I am really not fond of watching movie. I mean, I am not making an effort to watch a movie on cinema, if there is a chance then,ok, and that only seldom happens. I only can watch movie on tv- HBO, cinemaone, starmovies and the likes and also in film showing in school. Whenever I watch films, especially when it’s an action film, I couldn’t help myself but to sleep. Sound’s ironic but it’s true. There is one thing I will confess… I had not watched even a single movie of Harry Potter. I had confessed this because I know that to everybody Harry Potter movie is such a big deal and I don’t even bother to watch it even though I have the resources.(a pirated dvd…pssshht..).

Yes, I am not a movie fanatic but somehow,  I know how to appreciate a movie. I know even just a little how to watch a movie and say whether it is good or bad but then of course that was just superficial It is because I always focus myself on the story, never minding the manner it was presented, the technicalities per se.  I am not so particular and actually I am not looking with how the camera was moving, what is the shot, if there is any framing or what, I am so engaged with the story especially if the story is of my interest.As an amateur, All I can say is that Kubrador is a good movie because it appears as real and natural to me. I don’t still have that true critic’s eye, but I will try my best with the help of my friends Carroll, Mulvey, Cavell, and Sesonske

A Synopsis 

An ordinary meaningless existence can suddenly be challenged by the perplexing game of life, luck and death. Amelita or Amy is an aging jueteng kubrador (bet collector). Despite the regular crackdown on the illegal numbers game, she clings to the job she has known for more than 20 years. She walks around the poverty-stricken squatter’s neighborhood collecting bets from her regular patrons everyday. Her husband Eli, who is equally aging, can only manage to help by manning their small sari-sari (variety store). Amy’s grown up children have all left home. Her eldest daughter Mona works as a domestic helper abroad. Her second daughter, Juvy, who is always pregnant, lives with her in-laws. Amy’s youngest son, Eric, a young soldier, recently died on combat duty in Mindanao. While collecting bets three days before All Saints day, Amy is apprehended by a police officer. She joins the other kubradors in the police station until their kabo (handler) bails them out. The following morning, Amy returns to the streets and continues her clandestined activity. She meets the parish priest, who informs her of a young neighbor’s sudden death from an accident. The priest asks her to collect abuloy (donations) from neighbors and friends. When Amy remits her afternoon jueteng collection to her kabo, she finds him sick at home. He then asks her to attend the next jueteng draw on his behalf, Amy being a trusted ally of the jueteng network for a long time. Amy and the other kabos await the arrival of the table manager (supervisor) of the draw in a secluded location. But when the table manager arrives, he announces that the draw is cancelled and informs everyone the winning numbers from the jueteng financier.  When Amy goes home that night, her husband Eli tells her the bad news. He failed to hand over a bet from a neighbor whose numbers, to Amy’s surprise, won the rigged draw. Pissed off, she has no choice but to go to her kabo and borrow money in order to pay out the neighbor. That night, the neighbors have lighted candles in front of their houses to welcome the feast of All Saints Day the next morning. A mammoth crowd greets Amy and her family as they approach the cemetery. At Eric’s grave they see Glenda, Eric’s girlfriend, offering flowers and prayers for her dead boyfriend. Still pissed off with Eli, Amy leaves and wanders around the cemetery to cool off. Suddenly she hears a commotion. Two vehicles figured in a collision. The two drivers engage in a heated argument until one of them pulls out a gun and fires a shot. The bullet goes pass Amy and hits a teenage boy behind her. Amy shouts for help. Police arrive and arrest the suspect. Other bystanders help load the bloodied body of the boy in a vehicle. Still in a state of shock, Amy follows gaze as the vehicle speeds away from the crime scene.

 http://kubrador.mlrfilms.com/synopsis.php 

 Kubrador exemplifies a good movie for many reasons. Among all the movies that I have seen and “heard”, Kubrador didn’t have those special effects like what is dominant now because of the emergence of sci-fi and fantasy movies. Generally, I love independent film since it not profit oriented; it really has a story to tell not just have a predictable plot. Like many other independent films, Kubrador brought a new story since it deviates from the norm. In Kubrador we can see the reality of how life is moving in the Philippines. It presents the real state of life- the bad one. One can judge from the appearance of the film that it has a very low budget considering the effects and other technicalities involved. The film was shot in a squatter’s area with real squatter people around (or they are hired people who look like they really lived there). The whole place, the house, the streets, everything was so realistic. Realistic in the sense that it does not make anything to make the bad one looks good but presented it how it should be. Like the real squatter’s area scenario, it really was that messy and noisy and crowded and dirty in reality. 

