Best 'Feet' Forward

By Phillip Cu-Unjieng (The Philippine Star)

Against the backdrop of our recent history, and with a curious fascination for feet and footwear, Unitel’s The Red Shoes is a poignant, polished film
that revolves around a love story of yearning, and a swirling family saga that intelligently fuses local color with stirring revelations, and plot twists and turns. It seems to be the kind of film that’s earmarked for mainstream success abroad; skillfully executed and well thought out, it can serve as Contemporary Philippine History 101, while keeping the viewer enthralled via the love story and the opposing family background of our main protagonists. It may not be our breakthrough Slumdog, but it’s certainly a foot in the door, and a step in the right direction.

Directed by Raul Jorolan, and written by James Ladioray, the film opens with 10-year-old Lucas relating how his father (Domingo/Tirso Cruz III) was one of the fatalities of the Film Center construction disaster, and how when the Revolution came, he was one of those who stormed Malacañang and stole a pair of Imelda’s shoes, giving a shoe each to the two women in his life — his manicurista mother, Chat (Liza Lorena), and childhood crush Bettina, the daughter of one of his mother’s high society customers. We then fast forward to Lucas (Marvin Agustin) today, earning a living as a “wedding videographer,” and still in love with Bettina (Nikki Gil), a physiotherapist.

Told in “chapters” that are highlighted by the women who have played a part in the life of Lucas (and with humor, noting their shoe color preferences), the film moves through flashbacks and vignettes, to an understanding of what it means to be Filipino in this day and age — the confusion, the hoping despite odds, the surrender and stoic attitude to life and fate, and the constant reviving of faith in a happy resolution. Rather than mere caricatures, the women that dot the landscape of Lucas’ life are full characters, each sharing that same mix of getting on with life, while hoping and dreaming, and each will have her own version and set of circumstances.

Scene-stealing is Tessie Tomas as Madame Vange, Imelda-impersonator and professed psychic/medium. When she is approached by Chat to make contact with the presumed-dead Domingo, it’s the promise of the pair of genuine Imelda shoes that hilariously convinces her to accept the offer. And the film is truly a fine example of ensemble acting, with Tetchie Agbayani, Monica Llamas, and Iwa Moto all given their chance to essay their characters as people we recognize, or have encountered in our own lives.

Foreshadowing is one of the dramatic devices effectively used in this film, and it was a joy to notice that as the film played out. The Red Shoes is indeed a very polished “pair of shoes,” and to my eye, tailor-made for an audience abroad. Overseas Filipinos will love bringing their foreigner-friends to it, it‘s an effective “small story” played against the large canvas of our national heritage, customs, beliefs and idiosyncrasies.