Rosario, not like Insiang.

By my lonesome self I saw Rosario earlier.  My friends didn’t want to see it.  One was unconvinced that Albert Martinez, who started his career as an actor in silly teenage romp like Blue Jeans and Bata pa Si Sabel, could actually direct a film.  Another also wouldn’t give lead star Jennylyn Mercado a second look (“I never liked her on TV; could she really carry a big movie?).  Others declined after being inundated by the movie’s marketing (“Must all the Expressway toll booths have posters of Rosario?).  They had also seen the trailer and thought it was another Markova, where Dolphy bookended a movie that wasted a highly original material (comfort gays for Japanese soldiers).

Well, I can tell them now: Albert Martinez can direct.  Jennylyn is miscast.  The marketing is as epic as the movie’s ambition – trim the excesses and all you’ve got is a movie about a woman who ran into a series of misfortunes on account of several indiscretions.  In a barn, a bodega, a rusty vintage car and a pre-war shabby tenement.

The story revolves around Rosario (Mercado), who arrives from Nueva York in her wealthy father’s Isabela hacienda.  She’s smokes a lot, wears a lot of make-up and fancy headgear, does a mean Lizst on the piano.  She’s Isabela’s hope as the next Manila Carnival Queen. She seduces Vicente (Yul Servo), the manager of the hacienda.  Her father learns of her trysts with Vicente and sends her to a convent for rehabilitation.  She escapes, then hooks up with Vicente to start a family. Vicente gets ill with tuberculoisis. He quarantines himself in their San Juan home and denies her sex.  Alberto (Dennis Trillo) lures her into committing adultery.  She gets found out again.  More bad luck ensues.

“A woman ahead of her time”, so declare the advertising.  More like a woman who can’t keep her camison on.

But I must hand it to Cinemabuhay, mogul Manuel V. Pangilinan’s film outfit, for debuting with all the right intentions. They’ve given Martinez a break and he’s certainly more skilled and artful than most directors who compete in the annual Manila festival.  They spent on the film, hiring a first-rate production team: Carlo Mendoza (Director of Photography), Albert Chang (Musical Score), Miki Hahn (costume designer) and Brocka’s meticulous and precise production designer Joey Luna.  And, kudos too for having a female character as its principal character.

Strong female characters are a rare treat in Pinoy movies.  One of the most memorable ones was Brocka’s Insiang (1976).  Like Rosario, Insiang is morally challenged.  Like Insiang, Rosario, she seeks emancipation from her environment (though Insiang’s was impoverished) and an unforgiving parent.  Like Insiang, Rosario suffers from societal abandonment after struggling for self-actualization.

But unlike Hilda Koronel who played Insiang, Jennylyn’s guileless countenance is puzzling. Hilda was wan and stoic because she was plotting.  No amount of accoutrement from the 1920s or rapturous camera work could make Jennylyn believably mystifying enough for men to fall for her.

Unlike Rosario, I felt for Insiang.