“hindi ba mas maranagal na mamatay na lumalaban kesa mamatay sa pagka-alipin” writing this review the day after i watched the film because i want to process it and digest it the way it supposed to. however i’m not going to lie, immediately after the movie ended, all i can think of is ‘men can’t do anything’ which is primarily bcs i’m a man hater like that but also bcs of the fact that they had the audacity to just give up para muling maging tuta ng panibagong banyaga, without even consulting the women OR at least informing sisa of what was abt to happen. the film is so frustrating to me not bcs its bad but bcs it showed how in war this what women have to go through over and over again - an endless cycle of getting your hopes up, laying down your life for freedom, and then that hope getting ripped away from them bcs the men decided to give up. i dont think the men even empathizes with the women, of course they wanted freedom too and they’re doing it for the country however i dont think they know the extent of what the women had suffered, sure they saw what happened but they do not know what these women have to swallow - the pride and dignity of it all - and not to mention the waiting and the not knowing just for them to be naive and think that a foreigner who’s main objective is to colonize the country, is going to help us. there’s a reason why the quote “women and children suffer more during a war” exist because not only are they always treated as collateral damage but also the sexual violence they experience, it honestly makes me so fucking sick. In historical or war movies like this - fictional or not - the most common pov are the men’s, we rarely (barely) get to see the women’s and that is why i will always give jun robles lana his flowers because most of his movies are centered around women and the other themes around it. and just like what he did with the barber’s tale sisa barely has any dialogue and instead the story moves through how she observes and interacts with her environment, its like we are put into sisa’s shoes, we uncover things at the exact same time she does and i really love that choice. the whole movie is in sisa’s pov and one of the only time (and the only one i remember) it switches is when we found out that shes a spy through ofelia’s pov. one of the things i really love about jun robles lana’s work is that he’s not afraid to make a statement, he bravely put’s the women at the core of his works and shows exactly what these women deals with during that time and he does not show them as someone weak - the same way these other movies with the same theme does - but instead he shows how brave, smart, strong willed, opinionated, and ‘madiskarte’ they are. yes they are timid because they are trying to survive and if surviving meant making themselves small then they will do exactly that. the movie showed the countless of times the women rejected the ‘american way of life’ and ways to make themselves safe especially with leonor cozying up with commander harrison. In the scene where rita tripped leonor and harrison was about to order for her to be put into prison leonor was able to convince harrison to not to which showed na she indirectly gained enough power to keep herself and the other women safe. this is furthermore proven in the part where leonor was recounting her rape where she said it herself na akala niya nirerespeto na siya ng mga tauhan ni harrison dahil malapit siya dito. with nena dying by the hands of an american soldier who also impregnated her, the desire to fight was much stronger from everyone in the reconcentrado and i myself was thinking that yes they can do this that they can end their suffering, that they will be free but ofc that was a mistake - a false hope - because yes men had to always ruin everything. its so fucking frustrating to see when the women started to realize what was happening especially with sisa because man she was sent to spy that reconcentrado thinking na she can free them, thinking na she can finally get the justice her family deserves but no, it did not happen because the men were too naive to think that the americans would help us and would stop the war, how come that even the women did not believe that bullshit but they did? its fucking sick. the quote at the top says it all because they are once again would rather die being slaves than to fight by choosing to give up. in hindsight i should’ve known that it will not end well pero that spark of hope and desire to see the women win is so strong. i should’ve known that it will not end the way i want to lalo na at si sisa bigay ng bigay ng mga information kay santiago tapos wala siyang nakukuha pabalik, the whole time she was in the dark and in turn was blindsided. then theres the part where its revealed na si santiago ang gumahasa kay leonor, sobrang nakakasuka isipin na nasaang panig ka man ng digmaan ang mga baabe pa rin ang kawawa at dehado at lalong nakakasukang isipin na nakayaanan kang babayuin ng sarili mong kababayan - he deserves that death and more. with everything coming down in the end every decision the women make especially sisa are valid, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. it makes so much sense to me now kung bakit nung sumuko ang mga rebolusyonaryo puro mga lalaki lang ang kasama - there’s no way na puro lalaki lang ang kasama sa rebulsyonaryo - dahil naniniwala akong hindi basta bastang sususko na lang ang mga kababaihan. it also makes so much sense that by the end of the movie the only people left in that cabin (?) are the men who failed the country in both sides and the women who laid down their life for the freedom that they never got to experience. the only thing na i guess i have a problems with the movie is yung part na namatay si nena tapos yung biglang revelation na spy si sisa, i just felt like theres a whole scene that was cut there and sobrang nakulungan lang ako kasi biglang nag jump? other than that incredible film! i love the color gradient and the sound design so much! i also really love all the establishing shots, sobrang ganda! and yes i agree that this is really a love letter for hilda koronel with how the camera focused on her face so much - cant blame them the camera LOVES her! so so so well acted din from everyone involved especially to miss hilda koronel of course, eugene domingo, and jennica garcia which are undoubtedly the standouts pero sobrang galing din makipagsabayan ni angellie sanoy at ni barabara miguel. and of course huge kudos to direk jun robles lana, you have another hit in your repertoire, napakagaling! im just super glad that i get to experience this at the cinemas bcs movies like this deserves to be seen on a big screen the way it was intended to be. im also so glad that this is my first theater watch for 2026. MAN I LOVE PH CINEMA!