• Japan Premiere

Competition

Big Night

Director: Jun Robles LANA

2021｜Philippines｜97min｜Language: Tagalog｜Subtitles: English, Japanese

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Starring

Christian BABLES
Eugene DOMINGO
John ARCILLA
Janice DE BELEN
Nico ANTONIO

Synopsis

Big Night opens with a daytime assassination in a slum in Manila as a young man gets his brains blown out by a hitman, The people around him react with shock then humour and gossip as the victim was said to be on a watch list - a document of suspected drug dealers and addicts who become the target of summary executions. So long as YOU aren’t on it everything will be fine, goes the belief of these bystanders, one of whom is Dharna (Christian BABLES), our main protag, a gay beautician who is quick of wit and sharp of tongue, but silent in the face of social injustice because she figures that being neutral will offer protection. However, when Dharna’s name appears on the neighbourhood watchlist, an all-night odyssey begins for her to have it removed before she gets killed.

In making this film, director Jun Robles LANA (Die Beautiful, 2016) targets people’s complacency in the face of governmental abuse of power through putting a likeable protagonist through the wringer. Black comedy turns into social horror as the clock ticks down and corruption is exposed in Duterte’s bloody and vicious war on drugs.

[Jason MAHER]

Director's Message

In 2016, when Duterte came into power, he promised to solve the Philippines’ drug problem in 6 months. That in itself is already a great premise for a comedy of errors of biblical proportions. Using the drug war violence in the Philippines as backdrop, BIG NIGHT! follows the struggles of Filipinos living in the fringes. Through the lens of comedy and farce, I wanted to explore themes of disorder, dignity, exploitation and humanity. How do we restore order in society when our sense of “normal” and, more importantly, our sense of values, are distorted?

• Competition
• Aloners
• Amira
• Anita
• Angry Son
• Barbarian Invasion
• Big Night
• Days Before the Millennium
• The First Girl I Loved
• The Girl on a Bulldozer
• Journey to the West
• Mama’s Affair
• No Land's Man
• Red Pomegranate
• The Sales Girl
• Shankar’s Fairies