“Santa Santita”
“Santa Santita” is a film of about a young lady’s conflict and confusion with her religion and her relationship with a man who engages in sexual acts to earn money. The characters in the film deal with ethical issues such as ethical primacy of survival and the respect of others’ dignity. The film’s focus baffled me because of its shift in focus. I also found the love story behind Mike and Malen to be powerless and the ending to be unmoving. “Santa Santita” is an extraordinary film about religion but yet has a weak finale and plot about love.
Malen, the main character in the film, who is the daughter of Chayong, a prayer woman in a church in the Philippines, has a merciless, disobedient, and vulgar attitude. In the film, she meets a “smoking-excessive-bad-boy” tourist driver and prostitute named Mike. She becomes attracted to Mike and this caused her to misbehave more. She ends up fighting with her mother because she sneaked out to be with Mike. Following the argument, she leaves home and stays with Mike. When she returns home, she finds out that her mother past away. To support herself, she follows her mother’s steps and becomes a prayer woman also. She succeeds at this because her prayers were answered and people became dependent on her to help answer their prayers instead of the other prayer woman. She then experiences stigmata and turns to the priest and confesses her dream and sins. Afterward, she changes her ways and tries to follow God’s ways.
Malen is a rude and discourteous character in “Santa Santita”. In the beginning of the film, a blind man accidentally bumps into Malen and falls to the ground. Without pity, she impertinently and angrily retorts at the man for being so clumsy. The blind man is on the ground and she still has the nerve to deliberately kick him. Malen didn’t consider the disrespectful treatment she gave the blind man. Additionally, she didn’t take into account the systematic approach in living ethically everyday especially when it came to treating people with dignity and respect. One of the questions in the approach to live ethically everyday is if one treated people with dignity and respect. Malen certainly was not concerned about that all human beings should be treated with dignity. Other questions that would allow one to live everyday ethically are if one has practiced any virtues, if more good than harm was done, if one was fair or just, whether or not the community was better because one was it or if one was better because he or she was in the community. If a person ask themselves these questions and does what is morally right, he or she will be able to live each day with morality. Because Malen didn’t respect the blind man’s dignity, she was not acting ethically.
On the other hand, Mike also dealt with ethical issues in “Santa Santita”. Mike was a struggling tourist driver. He had a sick son and needed to care for him by buying medications. Medications were expensive and he needed other ways besides being a tourist driver to support him. He turned to being a prostitute to earn money. He had a client named Mrs. Hoffman who he performed sexual deeds on. Mike worked as a prostitute because he cared about the survival of his son. The ethics of survival take on primacy as an ethical principle because one thinks about their well being and/or other’s well being as being foremost and more important than other factors. One needs survival in order to be happy, flourish, prosper, thrive, etc. Each individual worries about their needs and necessities and will do whatever it takes to attain them. Therefore, every person will put their survival as a priority in their life.
The beginning of “Santa Santita” focused on Malen’s problems with her mother and her admiration towards Mike. The film later then focused on Malen’s puzzlement and struggle with religion because of her encounter with stigmata. The film perplexed me as a viewer because the introduction caused me to assume the film to be about romance or love. I predicted that Malen would fall in love with Mike and lived happily ever after as in other love story movies. But after Malen’s mother’s death, she experienced stigmata which caused her to feel wounds on her hand and feet. The movie then began to focus more on her role as being a prayer woman and her faith with God. The unexpected change in focus perplexed me.
Although, the movie’s focus shifted from not just on Malen’s relationship with Mike but also her conflict with her faith, the affection behind Malen and Mike began to diminish. The love story seems to fail and didn’t intrigue me as much anymore. In the movie, most of their time was spent away from each other and it confused me when they professed their love to each other after so little time spent with each other. In one part of the film, Malen confesses her sins and feelings to the priest living below her. With tears, she mentions how she truly loves Mike. I don’t know how she could love Mike when they didn’t spend as much time with each other because Mike was doing his duties.
The finish of “Santa Santita” disappointed me. I thought it was weak because it ended without me feeling like there was even a conclusion to all the situations that occurred in the film. Mike dealt with his son’s death and was arrested in the end of the film. When Malen went to visit Mike in prison, he concluded he was happy in prison. I don’t understand how someone can be happy in prison when it is a place of misery, detention, and punishment. Additionally, the film didn’t thoroughly conclude on how Malen was doing following her unanswered prayer with Mike’s son. I felt the conclusion could’ve been more dramatic.
“Santa Santita” is a film that involves the ethics of survival and respect of others. Furthermore, in “Santa Santita”, Malen deals with her problems with religion, faith, and relationship with Mike. When Malen’s mother passed away and she experienced stigmata while she was sick which changed her religious ways. She was also involved with Mike. I thought the couple’s love for each other was not captivating and not alluring to me as a viewer. I found the ending to be undramatic as well and the shift in focus to confuse me. “Santa Santita” is an interesting film dealing with religion but yet has a bewildering shift in focus and lacks a great love story and conclusion.
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