Contestant Number 1: Camp
Ten Little Mistresses is a culmination of THE Filipino culture. Director Jun Robles Lana (also known from his phenomenal works: Die Beautiful and Barber's Tales), understood an aspect in the forefront of our lives: Extravagance. Not to say other cultures do not have this, but the Filipino urge to throw an extra big party for every single win we have is a phenomenon that should actually be studied.
The film follows the character of Eugene Domingo, Lilith, the head maid and John Arcilla's character Valentin, who was supposed to reveal their profound love to his keridas (mistresses) that he accumulated throughout his marriage with the character of Cherry Pie Picache, Charo, before she died. Lilith and Valentin planned their announcement to be done at an excessive surprise party.
And of course, an extravagant party is always paired with an extravagant dress. The costume design for the film did not hold back from serving over-the-top looks for every mistress in the movie, while making sure the outfit embodies their personality. Carmi Martin (Magenta), Pokwang (Babet), Agot Isidro (Helga), Kris Bernal (Diva), Arci Munoz (Aura), Sharlene San Pedro (Moon Young), Adrianna So (Because), Iana Bernardez (Coco), Christian Bables (Lady G), and Kate Alejandrino (Sparkle) strutted their outfits as if walking a runway. They represented the different faces of femininity in the country while touching another aspect of being Filipino: pageantry.
Naturally, the movie does not become a murder-mystery without the murder. After giving out expensive material things, Valentin unfortunately dies before finishing. In this turn, Lilith is the one who reveals the supposed marriage which pits the women against each other. They mourn him (with a comedic tone) then suspect that one of them, the keridas, must have killed Valentin.
The extravagance does not end in the superficial parts of the movie. Being a whodunit, it delivers E-X-T-R-A crazy plot twists that shows the love Lana has for classic murder mysteries — secret passageways, the twin trope, the mistress angle, the unreliable narrator, and the countless Sherlock Holmes references (plus poking fun at the Filipino adaptation). He picked these tropes and turned it up a notch and made it specially His. He also made the genre more accessible to the non-consumer of mysteries by flavoring it with a distinct attack with the help of every veteran comedy actress featured in the film.
Contestant Number 2: Comedy
Mystery being paired with comedy is not new. Notable examples of these are the classics: "D' Anothers" (2005), Shake Rattle & Roll Franchise, and Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington (2011) which utilized comedy to achieve a push and pull of emotions. In Ten Little Mistresses, you can easily see the Lana touch in the mix of referential and slapstick comedy that uplifted the impact the film had.
In the film, one of the withstanding bits were made by Donna Cariaga as Chicklet. The joke is that she knows Sherlock Holmes but only the GMA7 adaptation where the dog is the detective. And even though she was referencing another adaptation, she still had a good grasp in detective work that helped Lilith "solve" the murder. This joke doubled as a storytelling device to push the plot forward without making it seem forced. This, to me, shows the ingenuity of film's writing.
Another example of a referential joke is the name of Cherry Pie Picache's character, Charo. At first glance it sounds like a cheap joke that could have been overused the moment they mention her name. It's reference to the hit non-fiction show, Maalala Mo Kaya from ABS-CBN where Charo Santos, the host, always starts her show with "Dear Charo". It's an overused joke outside the film but the movie subverted this expectation and only used this joke — 3 times at most — at the pivotal part of the movie which made it a hilarious stand out.
So even though it did have reservations about its identity as a mystery, the comedy served as its cushion from deviating. Nevertheless, the film is still a murder-mystery packed with a punch.
Contestant Number 3: Collectivism
A Lana film is not a Lana film without its striking message. Ten Little Mistresses imposes its thesis when the youngest of the mistresses, Moon Young (Sharlene San Pedro) and Coco (Iana Bernardez) first reflects on their identity as mistresses. It sheds a light on how women, in particular, are trapped in abusive cycles in search of a meaningful connection.
And while these women, coming from all shape, sizes, and age are flawed in their own ways, none of them deserves a selfish man who thinks of them as hedonistic fools; showering them with material things in exchange for the dignity they've lost by falling into a trap of a manipulative man.
All of these congregate to the revolutionary and feminist ideals the film wants to emphasize: that having one mistress is bad, two is a pattern, and ten is a systemic problem that runs amiss. And its message is clearer that individually, the keridas have their own identities however, they represent the different women that struggle under the patriarchy. Their private abuse — being emotionally manipulated, being pitted against each other, and being discarded as if they're not individuals; connects to the public patriarchy — the state not protecting women, laws that still hinders them of their rights, and the general culture of what it means to be a woman in our time.
Another layer to this allegory is Lilith's character. Her name seemed deliberate enough for us to draw the conclusion that it was taken from Judaism. Lilith, in Jewish folklore, was said to be the first wife of Adam, the first man. She refused to lie beneath him and believed that both of them were created equal. And when Adam disagreed, she ran out of the Paradise, asserting her freedom and independence. Connecting this to Eugene Domingo's character who was the catalyst of revolution in the film, the message becomes straightforward. Which is unsurprising of Eugene Domingo as she has done the same topic in Barber's Tale (2013); How women are needed in revolutions and the power they hold.
It's even more compelling if we also weigh in that Lilith (in Ten Little Mistresses) is a working class woman, often shunned by her peers because of the nature of her work. But with their femininity, their collective struggle, they found sanctuary in each other. At one point, they removed their headdress to symbolize their collective action, to remove their "crowns" for a man that never treated them like the queens they are.
In turn, in their discussions, they have established a middle ground; stripped themselves of who they are and come to the conclusion that they are all, in fact abused women. And despite their differences, all their quirks and personalities are now an asset. They used these different perspectives they hold to never feel guilty in taking down their abuser.
However, at the end of the film, it carefully states the difference between revenge and revolution, "hindi ito paghihiganti, isa itong pag paghihimagsik." Which becomes the completion of its thesis — its heart, that exemplifies the allegory. And with its justification, inside is the blooming message: the importance of collective action. That women, in their own ways, crave the same taste of freedom.
In the film's conclusion, its justification is taken up further when they danced at the hall with the police coming in: They were staged as if to resemble the paintings of women leading the revolution, and without guilt they partied unclothed, because they killed no man — only a tyrant. An abuser.
And the Winner is…
The gendered violence and abuse that women face is as much an individual struggle as it is a result of state neglect. Just like in the film, we should be able to assess our worth as women in the 21st century. The generation gap is only made to pit us against each other — in its entirety, our struggles bind us and our power to take down the oppressors.
We should acknowledge that a system that does not serve half of its population is a degrading system — and to take it down is justified. So, Lilith did nothing wrong and neither did all of the keridas in the film.
However what they, as an individual, has done is only a fraction of reclaiming the centuries of disservice — lack of representation and abuse. Lilith, for one, could have never done everything if she was not supported by an ideology that suppresses her. Only a collective of women who understood her pain and suffering freed her from her own demise.
Moving forward, we celebrate the small wins in extravagance. We must make the streets out stage and reclaim the mic that has been held against us because women need revolution and the revolution needs women. Through collective action, we are setting aside our differences, because the macho-feudal society will never take down itself.
: Gerald Graciano
: Kelvyn Manalo
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