Limang Libo (Movie Analysis)
This short film focuses on the lives of two separate families. The family of Susan and the family of Manuel. The film goes by as Susan and Manuel cross each other’s paths and deals with the same problem in their lives.
Close up shots, medium shots, high angle shots were used as camera techniques in the film which belongs to technical codes. There are also some symbolism in the film. The trading of cellphones and cash, Susan’s son’s cellphone, the 5,000 pesos, the blood on Manuel’s shirt, the blind guitarist, and many more. Reality is also shown in the film by the use of vulgar language and how the actors deliver their lines.
1.Why is Susan crying? (In the beginning and ending of the film
- She’s crying because she’s got a lot of problems to think about. Mostly, bills.
2. Do Susan and Manuel know each other?
- Susan doesn’t know Manuel, but Manuel possibl knows some information about Susan. It’s possible that Manuel knows that Susan is a midwife, that’s why he headed to Susan’s home with his pregnant wife later on in the film.
3. What is the tool he (Manuel) uses for his work?
- Manuel uses a sharp blade for his work. (Cutter)
4. Describe Susan’s setting. Who is she expecting to come early in the morning?
- Susan was changing the sheets of the bed. She is possibly expecting someone in her family to be home. Most probably her son.
5. How much does Manuel earn for what he does? What does he do with the coins of the blind guitarist?
- He earns just a little, or should I say “barya”. He did not take the coins of the blind guitarist but he put them back to the blind guitarist’s can instead.
6. What did Manuel witness while listening to the blind guitarist?
- He saw a suspicious exchange of a cellular phone and money.
7. Who was knocking on Susan’s door? Where is her son and what time of the day do the viewers meet him?
- The person who was knocking on Susan’s door was a bill-delivery man/mailman. Her son was at Tony Boy’s place and it was already dark. Possibly after class hours.
8. What relationship does Susan have with her son according to his friends? What does the cellphone indicate about their relationship? In what way does the cellphone also function as a symbolic element in the narrative?
- One of his friends said “Duon ka ba nakatira ngayon?”. Susan and her son might belong to a broken family where sometimes (possibly), her son lives with his husband/ his son’s father. Her son is also described as a “momma’s boy” but he denies it. Their mother-son relationship may not be strong. The cellphone symbolizes the sacrifices and love of Susan to her son. She has a lot of bills to pay but despite of that, she still managed to give her son a brand new cellphone.
9. While Susan’s son is out drinking with his friends, where is Manuel and Susan? Why is Susan so anxious? what is she reading? What does her anxiety have to do with her son’s new cellphone?
- They are in their own businesses. Manuel was with his wife and Susan was in her home. Susan is stressed about her bills to pay, possibly including her son’s brand new cellphone.
10. How does Susan and Manuel Meet? In what other way are their lives paralleling to each other? How do their parallel lives correspond to the parallel editing used by the film?
- Susan met Manuel when his wife was about to give birth. Instead of going to the nearby hospital, Manuel decided to knock on Susan’s door, begging for assistance. their lives correspond to each other because they are both in need of money.
11. Why does Manuel has blood on his shirt? What was Susan thinking when she turned away her head from Manuel? What did she look at before asking for 5 thousand Pesos from him?
- Manuel has blood on his shirt because he was assisting his wife who’s about to give birth. Based on the same facial expression that Susan had while thinking about her bills to pay and helping Manuel and his wife, she was thinking of her debts. She looked at the table full of mails (bills to pay) before asking for 5,000 pesos from Manuel.
12.How does the editing connect the spaces of Susan and her son, through the gesture of Susan’s turning her head? How does editing manipulate time, so that Susan ends up like she’s turning to look at both her son and Manuel with her son?
- The editing connects the spaces through editing techniques as if they were looking to each other.
13. How the scenes parallel to each other? (With Susan helping Manuel’s wife and Manuel stealing the cellphone of Susan’s son) How does the death of Manuel’s son ironically parallel the death of Susan’s son?
- The scenes parallel to each other because as we have seen, they are both in need of money and both Susan and Manuel are looking for a way to solve their own respective problems. Specifically, financial problems. But they do not know that their sons are now gone.
14. How does editing connect images that are graphically similar or connected?
- The editing connects them through the setting and issues in the film.
15. The viewers see Susan and Manuel for the last time in this way. Do they know each other? Why is here blood on Manuel’s shirt? Why is Susan crying?
- In this last scene, they now know each other but not personally. Susan was crying because of her problems, financially. The blood on Manuel’s shirt was his wife’s. He was providing assistance to his wife that’s why he got blood stains on his shirt.
16. What are the social issues in the film?
- Poverty is the main social issue in the film, next is family planning, and family-related issues.
17.What is the overall effect of dramatic irony?
- The overall effect is more focused on emotional effects and realism.
18. How does the film manipulate time and space to show the intricacy of how people’s lives are intertwined?
- The film manipulated time and space through the overall plot of the film and also its setting.
19. How do little details and gestures in the film add up not only to tell a story but to communicate the themes?
- Little details show hints and foreshadows such happenings in the story.
20. Why is the film structured like a circle, ending where it opened?
- The film is structured like a circle so that the audience mind’s may startle to think about different things and interact with their emotions and minds.
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