[Click here (recommended) for desktop mode.]
Respeto
English Translation: Respect
Additional Language: Cebuano
Year of Release: 2017
Director: Treb Monteras II
Screenwriters: Njel de Mesa & Treb Monteras II
Producers: Dogzilla, Arkeofilms, Cinemalaya, CMB Film Services, This Side Up
Cast: Abra, Dido de la Paz, Loonie, Kate Alejandrino, Chai Fonacier, Ybes Bagadiong, Brian Arda, Thea Yrastorza, Nor Domingo, Vim Nadera, OG Birador, Negatibo
Inspired by the success of his idol, Breezy G, Hendrix plans to join FlipTop Battle League, a rap competition that has also become a YouTube sensation. His unruly behavior during a street showdown gets him and his homies, Payaso and Betchai, into trouble with another rap gang. While running away from the gang they encounter Doc, an elderly bookstore owner who’s fond of an older form of improvisational poetry, the balagtasan. Facing his own problems with his son Fuentes, a corrupt policeman, Doc tries to mentor Hendrix to enable him to surmount the world of drugs, crime, and moral decadence that poverty had plunged him into.
Like its counterpart in US pop culture, Pinoy rap has barely been able to attain the kind of respectability accorded to “finer” forms like the musical, art songs, and even pop and rock numbers. Even the proposal of a few academic experts to consider it the modern-day equivalent of the early twentieth-century verbal joust, the balagtasan, has met with resistance from more conservative sectors, owing to rap’s use of strong language and violent imagery. In this manner, Respeto goes beyond referring to the striving for self-fulfillment of its lead character, a young man of the slums. The movie weaves into its complex narrative several problematic issues that arise from the populist administration of Rodrigo R. Duterte, from his support for the Heroes’ Cemetery burial of martial-law dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, to the deadly and scientifically contested war on illegal drugs. Yet Respeto formulates its critique without the trollish arguments that typify social-media exchanges. The issues get raised as part of the characters’ struggle with their slum environment and with the administration that seeks to wrest control of it, often at their expense. Authentic personalities in local hiphop culture, including the director himself, ensure that the viewing experience will be highly realistic—even when the movie overturns its realistic premise and introduces poetic and dream imagery. More unexpectedly, Respeto handles the slum situation with as much titular respect as any local movie has ever mustered. In the process, it reveals how people in the midst of poverty and social degradation manage to survive and even embrace their situation: their sense of community and their hope to better their condition provide the means of binding everyone together, as well as the rage with which they meet values that run counter to their cherished ideals.
Back to top
Return to Canon Decampment contents
Go to alphabetized filmmakers list
Á!
ORCID ID 
Ámauteurish! 