Jacqueline Comes Home (2018): Movie Review

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

This controversial movie just opened today in the cinemas and if you haven't heard it yet - netizens are calling to boycott the film.
Why is that?
If you haven't seen it on your social media - It all started when the trailer of the said movie was released just a few weeks ago - reliving the CHIONG CASE MURDER. It has also remembered a 2011 documentary that was recognized internationally and won numerous awards called Give Up Tomorrow (click the link to see the movie while it is still available for public viewing), which was also created for the same celebrated (mis)trial of the century.

If you plan to watch Jacqueline Comes Home, you must watch Give Up Tomorrow first.

That's what I have seen in my social media and quite enough, it bothered me and I know it did to you too. Intriguing, right?

Aside from my habit of reviewing local films that I watch, I'm writing this for you to not watch or... to watch the film yourself.

I had an impression that it would be biased and the movie tried not to be. Yes, clearly, it has its own bias even it expressed a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie: "loosely inspired by the tragic story of the Chiong Sisters." The movie is the narrative of the Chiong Family - their truth - their reality, but is it really?

On the other hand, to state abruptly, I didn't like the movie as I may have also my own bias. I got to watch GUT a few days ago and it clearly reveals how fucked up our justice system was - isn't it still til now?

Going back to JCH, the movie jumps between past and present. It basically used numerous flashbacks to recount the memories of the Chiong Family with Jacqueline and Marijoy (referred to as the Chiong Sisters). I remember the actors who played the Chiong sisters claiming that the movie would not be biased and is not about justice at all but the tragedy that has transpired in 1997. I thought - What will be the plot of the movie then if it would not involve justice? That made me watch the movie myself.

As expected, the side of the story in the movie is different from the 2011 documentary. (I'll state the things that were represented differently from Give Up Tomorrow so I hope you have already watched GUT to see the discrepancies and comparisons between the two)
In JCH, there are more than 7 suspects linked to the crime (I think I saw 10 males in the movie). This is what Donnalyn Bartolome (who played Marijoy Chiong) is referring to in her FB post:

We all believe there could have been more or less perpetrators but that doesn’t mean the Chiongs didn’t go through the suffering that they did. "

In JCH, Francisco Juan "Paco" Larrañaga was named "Sonny" instead (played by Ryan Eigenmann) who appears to be the Alpha of their 'gang'. The other men's names were also altered but their identities are made distinguishable: The Uy brothers, Paco's friend whom they named as "Jeff", and even portrayal of "Rusia" (who was believed to entirely unknown to Paco in real life) as one of them which the movie made him seemingly relevant part of the crime who would later rat out.
What totally bothered me is how they portrayed Sonny (Paco) in the movie - he drinks every time, then puffs a cigar in his, if not all, almost every scene, and is seemingly temperamental. The movie clearly wanted to depict Paco as a drunken bastard who indulges himself with drugs and habitually preys on women - though striking as both misogynist and philanderer; with precedented occurrences.

In JCH, Jackie and Marijoy's three other siblings were part of the cast: 2 brothers and 1 younger sister named Debbie that happens to be the "Jacqueline" who comes 'home' in the end. So there's that!

In JCH, there is no any drug-related story on Mr. Chiong (played by Joel Torre) but on the male gang of Sonny/Paco where 'Rusia' supplies drugs for the group to enjoy.

In JCH, Mrs. Thelma Chiong (played by Alma Moreno) appears to be a caring mother of her five children until she wasn't. The movie displayed that her family lost Mrs. Chiong too after they lost the Chiong sisters as she had a hard time coping up after the tragic incident - making her sorrowful and distant. This made me conclude it is more fitting to have entitled it as Thelma Comes Home because apparently, it is she who needed to be home for her family. If it wasn't only for Debbie, her youngest daughter, whom God sent home for Mrs. Chiong to return to her family, it would not justify the title Jacqueline Comes Home.

In JCH, Marijoy has an apparent boyfriend who happens to have fetched the Chiong sisters on the night they were abducted but failed to.
The movie clearly emphasized Marijoy's persona being 'stalked', having panic attacks and the likes to make a point. Sonny/Paco preyed on her until his gang kidnapped Marijoy on the late night of July 16 along with her sister Jackie for them to finally do their motive. The movie shows Sonny only raping Marijoy while the gang was enjoying Jackie until eventually the rest of the gang took advantage of Marijoy after Sonny was done on her.

In JCH, Jackie (played by Meg Imperial) managed to escape after Marijoy was pushed to the ravine. She has also experienced the tragedy that her sister went; being raped, abused, and assaulted by the gang the whole night of July 16 until the dawn of July 17.
Jackie was depicted as a loving daughter and sister - that she would rather stay single than having her parents be replaced by someone else; that she would want to be gone first before her parents.

In JCH, the other Chiong children were being bullied in school as people speculate that their sisters were still alive.

