2017-000279 08-20-17

Reaction Paper on Smaller and Smaller Circles

Award winning novel by F.H. Batacan in 1999 is now a movie adaptation by director
Raya Martin. The onset of the film was in Payatas trash dump, where young skinny boys
are fashionably killed in a consistent style: faces scraped, hearts removed, and genitals
cut then thrown like garbage as two Jesuit priests: Father Saenz and Father Lucero tries
to solve the mystery of the case. The film reels away from the misconception that all
murderers kill because they are robbers, rapists or drug-users; Martin’s piece, reveals a
twisted world where a serial killer doesn’t kill because of his social status, but kills because
he wants to. The killer exists to be someone who has achieved a formal education, and
everyone is left wondering how and why that someone can do the unthinkable. “Smaller
and Smaller Circles” tackles the flaws of an imperfect society: poverty and injustice,
abnormalities within the church, government corruption, and sexual abuse. Its portrayals
of an ignorant church-in pursuit of protecting its credibility and a crooked government
system consequently affects every person’s psychological well-being. In this film, the
concept of good and evil is disregarded, rather it deals about the wounds of the nation.

The film has an exquisite cinematography, the shots were well-angled and well-
framed particularly the hallways, corridors, classrooms and laboratories. Since the novel
was set back in the 90’s, the mood and tone through the lighting was perfectly adjusted
which doesn’t make the moviegoer feel like the film is too old to watch. Martin perfectly
portrayed an era where smartphones and social media did not exist, where face-to-face
communication was highly valued rather than on-screen communication.

The score used in the film added thrills and suspense particularly in the scene
where the identity of the suspect was yet to be revealed. The narration peppered context
clues to the audience. The lines of the characters were figurative especially the one
director Lastimosa mentioned: “Some things are better dealt within the cleansing light of
transparency and openness rather than in the darkness of secrecy.”

All in all, the film is highly recommendable to the post-millennial generation, as it

conveys a natural and artistic approach towards the society’s dilemma before which
happens to be relevant in this time as well, to give the youngest generation a glimpse of
what it is like before. The film is dated but functional.
2017-000279 08-20-17

Casi Cariño

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