I usually don't write reviews of any kind, may it be a book, movie, or song review. This time, however, I feel compelled to sit down, open my heart, and let myself bleed.
Isa Pa With Feelings premiered on October 16, 2019, and it wasn't received the way it deserves to be. That's what eats me up.
Isa Pa With Feelings follows the story of Mara (Maine Mendoza), an aspiring architect smack in the middle of a career setback, and Gali (Carlo Aquino), her good-willed, hearing impaired neighbor. Mara and Gali officially meet as a student and teacher when Mara decides to take sign language lessons. Mara wants to communicate with her niece, who is also hearing impaired. Romance starts to blossom when Gali invites Mara to be his dance partner for an event he desperately wants to join.
Simply put, Isa Pa With Feelings is the story of a woman with normal hearing meeting and falling in love with a deaf man. It's also a peek inside the quiet and challenging world of deaf individuals, a vivid narrative of how the impairment affects their everyday lives. With this factor in play, questions arise as to whether a relationship where communication is difficult can survive the test of time.
Isa Pa With Feelings not only focuses on the difficulties the hearing impaired go through in a romantic relationship but also gives equal time and space for the other party. We see Mara's frustrations and struggles and can't help but sympathize with her too. This film also consistently presents scenes in both Mara's and Gali's perspectives, giving the audience a chance to see the story and the conflict from different angles.
There's a lot of silence in this film, literally. Scenes are often completely unbacked by a musical score. There are scenes where the audio is intentionally softer, reduced to mere beats and muffled words to simulate the perception of Gali. These make the movie more immersive. These quiet scenes are my personal favorites.
The top scene for me is when Gali, seeing a distraught Mara in the parking lot, fails to understand why she's crying. You could see in his eyes the desperation to know what's wrong. To hear. Aquino conveys this feeling really well. The suffocating desperation to talk, to say something, to ask, but knowing that you couldn't. I can hear perfectly fine, but at that moment, I felt like I would combust if I couldn't hear anything.
I also love how this movie sheds some light on the lack of proper schools for the hearing impaired in the Philippines. Yes, there are SPED centers (I went to one myself in high school), but they're in small numbers and highly expensive. It makes you wonder how deaf kids learn and survive in an unsympathetic society.
This movie is the first Maine Mendoza project I've seen, and her performance is beyond my expectations. I shed tears when she did. Mara's frustrations and self-doubt feel real, with no touch of exaggeration for dramatic effect. It almost felt like they were mine. Of course, Mendoza's brilliance is what gave life to it. The bits about the pressure on her shoulders as she tries in earnest to meet the expectations of her overbearing father are something a lot of people would be able to relate to.
It's already a sure thing that Aquino would do well, but his portrayal of Gali is beyond his prodigious years as a child star. In this film, he doesn't have speech in his arsenal, and yet he manages to convey his feelings loudly and clearly. He expresses love, happiness, and pride in a vacuum of muffled sounds and beating hearts. Indeed, he has grown to become a seasoned actor.
Isa Pa With Feelings lent me the perspective of a deaf person; it gave me a secondhand experience of what it's like to be deaf. I was able to sympathize better, to put myself in their shoes. Philippine cinema needs more films like this. It's meaningful, heart-wrenching, and driven by an amazing advocacy. It's more than just a broken-boy-meets-broken-girl story.
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