MODULE IV: Santa Santita

The film “Santa Santita,” in my opinion was not a favorite of mines, but I thought it was very interesting. Although it was different from other Philippine Films that I have watched, it did not quite catch my attention as I thought it would have. I expected more from the film, because the title is very beautiful, but I think the film lacked on expanding the storyline. It spent a lot of time on emphasizing the idea that prayers are important and effective when done by the prayer women.

These women, who are paid (in terms of donations), pray for people who are in desperate need to have their prayers answered. The main character, Malen, is the daughter of one of the prayer women of Quiapo, who becomes a problematic character throughout the film. She sells rosaries and scapulars on the streets as told by her mother. Although she refuses to do it, she has no choice but to seek for donation as a form of income. The interesting part of this mother-daughter relationship is that Malen is very disrespectful to her mother, who even though is very religious, Malen practically does what she wants, when she wants, knowing that her mother disapproves of anything that is “unholy” like. It’s quite obvious that Malen wants nothing to do with the church by the way her character was portrayed in the beginning. And it was quite evident when she lied to her mother about being sick and going behind her back to have lunch with a stranger she met near the church. Her mother Chayong, as portrayed in the film, is a hardcore Catholic, praying every minute of her life. The ironic part of this all is that she prays for other people to help them with their lives but at the same time, she needs to help herself first, with the emptiness of not having her husband and her “unholy” like daughter, it seems as if her own prayers are not being answered.

One thing I’d like to mention as I was watching the film is that I noticed how Malen’s name had some kind of religious name attached to it, such as Mary Magdalene in reference to the prostitue. This kind of connection shows how the film had a lot symbols based on the characters themselves. With the other character Mike, he was sort of like the good and bad character, part evil and part angel as he did many wrong things for the right reasons. It wasn’t until the scene between him and Malen making love and the tattoo of a serpent on his back made me think of him as evil. By this time, it had suggested that Malen was a saint, an instrument of God to spread His word, yet at the same time she hadn’t fully accepted it that after making love to Mike, she began having dreams as if God was speaking to her. In a way, Mike was sort of a roadblock for Malen to fully accept the gift of being an instrument of God because although she wanted to help others and create miracles for them, she was also in love with Mike. And by this time, Mike wanted her to leave everything behind and be with him.

With the other characters, they each had their own problematic situations. Father Tony, a troubled priest who faces controversy in his town moves to Quiapo for a resolution. One that he resolves with the help of Mike, who comes into his place one afternoon to express his feelings and at the same time, makes Father Tony realizes his alcoholic problems. So even though Mike was a somewhat bad character, he also helped a troubled priest realize his drinking problem.

All in all, the film was quite a journey. It lacked story in the beginning parts of the film but after the death of Malen’s mother, everything kind of turned around. The film wasn’t predictable at all, but I found that the important characters of the film found their redemption. With Malen, she found her place in the church after her mother had died and realized the importance of prayer, especially in her case as everyone who had come to her had their prayers answered. With Mike, he realized all the mistakes he had made after his son had died and being sent to prison after killing someone important. With Father Tony, he accepted his alcoholic problem and found a way to heal after Mike had put his problem into perspective. And so the film, like all films should be, was very entertaining. I didn’t have much of a favorite part nor did I enjoy the film all together, but as I critically reflect on the film, it was a great film after all from the use of the character names to their storylines and how each character someone connected with one another, made the film a very good one.

R.M. Aurellano