Yokai and Other Monsters: From Asian Folklore to Cinema | Out of Competition
Philippines, 2016, 84’, Filipino
Directed by: Prime Cruz
Screenplay: Jen Chuaunsu, Prime Cruz
Cinematography (color): Tey Clamor
Editing: Galileo Te
Production Design: Nestor Abrogena
Music: Bryan Dumaguina
Sound: Mikko Quizon, Jason Conanan
Producer: Jun Robles Lana
Executive Producer: Perci Intalan
Cast: Ryza Cenon, Martin Del Rosario, Vangie Labalan, Cholo Baretto, Gabby Padilla
Date of First Release in Territory: October 15th, 2016
It feels eerie to be writing about a film such as
The Woman in Unit 23B almost a decade after its release, right when the bloody regime of former Philippine Rodrigo Duterte began. As of this writing, Duterte is being tried at the International Criminal Court on charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, and rape under his administration between 2016 and 2019. Duterte’s pervasive war on drugs took as many as 12,000 lives, brutally slaughtered, many gunned down on the streets and left for dead. In
The Woman in Unit 23B, the victims of Jewel (Ryza Cenon) are passed off as drug war victims, executed extrajudicially with cardboards placed on top of their remains saying “Pusher ako, wag tularan,” (“I’m a pusher, don’t be like me”), as was commonly done by the killers to justify their vigilante acts.
But Jewel is no cold-blooded killer. She is a
manananggal, a self-segmenting class of the vampire-like
aswang that transforms into a bat-like winged creature at night, searching for prey (traditionally pregnant women whose fetuses will be sucked out by the manananggal’s proboscis-like tongue). Jewel judiciously selects her victims: scum, self-involved assholes, and predators who deserve to die. The
manananggal gained popularity as an urban myth, tabloid fodder that scared men and kept women on guard. Despite the carnal pleasures Jewel imbibes as part of her monstrous nature, she is lonely and desperate for connection. This she finds when another lonesome soul, Nico (Martin Del Rosario), moves into their apartment complex. Jewel and Nico form a bond and develop a relationship that slips dangerously between possible prey and kindred spirit.
The apartment complex in
The Woman in Unit 23B acts as a microcosm of the
manananggal myth as urban terror. Wings are heard flapping overhead, people flee in terror, and once the body is found, rumors circulate regarding the supernatural entity responsible. The film consciously upends many tropes regarding the
manananggal prevalent in the Filipino horror movies of the 1990s where the
manananggal is an abject form of the monstrous feminine. Here, Jewel’s transformations are tightly sexualized, her lust for flesh transformed into sensual desire that is being repressed and veiled for fear of exposure.
The Woman in Unit 23B conveys the complexities of being a woman in the Philippines while under the constant threat of a misogynistic strongman who constantly downplayed human rights and once told the police to shoot female rebels in the vagina.
Prime Cruz
Known for his slow-burning films, Prime Cruz broke out in 2015 with his feature film,
Sleepless. It won Cruz the Best Director award when it premiered at the 2015 QCinema International Film Festival, along with the NETPAC Best Picture. Cruz will take these mesmerizing shapes of romance in his later films, such as the creature feature
The Woman in Unit 23B and the disability romance
Once More with Feelings. His films have traveled to several film festivals.
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
2015 – Sleepless
2016 – The Woman in Unit 23B
2017 – Can We Still Be Friends?
2019 – Once More With Feelings
2021 – The Other Wife
2023 – Death by Desire
2024 – GG (Good Game)