There were scenes that took place in the streets like when Amy met her neighborhood and talked about the latest gossip, talked to her son-in-law who was selling his newspapers, there is a scene where she passed by into her god daughter who is leaving to the states with her foreign husband. Many people were passing and interrupting especially those who bought the paper with the son-in-law scene, also with the god daughter’s scene where almost the whole bid goodbye to her. Even when that scene was so muddled because there were many people passing by and talking, still, it appeared very realistic since in real life, this is what you can see. When you’re in the streets, expect people to interfere. Scenes like this, which give important messages, normally appear orderly and clear on screen. But in this particular film, it’s as if order and clarity were not put in priority. The more chaotic it is, the more realistic it appears. 

 Indie films is more realistic, and it presents a new breath of air and it somehow shows some ideas which is simple we may think but is a very essential to be aired, these are the lives of the ordinary people, the real situation of our country, the small details that we always neglect. With these, Indie films are more effective in soliciting sympathy from the audience. Everything appears very natural. One goal of this movie maybe is to make the viewers feel how it is like to be a bet collector. And the approach of the movie, if I may say, is effective. The movie effectively shows what happens in a Kubrador’s daily life,  how she convince people to bet, how she interprets events that is happening around her and convert it to numbers, how she struggles with the risk of getting caught by cops anytime,  how she fights poverty, how she handles all matters; family, community, and life itself. 

Movie, as what Plato is saying, can move you that as if you are part of the film. It indeed brings you to the world projected on the screen, to the reality the movie is portraying. It makes you laugh, when the characters are laughing, makes you cry when they are crying, It makes you feel nervous, afraid, tired when they also feel that. It will let you feel that you are one of the characters, mingle with them and want to do something to make everything in the story fall into place. When these things happen to you in watching movie, you are indeed under the power of movies. When I was watching Kubrador, I was also got carried away with what is happening in the film. At the start of the film, when the cop is running after the man , (the habulan factor) I felt also like I am the one running and being chased after. I also got nervous when there is an alarm of a cop approaching. I also feel for Amy; her everyday struggle, her cough (which is so realistic), her problems especially with the guy who must have won. Except that it was related with Erap, I know nothing about jueteng but the movie was able to get my attention stick to it. 

To support Plato’s idea on how powerful films can be, Noel Carroll in his Power of Movies explains further why motion pictures are well-appreciated by the viewers. He commented that movies are more accessible than other genres like drama, ballet, and opera because of its superior accessibility and intensity. And also, he added that movies have the power to direct the audience’s attention. We can assess this claim in the movie Kubrador. The way the movie was produced really made the messages clear to us audience.   He also said that in movies, through variable framing, the spectator is perceiving exactly what she should be perceiving at the precise moment she should be perceiving it. in the Movie Kubrador, no matter how messy and cluttered some scenes may have been, still, the movie makers were able to make use of variable framing in sending messages to us viewers. There were scenes that show close-up figures of the actors and actresses and even of the setting sometimes. Through this, the audience can read that emphasis must be put on that particular person or thing brought in bigger view on the screen. Similarly, the audience can tell if something is irrelevant to the story if it has not been put into focus. Variable framing is done in three ways. Indexing is one of the three wherein a camera is moved toward the object. This is seen in the movie Kubrador when the camera directed and moves toward the picture of a young man until it was focused on the picture alone and everything beyond the frame is excluded-this is another technique called bracketing. Scaling or making the photograph appear bigger was also done together with indexing and bracketing. Another instant that I noticed indexing is used was when Amy was listing the numbers and the camera moves toward her hand while writing down digits. 

 Another reason behind the power of movies, according to Noel Carroll, is that movies are fictional narratives. He said that the fact that movies tend to be narrative, concerned primarily with depictions of human actions, immediately suggests one of the reasons they are accessible. For narrative is, in all probability, our most pervasive and familiar means of explaining human action. Of course, movies depict stories and from these stories, we can feel familiarity and sometimes we can even relate since what we usually see are things we do in the real world. In the movie Kubrador, particularly, the scenes were very familiar to us especially because the setting was in a normal, natural world with normal and natural people. Also, the daily activities shown are very familiar to us viewers as they also happen in our own living. But the best thing about the narration of the movie is that the arrangement of the pictorial representation makes sense—it tells a story, a story of a bet collector.  This story is stated in the movie as narrative, as what Caroll describe. This narrative is achieved through different ways of directing the audience’s attention. Techniques used in variable framing actually give you the idea of what is going to happen. For instance, in indexing, bracketing and scaling of the photograph tells you that the photo is important and it first introduced that Amy has a son. I immediately grasped that Amy had a son who died, we can say this without it being mentioned before and even before the appearance of the ghost of his son in the film you already had an idea of it because of the indexing and bracketing of the photograph. It worked effectively. Noel Caroll also said that earlier scenes be related to later scenes as questions are to answers. In this scene, the focusing of the photograph sets a question in the watcher’s mind who is this person, shortly after that scene you see the guy in the photograph, then he suddenly disappears, thus letting you know that he is already dead, he’s a ghost. It also directs you to the last part of the story where Amy and her family went to the cemetery visiting his son’s grave. In the scene when the camera moves toward the paper in Amy’s hand, It made me think that this paper, this particular scene has a significant meaning or it will lead to something. It was confirmed later on as the story unfolds, she got caught by the police and the paper in her hand was the evidence. Also, at the start of the film, Amy was praying to the saint that she won’t get caught. Get caught from what? Then, next scenes answered this question as you see Amy collecting bets. The prayer scene of Amy also let you think if Amy is really is religious.The dead son thingy, was put again into emphasis when Amy cried upon seeing the relative of the dead person cried, you will ask why is she crying then as the story develops as it was fully revealed when Amy and her family went to the cemetery to visit his dead son. She cried because she remembered her son.

