Maria (2019)

 Maria (2019)

 

Starring: Cristine Reyes, Ivan Padilla, KC Montero, Ronnie Lazaro, Freddie Webb, Guji Lorenzana, Johanna Rish Tongcua, Jennifer Lee
Director: Pedring A. Lopez
Action Directors: Sonny Sison, Marol Eugenio

I'm sure most people on this forum are familiar with the baser aspects of Filipino cinema, ranging from the Blood Island films of the early 70s, to the exploitation films of Cirio Santiago during the 70s and 80s (often times with the backing of producer Roger Corman), to the late-period Girls n' Guns films made when actresses like Yukari Oshima and Cynthia Khan weren't bringing in the dough on the Hong Kong circuit. I'm sure someone more knowledgeable than I am will be able to explain the subject in much more depth. Maria seems to be the product of the Tagalog film industry, which consisted of movies with local talent catering to local tastes, as opposed to the films above, which often made their money overseas when neighborhood theaters were still a thing. I'm sure people who were weened on Filipino exploitation films like Future Hunters will be surprised to see how polished and good looking Maria is compared to those films, even if the film on the whole amounts to nothing but "John Wick with boobs."

Lily (Cristine Reyes) is an assassin/mercenary working for the Black Rose, an enforcement wing of big-time drug boss Ricardo (Freddie Webb). Tired of the killing, Lily decides to drop out of the game, her last mission being to kill a woman and her daughter--presumably the wife and daughter of a rival druglord. Seven years later, Lily has changed her name to Maria, has married a nice guy named Bert (Guji Lorenzana), and has a pretty little daughter named Min-Min (Johanna Rish Tongcua). Maria is a faithful housewife, while Bert brings in the bacon as a campaign manager for a provincial governor, Villanueva, who's running for Senate. Bert truly believes that Villanueva is a decent guy who could bring hope and prosperity to the Phillipines.

However, Villanueva apparently got to where he is with the support of Ricardo, who has grown tired of the governor getting his help in private while badmouthing him in public. Ricardo sends one of his chief enforcers, Caleb (Ivan Padilla), to assassinate the governor. While his men are staking out the site of fundraising dinner for the governor, they take pictures of the people present, including an unsuspecting Maria. When Caleb sees her in the surveillance photos, he blows his top? Why? Well, when Maria was still Lily, Caleb was both her partner and lover. Upset to discover she's alive and well, he diverts resources from his current mission to have her and her family killed. He's only 66.6% successful, and that last 33.3 % is going to come back to bite him in the rear, big time.

There isn't much here that we haven't seen in John Wick. Maria has a mentor in the form of Mr. Greg (Ronnie Lazaro), who runs a bar frequented by assassins and hitmen, similar to The Continental. Maria also takes her beef with Caleb and Ricardo to the family's operations, with her destroying a drug factory much like how John Wick attacked the church that was a front for the Russian mob's money laundering operations.  The movie hints at something more epic, and purposely leaves the subplot involving mutiny in the ranks of Ricardo's organization unresolved at the end of the film, in hopes of there being a sequel. The subplot involving the attempted assassination of the governor is also left unresolved, although I wonder if that will be touched upon should there be a follow-up. Compare with John Wick, in which a rich world of assassins is hinted at, but the story of the first film is completely self-contained, such that if a sequel had never been made, you'd still be satisfied with the final product.

Cristine Reyes fares alright as Maria. I think she's better as Maria the Housewife than as Maria the Cold-Blooded Assassin. She doesn't quite project the air of calm ruthlessness that she should in this role, even though she throws herself into the fight scenes as best as she can. She's certainly a beautiful woman, but she doesn't seem to possess the intensity that this sort of role requires. I'm guessing this is her first major action role, so if there is another Maria film, that she grows more into the role.

I'm guessing that the action was handled by Sonny Sison and Marol Eugenio, the former being a prolific stuntman in Hollywood whose credits include Green Street Hooligans 2; Godzilla '14; The Rundown; and several incarnations of the Power Rangers. As an action director, he's recently worked on BuyBust and Showdown in Manilla. He evidently has studied one or more Filipino martial arts, having produced a documentary on the subject called The Bladed Hand: The Global Impact of the Filipino Martial Arts. On the subject of blades, much of the action is based around knives, which is cool. I enjoyed watching Reyes slice her way through swaths of villains and I get the idea that Sison really knew his way around Escrima and Kali to be able to make Reyes look as good as she does. The choreography is a far cry from the punching bag choreography of 90s Hollywood films and a bit more visible than the some of the more recent Bourne-type action films. There are some nice exchanges of handwork, disarming techniques, and basic grappling moves--like when Reyes and Padilla are fighting over a gun during the fight at Maria's house. Fans of girl-on-girl fighting might enjoy the bathroom fight between Reyes and Jennifer Lee, who plays Maria replacement to the family.

"Might" is the operative word here, because it's that fight that really points out the biggest flaw in the action. There's something too soft-boned about the action, as if the actors were holding back, or that Reyes, for all the sets and techniques she learned and displayed onscreen, just isn't able to project the needed energy into the fights. Part of the reason might be the sound effects, which are almost non-existent when someone gets punched, and robs the film of that sense of impact that we're accustomed to in Hong Kong films. As a result, the actors do their best, but the fights aren't quite as convincing as they should. Moreover, I think the climax is a bit of a letdown, as we're promised a second girl-on-girl throwdown with a second member of the Black Rose, but Maria breaks her neck with very little fanfare. The last fight with Padilla is disappointingly short as well.

There are other flaws that hurt the film in little ways. When a certain supporting character is killed, it's treated with no fanfare whatsoever. In fact, the way it's filmed, I didn't even realize the character was dead until a few scenes later. That's a big detriment to the dramatic tension of the film. Another dramatic misstep is when Maria flashes back to the fight at her house, but the camera lingers on her, so all we hear is the dialog of the scene, which wastes a good three minutes of screen time. That scene could've been cut by a good minute and still have gotten the point across.

I also didn't care for the violence. On one hand, the torture sequences are brutal and uncomfortable and last too long. The last one, which involves a realistic beating, random butterfly knife stabbings and the gruesome removal of a fingernail with a pair of pliars didn't serve any real purpose whatsoever. The gore in that scene was done with practical effects and was just too much for me. On the other extreme, there's a lot of digital blood for the gunshot wounds which is fairly obvious, especially when the camera lingers too long and so we see the spray of blood dissolve into thin air without a trace. That sort of ruins the illusion. Undemanding fans may enjoy the former point and ignore the latter, while lapping up Cristine Reyes' natural beauty and well-choreographed fight sequences. But for a grizzled old veteran like me, I expected a little bit more.