lowering the children’s ages from 15-16 to 10-12 along the way) and coproduced with daughter (and Janice’s twin sister) Denise. Paolo is Janice’s older brother, almost unrecognizable from the sweet-souled farmer he played in Free Range. Younger brother Heber provides the end credit vocals. Actress Peewee is Janice’s mother.

But accusations of nepotism would be laughable; the O’Haras (like the Redgraves or Barrymores) apparently have creative fire — acting, writing, filmmaking — in their blood, and are comfortable working off against and with each other; who would deny them this accommodation, if the results can be this good?

As for the film’s supposed flaws — I remember talking to a writer about Mario O’Hara’s Sisa, which I thought brilliant; she conceded the imaginative nature of the concept (Jose Rizal in love with his most famous fictional creation) but thought he should have waited for more money. “And then what?” I replied. “Let the screenplay sit on his desk, moldering? He had a chance to do the film for very little (some $60,000 shot in 10 days), and now here it is, a film not a script. Some pictures I enjoy for ‘production values,’ ‘professional acting,’ ‘beautiful cinematography’; others I value for ideas, moments, imagery. Sisa is the second kind, and what it offers renders its flaws largely irrelevant.”

Well, maybe replied only in my head; she’s a good friend. But that’s my response to her complaint, the same response to complaints about Sundalong Kanin: ideas and moments and imagery transcend its many flaws, and I’m glad Janice managed to finish it before she passed on.