Manila Open City (1968)

Review: written October 2010

Frustratingly amateurish and sanitised movie of story that ought to be told

This Filipino produced and directed movie is pretty amateur, but has a few moments lifting it from the great movie rubbish bin. The movie has no real linking narrative, other than being a presentation of the events during the Battle of Manila, in 1945. That particular battle devastated the city, with deadly urban warfare combining with atrocities committed by the Japanese on the urban population. The statistics are staggering, with over 100,000 civilians (not 500,000 as it says in the movie), murdered, beaheaded, raped and used as human shields against the oncoming allies. It's a story that certainly should be wider known.

Alas, this is not the movie to do it. There is a clunky narration which tries to tie things into a cohesive depiction of the military campaign, but the result is a bit of a mess, despite some reasonably effective (for 1968) scenes of street fighting and US forces advancing in what looks suspiciously like one tank used over and over again to create the illusion of an armoured division. Intertwined with the battle, we get the human interest stories, which do not link together, but are apparently random to help us empathise with the civilian victims. There is the collaborator, the child separated from his mother, the guerrillas scouting for the US forces, and then the only strand which does work well, that of a nun trying to rescue some children from slaughter by the Japanese, receiving some help from an unexpected source, a young Japanese naval officer. The officer is played by James Shigeta, who is the closest the movie comes to having a star - he appeared in The Battle Of Midway [DVD] [1976 ], as well as many minor TV roles. It's this segment of the movie which elevates this from one star territory.

Most shocking is the terrible sound mix. The dubbing and looping of the movie is just awful, with poor synching and poor sound matching - meaning that when different people in a scene talk, you hear different background sounds, making the work done in post-production all the more obvious. Add to that some woefully wooden acting from many of the cast, and the end effort is a let down, despite some clearly quite noble and ambitious intentions, and some decently created set design on the location shoots.

Give the movie due credit - it means well, and tells a story of the battle and the crimes against humanity that needs to be told. If interested in the topic, go ahead and watch it.. just be prepared for some pretty amateur movie making... this is not a polished production on the part of the director, actors, or editor, by any means.