Directed by Erik Matti
Country: Philippines
“Honor Thy Father” is a pertinent Filipino drama/thriller about a family involved in a fraudulent financial scheme that unexpectedly puts their lives in danger. It also addresses religious fanaticism and deception, the gap between social classes, and criminal activity with a sharp eye, only to wobble slightly as it reaches the last part.
The director, Erik Matti, who already had shown favorable capabilities in the 2013 crime thriller “On the Job”, wrote the screenplay together with Michiko Yamamoto and gave the proper instructions to the popular Filipino actor John Lloyd Cruz who played the leading role.
Mr. Cruz gives an earnest performance as Edgar, a modest former miner who recently has been living in the city in great style and surrounded by luxury. Not because he did great at work or won the lottery, but because his wife, Kaye (Meryll Soriano), is thriving due to an elusive financial scheme launched by her father, that forces her to drag more investors into swampy ground.
Kaye seems to have been born for that job. She loves to feel active when convincing people to invest, and superior when in the presence of large amounts of money.
Besides leading the scheme, Kaye is a fervent devotee of the Church of Yeshua whose header, bishop Tony (Tirso Cruz III), tries to extract as much money (in the form of donations) as he can get from the parishioners.
The only one who attends the gatherings with suspicion and indifference is Edgar. However, he goes with the flow just to please his whimsical wife.
The couple’s happy days come to an end when Kaye’s father is assassinated and the money disappears. Naturally, the situation provokes the chaos among the wrathful villagers who claim their money back.
Since Kaye doesn’t have a solution for the problem, the crowd opts for looting her house. Not satisfied, a threatening couple takes further action, kidnapping their daughter, Angel (Krystal Brimner), as a warning, and then Kaye, as a guarantee that they will receive the six million they’re asking for.
Edgar has to think and act fast to retrieve his beloved wife alive. After a failed attempt to rob a bank, his only chance is to break into the church that had denied the financial help he needed.
“Honor Thy Father” is a claustrophobic tale that conveys all the distress felt by its characters, a punishment for their atrocious greediness. It’s also timeless because, sadly, scheming people and churches like the one described here are still spread around the world.
The pace increases as the intensity grows, but the film loses something in its last act where the action assumes preponderance, and the climax shows us how ignominious life can be sometimes.
