Life and Works of Rizal

Name: Arvin Maculit

Yr/Sec: BSIS 1A

Activity #2:
Direction: Watch the Film: “Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?” directed by Eddie Romero
(1976).
Essay: Reflections on the Film:
“Ganito Kami Noon, Paano Kayo Ngayon?”
Directed by Eddie Romero (1976)

The 19th Century Philippines as represented in the film are, the Philippines are respectable, if you have
a connection with the Spaniards or are related to a family of Spaniards, you are considered wealthy, as is
serving in the church. Schools are being built in churches so that the church can educate the children small
amount of knowledge and apply punishment on the students. During the Spaniards era, foods are also Spanish –
inspired because the majority of the food is prepared by Spaniards. Bartering is also performed globally, the
Philippines enjoys trading with other countries, particularly in the areas of food and other consumables and
materials. The majority language at the time was Spanish, and certain tagalogs were difficult to comprehend.
Courting at that time was also quite remarkable, unlike today, almost no courting takes place, such as gaining
approval from the female's parents and completing chores for the family of the one you are courting, some of
these things are still done today, but they are very rare to observe nowadays. Convicted people or convicts are
marched, and some are executed in public, with horses or kalesa serving as means of transportation.
The film’s representation of the 19th Century are very accurate, they studied the quality of life and the
original way of life in the Philippines during the 19th century, as well as the way of speaking, the dialects are
very accurate, as well as they portrayed the practice of executing prisoners and imprisoning innocent people
without trial, which was very common at the time, because without money you have no power.
The main question that the film seeks to answer is it demonstrates how some things were better and even
worse before than they are now. For example, living during those times was very peaceful, assuming there was
no war, and culture and traditions were used, so even though today, we are copying other countries' traditions.
Also, some of the horrible things that happened at the period have now been corrected, such as the judicial
system, which is still in place today.