Isda: Fable of The Fish (Review) By Rose Sevilla

Display of "Isda" as seen in Cinemalaya, CCP

What happens if you’re a woman who gave birth to a fish? Will you deny it? Would you set it free in its natural habitat? Would you let it die? Or would you do what Lina did; accept the fish as your son.

“Isda” is movie that answers this bizarre question. The story is portrayed by our childless married couple, Lina and Miguel. As time passes by, Lina’s want for a child grows bigger, thus making her more desperate. One day she stumbles upon an idol of the Virgin Mary, unlike most figurines of Mary, this one is still pregnant. An idol of Mary still carrying a child is also known as St. Peregrine, a figure that is believed to help couples successfully conceive a child, in Linas case, a fish.  She keeps the figure, and just as expected, she gets pregnant and gives birth to another species. The whole town is in shock, her husband Miguel finds this unacceptable, but the measure of all this negativity has no match for the amount of Lina’s love for her new son, Miguelito. Thus the real fun in this movie begins.

Director, Adolfo Alix Jr., has proven his brilliance in his first film “Donsol”. I’ve personally haven’t seen the film “Donsol” but have heard of it and the trailer shows promise as a unique Filipino film. Adolfo Alix Jr. shows the same quality for this film, in my opinion, even better. The storyline of “Isda” will catch anyone’s attention and stimulates one’s curiosity.

Two of the most common theme in local indie film I’ve seen so far is usually about poverty and homosexuality. When the film started off with Lina and Miguel moving into Smokey Mountain, I was upset. I see movies about poverty numbers of times, we see it in the streets and we also see it on various types of media; TV, newspaper, internet, AM radio. I’m not saying we should ignore it but I just want something new. “Isda” is unlike our common indie film, instead of showing pity and abuse; it kind of shows the brighter side of life through humor.

I remember being in the film festival, I purposely left my camera since “Isda” premiered at night and I (vulnerable scared me) planned to go home on foot. I regretted that night, so many things happened. Almost all of the film makers and the cast (including Miguelito) were present, I loved the film, and the guy who produced the film’s score was sitting right in front of me. The music was very good for an indie film, I can’t remember the tune of the music now but I do remember annoying my friend the whole night by La-La-La-ing the score. In other words, it was catchy and it fit the movie perfectly. I love listening to movie scores from various kinds of movies, whether it be from macho movies like “Troy” or animated movies like “How to Train Your Dragon”, if I could, I would download Isda’s soundtrack in my IPod. For now, the track featured in the one minute and six second trailer found in YouTube will have to do.

Writer, Jerry B. Garcio did a very good job with the dialogs; it showed drama and contributed so much in terms of humor. Added by the genius acting by Cherry Pie Picache, Bembol Roco and the rest of the crew, the film was a huge laugh trip, with tiny bits of drama. I love how they picked the cast for the film; it didn’t show much of the usual light skinned actor media type. The actors who made the audience laugh were just like the common everyday people we know, so the cast for this movie is pretty impressive.

Miguelito at the premiere of "Isda" in CCP.  Photo by LadyKath Dyamante

Although I love the story of “Isda”, The film makers could have done better when it comes to cinematography. I found that the camera angles were too simple; they could have done a little bit of panning around to depict the image of the area so the audience could experience how it feels to be in Smokey Mountain, the smells, the heat and the mess, instead of the camera staying still while the characters walk across the screen. So much could have been shown. Waiting for the characters to walk across the screen took too much precious film time, which I’ve observed in most indie film.

In the film, Linda showed her unconditional love to a fish and proved that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In my point of view, “Isda” depicts the love of a parent for his or her child, no matter what that child is. To me, Miguelito could have represented a crippled child; speechless, immobile and rejected by most.

To wrap it all up, “Isda” is very different and fun to watch. My friend loved it and we strongly believed that we got more than our monies worth, in addition to roaming around CCP, we had a really good time. I recommend this movie to anyone who wants a break from the usual mushy love stories and ear torture drama to watch it. Hopefully the film will be available in other countries or at least in DVD.