Tinta I: Unang Dekada

Women are humans: The legacy of Marilou Diaz-Abaya

Examining the legacy of National Artist Marilou Diaz-Abaya demands an inner understanding that the themes embedded within her films are bigger than the medium they are created in. It is important to understand that they are stories of women, for women, and by a woman—Marilou herself. Analyzing them requires seeking and understanding the roles that Filipinas play in her movies, highlighting both the woman and the Filipino aspects in Marilou's works.

To analyze Marilou's statement about Philippine society and culture, one must look at her most substantial contributions to Philippine cinema. Filipino words that end with "-al" can be attributed to deeply sacramental words such as kasal, banal, and asal. These words are often linked with the traditional, feminine roles of being a wife, being a virtuous woman, and being an obedient daughter. Marilou, however, revolutionized these ideas with her own "-al" series, whose impact on Filipinos was arguably even bigger than that of José Rizal (1998). Brutal (1980), Moral (1982), and Karnal (1983) constitute the feminist "-al" trilogy. Exploring these works reveals what, why, and how Marilou delivers her message.

Brutal

A story about a woman killing her husband and his friends, Brutal seamlessly weaves three primary themes about Filipinas: being a daughter, a wife, and a mother. Monica (Amy Austria)'s struggles with being an obedient daughter who married her rapist, Tato (Jay Ilagan), to avoid bringing her family shame and being subservient to him as part of her duty as his wife. Eventually, Monica murdered her husband and his friends after they sexually abused her multiple times and threatened her unborn child.

Meanwhile, there were characters that broke traditional female characters in Filipino movies, making women more dynamic. This could be seen in Clara Valdez (Charo Santos) with her cutthroat ambition to make her break and her decision to become an "equal partner" of a married man. There was also Cynthia (Gina Alajar) who used other men to provide herself pleasure.

Brutal had the same premise as Lino Brocka's Insiang (1976), a woman raped by men and took revenge. The difference here, however, was that while Insiang (Hilda Koronel) used men to exact this, Marilou allowed Monica to exact vengeance herself against her male abusers.

Moral

Meanwhile, Moral repeats its predecessor's themes albeit through the lens of four college friends, with a backdrop of activism and rebellion alluding to the hardships of Filipino workers during and after the Martial Law, formally lifted a year before the movie was released. Joey (Lorna Tolentino) reprised Brutal's Cynthia, a woman who actively engaged in sexual activities, but unlike Cynthia, Joey was not blinded by envy. Her relationship with her mother, Maggie (Laurice Guillen), also added another dimension to the relationship between liberal-minded women.

Clara's ambition was inherited by the character of Kathy (Gina Alajar), a singer who stopped at nothing to achieve her dreams of being famous. The patriarchal Filipino society dictated how the masculine would often seek pleasure from the feminine and instead of being its mere victim, Kathy weaponized this by actively using sex to achieve her goals.

Monica's role of a housewife got reprised by Maritess (Anna Marin), with the burden of being a baby-making machine added to her dilemma. Sylvia (Sandy Andolong), meanwhile, created a modern family by co-parenting her child with her ex-husband and his lover.

Both released in 1982, Moral and Ishmael Bernal's Relasyon discussed some same themes. Sylvia and Relasyon's Marilou (Vilma Santos) both engaged in an extra-marital affair. While the two were civil with their partners' wives, Sylvia immediately her relationship with Ernie (Ernie Garcia) once she knew he was married while Marilou actively remained for love. Additionally, Marilou had an on-and-off affair but she always returned under the man's conditions. Maritess, however, only returned to her husband under her terms—making her an equal partner in the relationship.

Karnal

A tragic story about a family in the rural town of Mulawin, Karnal shows the fragile ego of men in the most explicit manner. Narcing (Philip Salvador) could not return to Manila because he failed there, only being saved by his wife Puring (Cecile Castillo). Then, his father, Gusting (Vic Silayan), always presented himself as the head of the household, even if it meant making his children suffer.

Aside from the themes already discussed in the first two films, Karnal offered the clearest example of women having a choice. Without being forced to do so, Puring cheated on her husband with Goryo (Joel Torre) to give herself the pleasure she needed and experience the feeling of being understood by someone, even if he literally could not because was deaf.

Acting out of spite, Narcing's old fling Suling (Ella Luansing) reported this to Gusting, starting a chain of events that resulted in Narcing committing parricide and being imprisoned, eventually kicking the bucket himself. These plot points were important because this allowed female characters in movies to be more rounded, showing how women were capable of making their own decisions, both good and bad, instead of just being dictated to by a patriarchal society.

Meanwhile, there also was Narcing's sister Doray (Grace Amilbangsa) who left her husband Menardo (Crispin Medina) to find her true love, Jose, breaking the tradition of Filipino marriages lasting until death.

Pinal

From her name alone, Diaz-Abaya's choice to hyphenate her last name signifies maintaining one's identity and having gender equality. Her "-al" series highlights this by showing the vile consequences of allowing patriarchy to survive in the Philippines. Marilou demonstrates that women are humans too. Filipinas always have a choice, like Sylvia and Puring. They can be wives, like Maritess, or working women, like Clara and Kathy. They can also be as unorthodox as Cynthia and Doray.

With Doray's daughter (Charito Solis) and Monica, meanwhile, Marilou also noted that Filipinas had, and still have, the power to take things into their own hands and break the cursed shackles of patriarchy.