Rating: 3/5
1945, Philippines
We open on a blood-soaked, disfigured body. Squelching and ravenous growls take us to a monstrous figure eating another body. The figure chokes. It spits out a bird. In the air, we hear laughter.
Cut to a plantation-style home, where two children, Tala and Bayani, hide on the balcony. A Japanese car brings food to the house.
Antonio, a Filipino who helps the Japanese, interrogates the children’s parents, Romualdo and Ligaya, about missing gold. Romualdo claims he knows nothing. He knows that if the Japanese find it, the family will be dead.
Romualdo leaves to find the Americans who may help them.
While the family prays to the Virgin Mary for Romualdo’s safety, Ligaya gets sick.
The kids venture into the woods to search for their dad. They find a shack. Inside is a dead body covered in bugs.
Tala finds what looks like a cathedral with stained glass depicting a fairy.
A woman appears, adorned with a bright, flower-like crown. She resembles the Virgin Mary. Her voice doubles. Her mouth doesn’t move when she speaks.
The woman affirms that her father is alive and will return. A bug like those in the shack lands on the woman’s finger.
At night, the woman visits Tala. She brings a jar with one of the bugs.
This will cure [your mother]. But it might also make your mother its new home.
The film uses the fairy folklore to explore the effects of imperialism on the country. The United States occupied the Philippines during WWII. Like the United States, the fairy in this story created the problems they pledged to resolve. The fairy made their mother sick, and so offering a way to cure her that may also make its home in her body is a pretty direct parallel to US occupation.
Antonio joined the Japanese forces, tired of the American’s empty promises.
The Guillermo Del Toro vibes are strong here, but I don’t mind. We haven’t seen Del Toro in this style since Pan’s Labyrinth.
Felicity Kyle Napuli, who plays Tala, has a devastating role for a child to perform. She heightens her intensity without exaggerating. She does better than the adult actors.
It’s not a nuanced film, but it is bleak and unnerving.