Jun Lana’s latest sexy, disturbing, and cunning film Anak Ka ng Ina Mo (Your Mother’s Son) is a series of tug of war: son versus visitor, love versus taboo, individualism versus collectivism, and the director’s intention of establishing a subtle yet sharp political commentary versus his tendency to focus on stylish spectacles over substance.
Lana is no stranger to films with social and political commentaries, from the marvelous Barber’s Tales to the campy Becky and Badette. In Anak Ka ng Ina Mo, he is a student of Lino Brocka, Mike de Leon, Ishmael Bernal, and other Second Golden Age of Philippine Cinema icons who used the power of films in crafting and combining film and criticism against the government.
This film is the spiritual sibling of Lana’s 2021 anti-Duterte Big Night. Both have explicit mentions and criticisms about the drug war and how the bloody, brutal, and ineffective program kills people literally and in terms of morality. In Anak Ka ng Ina Mo, some small portions of morality left in a rural town during the pandemic were already buried like the drug war victims. As the Duterte administration worsens the pandemic situation, these characters succumb to their desires. Emman (Kokoy de Santos) and his help Amy (Elora Españo) are secret junkies engaging in a clandestine affair. It’s only the hardworking mother Sarah (Sue Prado) who remains the morally sane person in the small town. Or is she?
Individuality is heavily emphasized, from the characters only seen in mirrors to the director of photography Mo Zee’s visual focus on one person while blurring the rest of the cast. The Duterte administration, according to the not-so-subtle hints of the film, caused a dangerous level of individuality. Who cares about morality when the leader spearheads a bloody campaign against the junkies? Emman, a fake news subscriber and “change is coming” shirt-wearing young adult, smokes crack and has sex with Amy in front of her sick grandparent.
Emman’s slow and high days in the rural shifted to tense moments when Sarah took her student Oliver (Miggy Jimenez) under her care from his abusive father. Emman loves Sarah. Is this Oliver going to take away his mother from him? Is his mom going to prefer this mestizo man from Manila over her bum, good-for-nothing son? Emman’s insecurity is not just a simple sibling-like jealousy. Before Oliver lives in their house, the film drops an uncomfortable and shocking revelation that I will not spoil because it’s for the audience to see the surprise and drop their jaw to the ground.
Emman’s greedy individuality is in danger of being devalued by Oliver and it’s reflective of De Santos’ performance. From his deadly stares and furrowed eyebrows, De Santos embodies the calculating yet insecure man who was still sleeping in his undies beside his mom. Prado, Jimenez, and Españo volley De Santos’ chaotic energy with equally deranged performances, filling the bungalow with so much intensity the house could only handle.
Jun Lana is a trustworthy actor’s director. I don’t think the film would manage without the command of his actors. But while Lana squeezes the cast’s talent and pours them into the sex-filled, drug-fueled, and manipulative scenes, the political commentaries he intended took a back seat in exchange for the sensory, sensual spectacles.
Lana attempts to channel Pepe Gallaga’s vision in Scorpio Nights by mixing sex and politics. People became corrupt, selfish individuals under the Duterte administration. The characters are always in their offensive mode when it comes to overpowering one another, from banal moments like preparing ginataan and doing laundry to extreme, erotic moments like smoking crack and having a threesome in a shanty behind a bedridden elderly.
While it’s applaudable that Lana combines spectacle and commentaries, the insertion of the political messages felt random at best and forcibly inserted at worst. I know the premature campaigning, the loud radio news about the war on drugs, Emman’ getting a job as an internet troll, and Sarah’s warning of putting Emman and Oliver on the barangay watchlist serve as a warning of individualism under a ruthless regime. However, It felt like an afterthought. Lana focused on crafting eros involving low-income individuals instead of weaving its important message with the self-destruction of these immoral characters.
Your Mother’s Son premiered at the first IdeaFirst Film Festival from April 12-14.
