Imbisibol tracks the lives of several undocumented Filipino immigrants living and working in Fukuoka City, Japan. It opens on a kettle on the stove, slowly boiling away. We hear Linda (Ces Quesada) arguing with her Japanese husband Kazuya. He wants her to evict the illegals currently living in the apartment they’re renting out. Linda doesn’t have the heart to do it. As the argument reaches a fever pitch, the kettle starts boiling. The next sequence has Linda preparing breakfast while watching a news report about an overstaying Filipino family being deported.
It isn’t a great start. Though the film tackles an intriguing subject with countless dramatic possibilities, it carries on with this tendency to get artless and obvious. Its structure doesn’t allow for any deep exploration of the problems being faced by its characters. Instead, it creates just another miserablist portrait of OFW life. It offers no real insight beyond the truism of how difficult life is for undocumented workers abroad.
The film follows three other characters. Benjie (Bernardo Bernardo) is an older gentleman who is struggling with having two jobs. In his off time, he is preparing a surprise birthday party for his good friend Edward (Ricky Davao). Manuel (Allen Dizon) works at a host club, but is having trouble attracting customers. He revisits his old clientele, hoping to get on their good graces and get money to pay his off debts and fuel his gambling problem. And then there’s Rodel (JM de Guzman), who butts heads with a fellow Filipino when he gets a promotion at the lumber yard where they both work.
The stories eventually intersect, but not in any meaningful way. The four characters are basically brought into the same vicinity, their individual narratives remaining pretty separate. This is a problem for the film in general. It’s structured such that the characters are kept isolated from each other for most of the movie. The narrative doesn’t flow very well. It stays with a character for a little while, and then just leaves. This creates a couple of dramatic dead spots. Just when Benjie’s story gets interesting, for example, it switches to Manuel. What would have been a major emotional crisis for the character is mainly kept offscreen, his struggle to adjust to a new status quo never really dramatized.
The film is based on a play, and that seems to have influenced the aesthetic a little bit. The film is mostly shot in long, static takes, the camera staying still and creating a proscenium effect. The characters move around this limited space, perhaps in a way visually alluding to their situation. It’s a worthy concept, though in practice the lack of movement and angles is a bit enervating. The acting is pretty good, but the structure puts the actors at a disadvantage. Especially at the end, where several of the characters reveal a history that hasn’t been indicated anywhere else in the film. And so in these singular scenes, the actors are made to craft a past without the benefit of organic storytelling.
Imbisibol is serviceable at best. There is some value to the depiction of the struggles of this particular group of people. In its best moments, it explores the specific details of their plight, the little bits of life that distinguish their situation from that of other OFWs anywhere else in the world. But in telling four separate stories, the movie loses something vital. If it had chosen to just concentrate on one or two, it might have been able to bring something more profound to light.Ratings:
My Rating:
