Kisapmata (1981)

Directed by

Mike De Leon

Genre

drama film

Country

Philippines

Runtime

1h 30m

Rating

8.2 of 10 from 27 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A retired policeman controls his adult daughter's every move. When she gets married and tries to leave his house, he escalates his possessiveness to a violent extreme.

tenseunsettlingclaustrophobicslow-burnbleakdarkly intensepsychologicalbrooding

What happens

Kisapmata (Filipino for "(in the) blink of an eye") is a 1981 Filipino psychological horror drama film directed by Mike de Leon from a screenplay he co-wrote with Clodualdo del Mundo Jr. and Raquel Villavicencio. It stars Vic Silayan, Charo Santos, Jay Ilagan, and Charito Solis. The plot was inspired by the crime reportage "The House on Zapote Street" written by Nick Joaquin. The piece chronicles the events leading to the highly publicized familicide committed by Pablo Cabading, a retired policeman. Considered as a pioneer of the psychological horror film genre in the Philippines, its subject matter and themes, especially drawing inspirations and parallels from true crime stories, marked the first major treatment of incest in Philippine cinema, while its message has been viewed as a commentary against the patriarchy and the regime of then-President Ferdinand Marcos. The film premiered at the 7th Metro Manila Film Festival. Despite receiving controversy upon release, the film received critical acclaim, establishing de Leon as one of the great directors of the new generation of Filipino filmmakers. The film won ten awards from the festival, including Best Film, and was subsequently screened at the 35th Cannes Film Festival during the Directors' Fortnight, alongside de Leon's Batch '81. Often regarded as one of the greatest Filipino films ever made in retrospective years, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics) included Kisapmata in their list of Ten Best Films of the Decade and was voted the 3rd best Filipino film of all time (behind Manila in the Claws of Light and Himala, respectively) in a 2013 poll organized by Pinoy Rebyu. In 2020, the film was digitally restored with a subsequent theatrical screening at the 34th Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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