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★★★
Directed by: #NelConradDelaCruz
Written by: #NelConradDelaCruz
Starring: #JakeMontajes, #JonahNakila, #RonaldCampos
Fun fact about Davao City: Rodrigo Duterte, the human-rights abusing, drug-user murdering current president of the Philippines was once the mayor of the city. Ok, perhaps it’s a not-so-fun fact. But it is one that gives an impression of the desolation and desperation felt by the city’s residents – something on full display in Conrad Dela Cruz’s crime short Once Upon a Time in Davao City.
A young man (Jake Montajes) moves to Davao City with nothing but his guitar in hand. Finding himself without anywhere to stay, he moves into a rundown apartment next door to a vulnerable young woman (Jonah Nakila). When he is unable to afford rent, his landlord offers him a dangerous job with a high reward. But the task requires him to push his own morals to their breaking point…
Once Upon a Time in Davao City brings plenty of style to the table, but lacks a little in substance or originality to allow it to stand out amongst similar dark crime thrillers set in run-down metropolises. As we follow the protagonist through colour-drained streets and dingy apartment buildings, we get a fantastic sense of how the poverty of Davao can force terrible choices onto good-hearted people. The city itself is the star of the show, Conrad Dela Cruz’ direction fully amplifying the shadowy and imposing apartment blocks and side-streets. The sense that we are at the start of the protagonist’s descent is palpable, and setting the city up as a place where only survivors last is essential for this.
The plot itself however is clunkier and fails to tell the protagonist’s story nearly as effectively. We never really get a sense why he has left home behind for the city, and his decision to take up his landlord’s offer feels unearned – emanating from an inability to find work and a traumatic exposure to his neighbour’s strife. But there is a distinct lack of emotion inserted into these moments – with no time given to his own money struggles or to developing a relationship with the neighbour. For such a pivotal shift in character, more development was really necessary.
The acting is strong, with Jake Montajes bringing a gamut of emotions to the protagonist as he goes from wide-eyed newcomer to the city to a man on the brink of a life-changing decision. His faux-confidence as he discusses his task with seasoned gangsters is a brilliant display of turmoil that marks his personal point of no return. Jonah Nakila’s performance as his neighbour is similarly brilliant, with an emotional display that similarly demonstrates how Davao City itself tears people apart.
A short which brilliantly summarises the dangers of its setting, but fails to really develop its characters, Once Upon a Time in Davao City is exactly what it says on the tin – a short thriller where the city itself is the star.
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