The Idea First Company
Jun Robles Lana
Christian Bables
Big Night is a story of Dharna, a gay who owns Philippine Hair Lines, a small salon boxed inside a skimpy, populated village of settlers called area 2. The film revolves around his very simple mission: clear his name on the latest drugs watchlist. Dharna, despite his strong belief that news today are faked and framed against policemen who are only doing their duty in hunting down drug pushers, and that extra judicial killings are actually not extra-judicial –– is now caught up in a whirlwind of events, in his own doing, just to make sure that before the sun rises and the list is forwarded to the Philippine National Police, he will be able to clear his name and prove that it is plainly erroneous for him to be included the drug list. He was innocent. He knows he never touched any drug.
He goes into a myriad of events; visiting different area leaders, trying to talk them out of his desire to be proven innocent, making promises here and there about how he was willing to work for his life, just to get his name off of the list. This included him beautifying a pile of dead bodies inside a funeral parlor owned by a local barangay official. He knows he will be in trouble, despite being innocent, as summary executions is a thing nowadays.
The film opened and was built upon this very idea. A straightforward scene of a man being gunned down by two-masked guys in broad daylight, with people around the dead body conversing that the man who was shot was innocent. Big Night’s plot was raw and unforgiving. It ended without asking you to side with any of the characters, for you have to make this choice by yourself. In contrast to its title, Big Night does not bank on thrilling plot-twists or complications. It was grounded in reality, despite its dark and comic delivery. In my perception, this is the very reason why the film is a deserving winner of the Metro Manila Film Festival’s Best Picture award. It was profound, without trying too hard. It was thought provoking, without losing its intended humor.
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