Balut Country is never very subtle. Even before it gets into its main plot about a man possibly having to displace a loyal worker by selling off his land, it has the main character run into a group of people protesting their homes being taken away. The movie offers a strong sense of place, but its narrative is telegraphed from miles. It loses tension as it goes through the motions of its story, never leaving the eventual conclusion in doubt.
Jun (Rocco Nacino) is a musician. He has inherited a duck farm in Candaba, Pampanga from his late father. Knowing nothing about the business, and having a baby on the way, he decides that he’s going to sell the farm to a local politician. He travels to Candaba to finalize the details on the deal, but there he is faced with the very real possibility of displacing the farm’s caretaker Dado (Ronnie Quizon) and his family. As Jun deals with the red tape of the sale, he spends time with Dado and his family, and learns the ways of the duck farmer.
And so the movie is about whether or not Jun is going to sell the land. As premises go, this one isn’t very compelling. It’s generally not a good idea to base a whole narrative around a single decision, because the entire runtime becomes dedicated to a single character vacillating. That’s just not very interesting. The film fills out its narrative with a portrait of life in Candaba, and with lengthy scenes that explain the specifics of the duck egg business to the main character. There isn’t really much in the way of dramatic incident, or anything that would make the choice more difficult.
The film ends up turning Dado in an absolute saint. It overplays its hand in making Dado and his family sympathetic. His supplier talks him up as being the fairest egg dealer in all of Pampanga. He refuses to talk to Jun about separation pay, claiming that the opportunity to work is enough for him. He wanders around Pampanga, trying to look for work and finding nothing. Later on, tragedy befalls his family. As the film goes on, Dado is basically turned into Job. Meanwhile, there’s very little sense of what Jun loses if he doesn’t sell the farm. There is the construct that is his pregnant girlfriend, but the film invests so little in that relationship that it doesn’t register at all.
So there isn’t a lot of tension leading up to the choice. The film heads in one direction, and never wavers. At some point, the characters are at a bird sanctuary. Dado explains that birds from all over the world fly to that sanctuary. His daughter asks if none of them of stay. Dado says that the ones that do are the ones that are already from the place. The film was already laying it on pretty thick, but it doubles down as it gets closer to the choice, spelling out the themes in a complete metaphor.
Balut Country is perfectly okay. Its production values are solid. The acting can get pretty good. Though Dado isn’t much of a character, Ronnie Quizon makes his pretty compelling. But there’s a severe lack of tension in this narrative. The film just becomes about waiting for the main character to make the right choice, which has been obvious since the end of the first act. While the film certainly has a good heart, it really struggles to make its own story compelling.
My Rating:
