tadpole-596-918256 Review of Insiang

Insiang (1976)

Before World War Two, most political pundits placed The Philippines . . .

[8/10 · 9 March 2020]

. . . on a faster track to U.S. statehood than such fellow American Territories as Hawaii or Alaska. After all, the Filipino Population was far greater than those other two non-contiguous regions combined, and the folks around Manilla were such quick assimilators that they used tons of U.S. Currency and Coins as their official form of money (since they were U.S. Citizens already!). INSIANG shows what a social disaster it would have been HAD The Philippines actually become the USA's 49th state in, say, 1955. INSIANG dwells upon a representative grime-poor family of this socially backwards swamp. To simplify this commentary for native English speakers, let's rename the title character as "Sue," and her dumb-as-a-waiter mom as "Mia." Horrid hag Mia sets a chain of chaotic destruction in motion by dragging local bully "Woody" into her slovenly hovel to become her gigolo. Woody, of course, only has eyes for Sue, a troublemaker in her own right. Half the neighborhood has a crush on Sue, including her brother from another mother, "Ronan." Woody warns Ronan off Sue so that he himself can break her in. When Sue finally agrees to let Ronan have a turn on her out of spite against Woody's clumsiness, her younger lover bugs out before dawn, leaving Sue to awaken in an empty flop house bed. So a livid Sue orders Woody to beat Ronan to death, then eggs on her mom Mia into such a jealous rage that she stabs Woody into Kingdom Gone before going to the gallows herself. INSIANG demonstrates the wisdom of the aphorism: "Beware the Phillips Screwdriver."