Pasan Ko Ang Daigdig

Director: Lino Brocka
Genre: Drama
Duration: 130 mins
Released: 1987
MPAA Rating: none (we give it an R for content and language)

Lupe Velez carries the weight of the world in her shoulders. Living in abject poverty, she begs around the busy streets of Manila carrying Metring, her lame mother on her back. Lupe also scrounges for saleable junk in the mountain dump in order to earn a living. Ambitious and determined, Lupe uses her talent and charm to get that one person who can take her out of this miserable situation. Using the basic rags-to-riches plot, the movie successfully presents and discusses a persistent issue that continues to plague the country - poverty in the slums.

Niña

(3 out of a possible 5) One Saturday afternoon found me nursing a migraine after a marathon review of accounting concepts which I have yet to fully understand. I decided to rest by watching something lame and mildly entertaining on TV. Since Spongebob wasn't on, I decided to switch to Pinoy Box Office, a cable channel on Destiny Cable.

Watching old Pinoy movies is a hobby of mine, mainly because I love seeing how people dressed up and how people looked like with their cobra hairdos and plastic earrings. I got what I was looking for when after the Yagit ending the teaser for the next film came and it was...PASAN KO ANG DAIGDIG. I never got to see this movie before and I only knew the premise, it got me excited knowing how Sharon Cuneta movies are always ridiculously fantastic in their plot twists and how her revenges are crafted. I was surprised though that Lino Brocka directed this movie, which to me meant that the movie probably has socio-political undercurrents.

Well, the movie was that, it was sober, even Sharon whipping her evil stepfather for stealing her hard-earned club money didn't have the same punch as Sharon's oft-quoted line in Bituing Walang Ningning. There was one memorable line though but it was uttered toward Sharon's mom who refused to believe that the man she's married is only hustling her for gambling money. Cmon guys you know how it goes..."Harap-harapan na kayong niloloko Inay!! Gutay-gutay na ang katawan nyo, ang kaluluwa nyo gutay-gutay na rin." There was no fantastic costume and make-up on her as well since Sharon dressed the way a club singer would. She was actually pretty convincing in her desire to rise from the abject poverty surrounding her and her mom. In order to hammer her plight home, Sharon also had to be raped by a childhood friend who's obsessed with her and almost marry a rich producer so that she can leave the slums. In a nutshell, my migraine gave way to a sobering realism. It's all Lino Brocka's fault for turning what could have been another Sharon Cuneta rags-to-riches story into something real and believable.