If you're born to hang, you'll never drown.

Metro Manila
Sean Ellis 2013 Philippines/UK
Starring: Jake Macapagal, Althea Vega, John Arcilla, Moises Magisa, Ana Abad-Santos, Erin Panlilio

Metro Manila starts, perhaps a little formulaically, with two proverbs, the cynicism of which feel utterly at odds with the gentle otherworldliness of the images on screen. That is until about eight seconds later when a slightly frail man is shot in the face by a grinning attacker, seemingly for no reason. It really sets the pace for what the viewer can expect of the next two hours - sharp, beautiful cinematography showing close-ups of spider webs and green fields and later the glorious cityscape and impoverished slums of Manila itself punctuated by scenes of appalling violence and grim hardship. Still, perhaps the oddest thing about the film is that, despite being filmed entirely in the Philippines with Filipino actors speaking in the Tagalog language, it's directed by a minor British director chiefly known for the godawful short film Cashback, described by one critic as "full of unlikable characters, messy editing, and gratuitous nudity". For the most part Metro Manila isn't much better and carries with it a pretty worrying belief that almost everyone is corrupt, and that those who aren't soon will be. Apparently no-one is exempt from this misanthropy either, even politicians, children and the elderly. At one point the main character, a security man, is told by his superior that robberies of and attacks on their armoured vehicles go up during election season because the campaigns are expensive. Thankfully things improve in the second half when Ellis throws in a series of clever and surprisingly believable twists that add to the story rather than detracting from it and an amazing tense face off between Macapagal and Arcilla in which one man is holding a machine gun throughout and the other is the more threatening and dominant of the two. Althea Vega still out acts both of them and adds a much-needed layer of subtlety and understatement that's otherwise completely lacking but you can't fault the effort. Bloody terrible dialogue though.