Silong by directors Jeffrey Hidalgo and Roy Sevilla Ho is a film released on September

16, 2015 in Philippine cinemas nationwide. The movie runs for 93 minutes and is under the

production companies Black Marie Pictures and SQ Film Laboratories. It was distributed by ABS-

CBN Film Productions and it is also the closing film in the 11th Cinemalaya Independent Film

Festival and Competition (IMDb 2015). It also won an award for "Best Cinematography" in the

2016 Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences Awards (FAMAS Awards 2015). It stars Piolo

Pascual as Doctor Miguel Cascarro, a physician who is still grieving the death of his wife Caroline,

played by Angel Jacob and it is also about how he tries to save his home from being taken away

by creditors. Miguel finds a beaten and badly bruised Valerie played by Rhian Ramos on the side

of the road as he was driving on his way home which results to Miguel bringing Valerie to his

home to help heal her wounds. Silongs theme is mainly about the vulnerability of people to

deception which is a staggering view of reality in which people commonly fall for. The genre of

the film is mainly mystery and romance thriller (IMDb 2015) but it also has an element of being a

psychological thriller (Pascua, 2015) based on its overall scenes which encompasses the characters

psychological state (Star Powerhouse 2015). The theme and genre of the film clearly exposes the

purpose of the movie which is to give an awareness or warning of unexpected psychological

attitude or motive that secretly underlies in some individuals which means that one must not

completely trust a stranger.

The film title Silong literally means shelter which is defined as temporary

protection from danger like what happened to Valeries fate as she was running away from her

abusive husband. The word shelter is used instead of home because it refers to a mere stranger

seeking for a temporary refuge. At the early episode of the movie, the main characters especially

Miguel already displayed that they were both broke and in a desolated situation trying to slowly
recover from the past and forge their future. The fact that they share some common circumstances

made it easier for them to be closer and gradually began to find some refuge within each other.

Additionally the main plot revolves on what transpired in Miguels house as well as the mystery

that is being slowly uncovered by the characters and events. Some scenes or lines showed minimal

but helpful clues to reveal some of the underlying secrets.

An example is the scene where the chief of police visited Miguels home to ask if he had

any information about Valeries whereabouts. The chief mentioned the Alamat ng Kape which

he tried to use to get Miguel to admit whatever he knows. The storys moral lesson is to always

tell the truth since God is angry at those who do not support people in authority or in his case

someone who tries to hide a wanted criminal. This opens an issue of the conflict to both of Miguel

and Valeries past that they hide to not affect their present but in reality they only tried to run from

their tragic history by surrounding themselves with romance. Symbolically an old house which is

commonly used in thrillers, mystery and horror genres as a setting also means that there are deep

hidden secrets waiting to be discovered.

 The film successfully portrayed the purpose of the film since it garnered positive reviews

taken from the articles of Philippine Daily Inquirer, ABS-CBN News, Rappler, Philippine

Entertainment Portal, and IMDb website. The directors did well to convey the message to the

viewers as well as incorporate its purpose to the minds of the audiences due to the successful

premiere of Silong as a closing movie in Cinemalaya (ABS-CBN News 2015) and received the

best cinematography award given by FAMAS in 2016. The cinematography and the style is also a

key of the directors that helped the film to be more comprehensible and connected to the audience

on the way they project their interpretation and meanings of the symbolism, images, atmosphere,

and theme to further help the viewers and critics understand the purpose of the film.

Just by looking and observing the strengths you could identify the constituents that

contributed to the high ratings of the film:

First is the overall visual component is excellent for an indie film like the texture that

provided a hard-soft images and organic-pointed shapes that provided the genre because it

perfectly adjusts to the time frame and the setting in the old house which has strong-weak lightings

with scenes whose colors are warm and cool that gives realistic and thrilling effect for the genre.

Space is also concerned mainly with deep space and some shallow space depicted in different

camera angles since the camera most focuses on characters face or body.
 Secondly are some dramatic component of music which is showcased on the movies

prologue and deepens the feeling of sorrow to the viewers which is very emotive such that the

thrilling music is also a good composition since it comes in a fast pace that balances the progression

of events. The editing and the movement are compatible with the rhythmic-staccato that have

patterns of intense emotions of character to thrilling scenes which is continuous throughout.

