Nicole, Meg and I caught Endo at Cinevita, held last March 5-7 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Center Auditorium. Starring Jason Abalos as Leo, a dreamless contractual worker and Ina Feleo as Tanya, a dreamer who doubles as a contractual worker, Endo takes its viewers to an honest reality of love, dreams and the Filipino identity.
ENDO stands for "end of contract" typical of department stores and the like, and in the same light, Leo's life as a series of contracts. As he heads on to face his everyday challenges, he simultaneously loses his own dreams as these dreams are replaced by the need to earn for the education of Pol, his younger brother and for the medical needs of their crippled father, an ex-OFW.
Having gotten out of an Endo relationship with Candy, one of his co-workers, Leo meets Tanya, an aggressive saleslady from another stall who pursues him relentlessly until he himself has fallen for Tanya, a spirited dreamer who sees life simply and does not dream of grand houses and a beautiful life. With Tanya, Leo grows out of his unselfish reality while building his own dreams for himself and at the same time, letting go of all that had tied him with his confused state and mediocre goals.
The Bland Reality
The first time I watched Endo was in one of its Cinemalaya screening in CCP, the Cinevita screening was my second one. It was quite disappointing, however, that the Cinevtia audience was more concerned with the boldness of the love scenes rather than the turn of the story itself. In addition, the cheesiness of the lovers' dialogues were emphasized, rather than its honesty, thus making it look and sound bland to the ears of Thomasian teenagers.
But its blandness became one of its strength, with its portrayal of reality as honest and as true as it could possibly be. Reality doesn't have to be harsh, pitiful or romantic all of the time, as is expected from mainstream films which romanticize reality thus invoking resolutions and advocacies on the part of the audience. Endo, on the other hand, invites all of its audience to take reality as is it is, as we see it everyday, but at the same time, urging the viewers to open their eyes to a larger view of reality that includes the people we see but we don't actually recognize as humans. In the context of Endo, the salespersons we see on the malls who give out a hand to whatever our whims are.
It's basically a love story taken empirically, without the usual sugar-coated words that line the dialogues of mainstream films. There's honesty and sincerity in the delivery of dialogues, and the blandness is an added factor to emphasize the plainness of the characters as the social untouchables, maligned for their educational background and their blue-collared jobs. This dryness also magnified the dreams and desires of each character as they go on with their respective lives.
In an open forum in the recently held Cinevita, director Jade Castro said that Endo is a political film that tackles the unfair treatment to contractual workers. They are basically underpaid and overworked, and in addition to this, deprived of the benefits of a regular laborer (e.g. health benefits, SSS, etc.).
Though the political issue was not directly presented in the film, the viewers were able to grasp its impact through the storyline. At the end, even though there wasn’t any emphatic resolution on the part of the viewers, Endo created awareness in the viewers that made them see these workers as part of the social milieu.
Endo And Its Shortcomings
Its shortcomings can be attributed to the stilted delivery of lines. It was obvious that there was the existence of a script, and its obviousness to the viewers diminished the “natural” setting of the film. No matter how commendable the performances of the actors were, the line delivery failure became a setback to the total success of a good film. - ALEXIS LAURA FELICIANO
Photograph Source:
http://endomovie.multiply.com
