Pisay 2007 | A Movie Analysis

Directed by Auraeus Solito

Pisay is an abbreviated form of the term PhiSci or ‘Philippine Science’ depicted in a

Movie which was released on February 20, 2008, by Auraeus Solito as the director and
written by Henry Grageda and Gammy Lopez, Annicka Dolonius, Carl John Barrameda, and
Elijah Castillo are among the cast members. The film was set in the 1980s and revolved
around the journey of youthful first-year students in 1982 and finished in 1986. The range of
this movie is about 1 hour and 58 minutes. It has been shown in different cinemas in the
Philippines and Canada, South Korea, Germany, France, and Singapore at various film
festivals. Satisfyingly, this movie also earned Best Director, Production Design, and
Audience Choice Awards at the 2008 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. It
receives the Audience Award and the International Jury Prize at the 2008 Vesoul Asian Film
Festival.

During the occurrence of Martial Law in the 1980s, six teenagers in the top high
school for the sciences find themselves as they go through the joys and difficulties of
adolescence. They were the leading two hundred scholars from all across the Philippines who
passed the test for the Philippine Science High School test, which has been established to
provide a highly enhanced science education to extremely outstanding Filipino youngsters.
They are taken from among the best and brightest throughout the country and must complete
college-level biology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics beginning in their sophomore
year. Those who succeed are deemed as the new future leaders in science and technology. At
the same time, those who fail are considered tragic victims of natural selection or more
commonly known as survival of the fittest as coined by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer,
if you are strong, you will survive. If you are weak, you will quickly fail.

Conversely, they all learn that they are not isolated from the real world and are not
exempt from living real lives through the process. They discover the world outside, erupting
into the People Power revolution against the Marcos dictatorship in 1986. They also face
impediments in school as they struggle to graduate, contend with teachers, classmates,
family, school officials, and a new classification to separate students meeting high standards
of excellence from those who do not.
 The film also tackled systemic problems such as political consciousness, personal
goals, inequality, prejudices, and cultural expectations. They provide a massive amount of
situational crisis that is ever prevalent, and that is the significance of educating the
misinformed regarding the escalating political issues. More so, the personal goals of students,
as well as their societal standing, were emphasized in the film. As I have said earlier, there
are six students whose viewpoint were shown; they were Rom, a bright but poor scholar;
Wena, a silent yet brilliant girl; Mat, a troubled boy with a motivated facade; Liway, a
resolute and assertive individual; Andy, a valiant and easygoing C.A.T. comrade candidate;
and Euri, a revolutionary and a voracious theater actor, as they studied throughout Pisay.
These individuals show the importance of thinking out of the box of seeing the world as a
whole, not just a mere thing to view as impressive. They taught us that it is never too bad to
question the authority if it is wrong, and it is never too late to chase our dreams if that will
make us happy. We should always do the things that will liberate us and make us feel we
belong. These will help us continue our venture and will not hinder our growth. It also shows
that as long as we are eager to learn, there is always room for knowledge and enormous
opportunities to improve.

Furthermore, in the aspect of the filming, I will solemnly applaud the director and
producers for giving us a salient nostalgic experience. The film portrays a massive and
breathtaking technique to provide a realistic effect during the 80’s era. For instance, in the
way of dressing, they took the similarities of oldie’s dressing particularly in party or dancing
events as shown in the movie. There is also a sense of hairstyle technique that we might
consider today as jeje but fabulous in those times. Of course, we will not forget the scene
where Ron used headphone to listen to some music, which is equivalent to our modern and
wireless headphones while playing Spotify music.

Another thing is speaking and using some words widely used by most Filipinos
nowadays. There is just a terrific discovery for me because I thought the use of these inverted
words such as erp and ebab only began later, but as it turned out, it was used decades ago. I
also love their way of considering the scenes that promote friendship, which is evidently seen
in Mat’s, Wena, and Liways’ scenes. They showed what an honest company is and how great
it is to have friends in times of terrible trouble.
 To sum it up, there is a crystal clear conveyance of the message, splendid filming
techniques, and great information. They portray the pivotal role of insatiable curiosity,
critical thinking, courageous physique, practicality, and moral conduct. The film also
implores the viewers to widen their horizons and not just go with the flow because only dead
fish goes with the flow. They are urging students to search for a pot of gold over the rainbow
and catch the rain using their bare hands because that is what a real discovery is to search for
something beyond unusual. But overall, there is a massive amount of information that we can
get from this movie, particularly the dictatorship of former President Ferdinand Marcos and
the force prosecutions during his reign for almost 21 years. Hence, the film simply tells us
that there is more to life than our missed opportunities; there is more to learn from our
previous mistakes. There is always a life beyond school, and there is always a rainbow after
the rain.

References

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/first-use-of-the-phrase-survival-of-the-fittest#:~:text=The
%20Principles%20of%20Biology%20by,most%20appropriate%20to%20its
%20environment'.
https://us05web.zoom.us/j/9546877349?pwd=WU0rUUVjUXl4K1JFTEMydktUdGFvUT09

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pisay_(film)

https://959greenfm.wordpress.com/2021/10/05/the-real-survival-of-the-fittest-a-film-review-
on-pisay/