In JCH, Mrs. Chiong was helped by certain people closed to Chiong sisters to cope up. The movie has a scene where they tried to conduct an apparition of Jackie but failed thus making them say,

She may be still alive - or her soul is just restless.

In JCH, police have reached witnesses claiming they have heard screams and seen the girls on the night of the crime. Although the police did not take it as strong evidence, a tip was given by unidentified persons that link Sonny's gang. One by one, they were arrested.
However, they did not include a part where Sonny/Paco was being arrested but "Rusia" having nightmares who would eventually turn himself to the police and confess.

In JCH, only a handful of previews on the 'would have justice' parts are shown: suspects being arrested in various confrontation, Rusia surrendering while being bashed by the crowd and the decision on court upon their conviction. They were just quick previews which the movie did not intend to make it as relevant as the grievances of the Chiong family.

The movie, as a craft, would probably become better if it only focused on the grievances of the bereaved family. It seems that the movie aimed to share the struggles of a family after a tragic event while responding to known theories about the case.

There is a sudden scene in the latter part where a group of law students talks about the Chiong sisters and they believe that one, if not all, of the convicted suspects, is innocent. It is countered by someone who is convinced by the court's ruling stating,

No, trust in the justice system. They won't convict innocents.

And that explains the bias of the movie. The director initially said during an interview that viewers should expect a subjective and emotion-driven narrative. True enough - it is subjective only taking primarily Mrs. Chiong's struggle into account and emotion-driven as characters were acted upon with regards to the image that the movie aimed to prove: Mrs. Chiong often visits the church and prays after she has lost her daughters; people deceiving Mr. Chiong that Jackie is still alive and up for ransom; Sonny/Paco has a gang who preyed on the Chiong sisters, eventually abducting them for their pleasure and just disposing the victims after the crime.

Yes, Jacqueline Comes Home is not about justice but the narrative of the Chiong family they themselves believe.

If you want to seek justice, I hope you seek true justice.

This line was said by a lady, who seems to be the mother of Sonny/Paco, to Mrs. Chiong who coincidentally arrives at the location of the ravine where the disposal was believed to happen.

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I may miss parts, especially essentials ones. I'll try to add and edit my content.
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Going more to the technical part and rating the movie itself, I give it 1 out of 5 stars.

STORY - I don't want to consider the movie as a 'biopic' as it may not be as accurate as reality. It is the story of the Chiong sisters based on the narrative of the Chiong Family. It is not a documentary so facts are turned into drama and a tragic story has become an unfavorable cinematic plot.

Truth is indeed relative.

CINEMATOGRAPHY - I have to mention the rape scene where it does not totally reveal sensitive actions. It focused on almost unidentifiable parts of the people involved. Yes, it is rated R-13 but the movie does not expose much of the violence, though there has, it appears to be apparently more conservative and not graphic. It's a sensitive matter after all.
Moreover, I personally did not like how the scenes were captured. I'm not sure if it's the subject, the motion, or the mere POV that the movie tried to use.
All I know is that I wasn't the only one yawning all throughout the movie.

SCORE - Purposeful but failed to deliver.

CAST - I hate to say this but if you hated how twisted the characters are portrayed for the film, then the actors have succeeded to produce the image they intended to. Paco struck you as an innocent 19-year-old, but Sonny proves you otherwise. You believed that Mr. Chiong works for a drug lord, but there was not a damn thing mentioned about it. You do not sympathize with Mrs. Chiong at all, but the movie evidently made Mrs. Chiong so religious. Rusia was unknown to the convicted, but Rusia in the movie has even been the right hand of Sonny/Paco.

I realize that actors are indeed effectual when they bring out the emotions of the viewers, regardless of loving or hating. Though they should hire more effective EXTRAS for they can totally ruin things.

OVERALL - I just really wished the movie invested on a good production (because it has poor), making it more feel like in the late 1990s, expanding a wider range of materials (especially physical), and bringing more relevance to unsupported and almost, if not at all, ridiculous statements. But I supposed, the movie limited itself with its own propaganda.

It [seemed] like a heavily sexual episode of Ipaglaban Mo of ABS-CBN in my opinion. The movie shows the victims, emotional drama of the victim's family, cliche sounding villains, and [almost] a happy ending with the villains being convicted.-Gel

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WHAT A TRAVESTY!

That is what the mass would say after watching Jacqueline Comes Home, having watched Give Up Tomorrow beforehand. JCH is a false representation of the story of the Chiong sisters if compared to GUT. Those two are totally in conflict with one another in terms of their version of the story.

Which narrative is true?
The movie evidently disregarded the nature of Mrs. Chiong having outrage and hysteria and only focused on the despondency and being mournful. Chiong family is deliberately represented in a way that encourages sympathy (not that they don't deserve any).

My say is, guilty or not, the whole point of the documentary (GUT) is to show how poor our judiciary system is. Propaganda or not, it (JCH) gives an angle to the story which creates either a one-sided perception or an objective impression. What do you think of all this?

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