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Saan Nagtatago ang Pag-Ibig?
English Translation: Where Is Love Hiding?
Year of Release: 1987
Director: Eddie Garcia
Screenwriter: Armando Lao
(Adapted from the komiks by Gilda Olvidado)
Producer: Viva Films
Cast: Vilma Santos, Tonton Gutierrez, Ricky Davao, Gloria Romero, Alicia Alonzo, Cherie Gil, Alicia Vergel, Eddie Arenas, Perla Bautista, Joonee Gamboa, Suzanne Gonzales, Vicky Suba
When Rick unexpectedly gets his girlfriend Estella pregnant, he fears that his rich grandmother will refuse to give him a large inheritance out of disappointment. To prevent that, he convinces Estella to marry his mentally handicapped half-brother, Val. She reluctantly obliges and eventually lives with Rick’s family. But complications arise when she starts to develop feelings for Val.
Eddie Garcia’s directorial strength lay in glossy handling of complicated narratives, making him an ideal match for Viva melodramas. He also none too soon moved away from conservative male-centered material toward feminist subject matter. And with this Vilma Santos-starrer, he attained a peak of sorts with the help of an unusually inspired komiks adaptation and an equally inspired ensemble delivery. Known mainly for the line “Lagi na lang si Val, ang walang-malay na si Val” (Always blaming Val, the innocent Val),” the film might be wrongly regarded as trafficking in sympathy for the mentally disabled. In fact it unexpectedly reverses the disadvantaged son’s marginal situation and makes us comprehend how he could win the loyalty and affection of his pretend-wife, but the terms by which Saan Nagtatago ang Pag-ibig? turns out to be the closest to a feminist film that Garcia has made rely on a careful balancing act that begins with the exclusion of male players from the central conflict. Patriarchal power is invested in a fearsome granny, while her daughters (one of whom is Val’s mother) cower in her presence and her grandsons are either incapacitated or spoiled beyond redemption. Once the men and phallic matriarch are eased out, Garcia gets to stage his money shot: a farewell scene by an alliance of women that derives its power from as much the foregoing emotional buildup as from the cultural connotations of women in black ritualistically bonding together. SNaP sustains the impressive tradition of komiks material providing some of the best stories in Pinas cinema—and some of the worst too, but what literary source is exempt from that weakness? The long-overdue reckoning of the most successful mass-patronized literary genre in local culture continues to await its moment.
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