 So much of Carroll’s variable framing, and narrative, let us talk about how Maulvey describes woman as an image an man as the bearer of the look in the movie. She says that traditionally, a woman displayed has functioned on two levels: as erotic object for the characters within the screen. If that is the case, then Kubrador is really deviating from the norm, the lead actress, and other women in the film does not exude an erotic aura, they are not viewed as an erotic object by any male character and by the audience. There were no scenes or any sight that suggest of the woman be viewed as an erotic object. Although it is true for some films that women are viewed this way, it just doesn’t apply with Kubrador. In fact, there’s no single taste of eroticism in the film. Though there is a scene wherein Amy take off her dress to change another; she only wear bra her boobs were showing, but it’s not erotic at all, maybe because she’s not young anymore and she’s not that sexy. So, I guess, somehow, the film tried to show what Maulvey was saying, but they failed to and it’s not their concern anyway. The director maybe wanted to present the film to be beautiful as what it was not because of presence the erotic object. The entire film revolved around Jueteng and the life of Amy as a wife to her jobless husband, a mother of a dead son and irresponsible daughter, a trusted neighbor, and a bet collector. And among other characters also, they were no erotic scenes or any scenes that could lead to erotic desire.

Also, it is said that males are the dominant characters in film even when women’s presence tend to put some scenes in suspension and they tend to catch the audience’s attention more than men do. But in this particular film, the lead character is a strong female, Amy. Although there were also men characters, they are not as dominant as what Gina Pareno portrayed. Even though the dominant character is a woman, still the film cannot deny that our country demonstrated a patriarchal society. Although Amy, the bet collector, is a strong woman who does not depend on anyone for her needs and even feeds her family when she should be relaxing at her age, the heads of the Jueteng system are male. His subordinates are also male; Mang Carding for one. The women are just bet collectors. Though male dominance is not the main focus of the story, still it is inherent in the film.

In terms of Cavell’s idea about stars in movies, I have proven it to be true because as I was watching the movie, I am thinking not of Amy alone but of Amy played by Gina Pareno. It is really hard to isolate Gina Pareno from the character because she is indeed a star. Anyway, Gina had done a very good job because she was able to act as if she was part of that community and she was in character as a kubrador.

Another friend of mine who is talking about film is Sesonsky, stated that the cinema’s formal categories are space, time,and motion. Sesonske also discusses how shots and camera movements help in creating the ‘feel’ of the space in film. This implies that space in film can be created. in the category of time, there is also duality expressed in his concept of viewing time and dramatic time. In dramatic time, which the Kubrador was focused, a filmmaker can show past, present and future within three hours or less in our viewing time. He can combine several distinct temporal periods in a single shot, show past and present in a single frame, or leap from the prehistoric past to a distant future without interrupting the continuity of motion. An example of this is the appearance of the Amy’s dead son. He came from the past and appears in Amy’s present time. Also, in two hours of watching, we have witnessed the three days of Amy’s life.  Motion, on the other hand is also as significant, as we see objects move in film the way objects move in the natural world. But what we see on screen, the movement, is in relation not only to surrounding objects but also in relation to the frame. Small movements that we do not often notice in the natural world could be the center of our attention in film. We have the sense of moving within the action space, within the frame but still remains in our seat. In kubrador, it was able to bring us to the squatter’s area, the crowded, packed space which really made you feel that you are in the slum since you are deprived of space. As Amy is walking in the narrow alley, I can also feel the motion. The camera was following her, which is sometimes makes me feel dizzy because of the fast movement. There we can see that movie has the concept of time, space and motion.

As a whole, Kubrador is a very good film not just because it garnered many awards here and abroad but also it exudes the element that is inherent in Movies so that it can be powerful.