Lastly is the literary component of the film is that its place is mainly in the old house which

is closed and is shot in some open areas the event or people involved is only few and many verbal

communication and visual representation occurred like in the Alamat ng Kape. The sequence of

events played are in order and have some time skips as well as flashbacks and foreshadowing but

it greatly contributed for the plot of the movie which is simple-like at the start and then it suddenly

twisted into a complex arrangement like the scene of sudden change in characters of Valerie and

Miguel and the unexpected revelations in the room of the house where Miguel keeps his wife.
 The other component of the analysis is the weakness of the movie that dragged some

disappointments:

First it is obviously confusing as heard from the movie when Valerie said to Miguel in their

first encounter is Papatayin tayo ng asawa ko kung di mo ako tinulungan (Star Powerhouse

2015). Which would make the language and diction of casts have some errors and might affect the

messages conveyed. Next is the performance and time still under the dramatic component.

Together the two is dependent on each other it is because the time frame for movie making is short

and the budget for an indie film is also low. So the performance is not bad but it is likely rushed

for it to be fitted with time the example as stated before by this analysis is also the scene where the

revelation of both parties began to unveil.

Secondly are both of the object and symbol that is because they are not used enough for

foreshadowing and for finding hints because it is more on a verbal way because of the legend used

and Miguels declaration of mouths to feed. There is no much concern for the objects symbolism

but it is only few like the picture of the mother of Miguel in the end in which we could conclude

that somerhing bad happened to his mother. (In the picture it is shown that it slowly turns into

Valaeries form)
 Watching the film really gives audiences an impact because of the plot twists that made

the storyline much better and thrilling to the spine. Silong is unique on its own; there are shifts of

perception, thrilling romance, deception, as well as the stunning view and depiction of reality

(Lauzon, 2016). It can also be seen as a call for boldness to willingly accept the truth and to endure

the sorrow brought by despair and twisted perceptions. The audience and critics must see it in a

different way since for most part of the film, the characters respectively struggle to recover from

a lover or a position that had gone wasted amid the developing romance between Miguel and

Valerie. The final episode surely is a relief but it seems that the sudden shifts of the characters and

perception just broke all the assumptions that might make the movie interesting. Because of the

staccato like flow of emotions and intensity of the atmosphere of the film from kissing and bed

scenes of Miguel and Valerie to the police surveillance then back at intense sharing of emotions

to sudden change of the character and the unexpected revelations. It seemed that the secret revealed

and the mysteries uncovered is for the movie to make balance of such intense scenes and outcomes.

However the impression of a frightening, suffocating, mysterious and daring movie would

strongly not go away.

Indeed this film has a thief in the night plot twists and resolution. The real feel of the story

and the actual message chills to the bone by bringing up one of the most over-looked circumstances

on ordinary peoples lives which is deception especially from women. It also implies the practice

of impunity that slowly becomes a norm in our sick society. Being a thriller in more than one way

is the unique style of the films storyline as well as the changes in perception from the characters

to the audience. Certainly must be an addition to everyones movie watch lists. Lastly it also fulfills

the curiosity of how peoples past affect their present and how often people deal with their dark
historical secrets. The theme and the plot of the film made it definitely relevant in time and thrilling

for all audiences.

In conclusion, Silong is a successful movie since it offers something different to the typical

Filipino films. The movie is a mixture of everything that the audience is looking for. It has a little

bit of horror, suspense, romance, and family relationships on the side . Every twist will keep the

audience guessing and wanting for more. Expect the unexpected when watching this film. The

actors also played their part and did an excellent job in portraying their characters role (Inquirer,

2015). The movie also contains morals and underlying messages. The movie depicts the

vulnerability of Filipinos caused by their openness and tradition of being hospitable. The story

begins when Miguel made the decision to bring Valerie to his home. In a short span of time, Miguel

has already developed feelings for Valerie. He even disregarded the chief of polices warning and

still chose Valerie despite discovering that she killed her husband. Other than hospitality, the

movie also raises awareness on how we should be wary of strangers and to never let our guards

down easily (Cruz, 2015). We should do our duties as responsible citizens and always remember

to give our full cooperation to those in authority. Overall, Silong is a movie that we simply enjoyed

watching and is definitely a big leap for Philippine Films.