BOY PUSIT (MOVIE ANALYSIS)

BOY PUSIT (MOVIE ANALYSIS)

Chelyn Torejas
III-ABMC
March 6, 2007

Boy Pusit, the 2007 New York festivals Gold World Medal marks another breakthrough in the cited dying Philippine Film Industry. Filipinos having been poured with numerous profit-oriented and clumsy films will certainly be awestruck with GMA’s another approach of making a common practice in the Philippines a big hit not only to the local audience but also to the global subscribers.

The director’s cut version of the underwater documentary as hosted by Sandra Aguinaldo offers never seen behind the scene footages and its featured interview along with its Executive Producer Kristoffer Brugada. The two, during the interview looked pleased as the documentary surprisingly ended up illuminating the bleaking future of its feature children.

The recent underwater documentary focused on the long and common problem in the country: child labor. It featured the story of two children, Jameson and Istoy from the rural area of Sitio Paradahan, Masbate. It has captured the children’s’ fight for survival, sad plight in combat with poverty, longings to finish their studies and their routinely quest of pusit in the vast deep ocean.

The use of variations of shot all through out the movie has effectively shown the other face of the multi-faceted featured characters: comical, joyful, ingenuity.

The technical team is good enough to utilize the natural light (considering that it’s an outdoor work), which in turn, created a natural and usual look. The amount of lighting is fit enough to let its audience see the customary burned skin of the divers which added another striking and authenticated effect.

The crow of the chicken, the laugh of the children, the sound of the waves and the roar of the pump boat machine are just some of the captured natural sounds that have given the audience almost the same feeling of being close to the nature.

The music goes together well with the mood of each scene. When it was regarding the scene of the poor harvest of pusit, the scoring is somewhat gloomy. All throughout the story, the scoring is suddenly but smoothly changing – from festive to suspense, suspense to exciting and a swift shift to suspense musical score.

It also offers a complimentary beauty adduced by the picturesque environmental scenes –a glimpse of sunrise, birds and the sea itself.

In contradiction to the common featured high-tech gadgets, towering buildings, busy streets and well-groomed personality, the documentary truly depicts majority of the Filipino way of living.

Since it is an underwater documentary and considering other factors such as the shaking effect brought about by the waves and the wind, the production has been good enough all the way to capture each scene appropriately. It’s clear enough that the production team is well experienced to simply handle it with ease.

From the opening up to the end of the documentary, everything is dramatic and surprising which makes every audience craves for more. There is always something to look forward to.

The whole production can be an eye-opener to some, and an inspiration to others but it’s an award winning documentary, a historical achievement you may say, that is fine enough and is not waste worthy to learn from. There is no need to wonder why it won.