Misteryo sa Tuwa (English: Joyful Mystery) is a 1984 Philippine period drama-political thriller film written and directed by Abbo Q. Dela Cruz. Set in the town of Lucban, Quezon in 1950, three men Ponsoy (Tony Santos Sr.), Mesiong (Johnny Delgado), and Jamin (Ronnie Lazaro) discovered and retrieved a suitcase from a plane crash site and never reported it to the authorities and when the authorities approach Alcalde Valle, the town's mayor, to help find the suitcase, the latter made a sinister plan to steal the money for his greed. It also stars Amable Quiambao, Alicia Alonzo, Maria Montes, Vangie Labalan, Lito Anzures, and the extras in the film that tackles greed, corruption, and hatred.
In 2019, the film was digitally restored and remastered by ABS-CBN Film Restoration, with the help of L’Immagine Ritrovata, Kantana Post-Production, and Wildsound Studios.
Summary
In a peaceful village in the footsteps of Mt. Banahaw, the people were gathered to celebrate a joyous occasion where the villagers and visitors have fun together. On that day, a plane crashed in a nearby area and many people were shocked by the incident. As they discover the remnants, many things and dead passengers are scattered all over the area but everyone sees a lot of items worth of fortune in the area where they stole and retrieved them to escape their lives of being poor. On the other hand, the three men Ponsoy, Mesiong, and Jamin steal a suitcase belonging to a dead American passenger from the plane crash which they vow not to report to the authorities.
By the time the authorities knew the knowledge of the suitcase being held by three men, the town mayor Pedro Valle, and his men including Castro, had decided to take necessary measures to suppress the three men and take the suitcase full of money for their gains. As the film progresses, the motivations of the characters are exposed one by one as they continue to be victimized by torture, abuse, and violence as the contingent of soldiers begin their final assault to kill the pillagers in the mountains as an act of revenge for their violent attack in the village.
Plot
On the morning of August 19, 1950, in the village where an army outpost is situated, the three men Ponsoy, Mesiong, and Jamin, along with their families, are on their way home after the baptism of Ponsoy and Ada's son, Tiko. However, as they were almost near to their destination, the military jeep broke down and they were forced to walk on foot to the village. Despite the problem earlier, they are still on their way while the villagers are preparing, and then, they invite Captain Salgado and the people at the camp to the occasion. By the time they arrived, the celebration started to become joyous when the villagers began to enjoy the music, dancing, and the food and drinks they served.
Suddenly, as the villagers and soldiers enjoy the occasion, a plane crashes into the nearby forest and begins running for help. Moments later, they, including the trio, began to check the remains of the plane but instead of searching for survivors and recovering the remains of dead passengers, they started looting whatever they found in the said area, ranging from food to clothes, much to Captain Salgado's dismay and he told them to help with the soldiers instead. While looting, Jamin discovered a black briefcase and it belonged to a dead American passenger nearby. However, Mesiong and Ponsoy believed that the suitcase's contents might be a bomb but when Castro showed up, they left the area. As they are still looting, a gunshot is heard and the villagers believe that the Huks are back and flee as the soldiers would handle the situation.
At night, the people are happy with their recovered loot from the plane crash. In the case of Mesiong, Jamin, and Ponsoy, the contents of the black briefcase remain mysterious and they still believe that it is a bomb. While no one is watching, they decide to open the briefcase but when it is opened, they become surprised when they discover that the suitcase's contents are no other than money and begin to divide every share among each other. On the next day, Pedro Valle, the town mayor, arrives with the soldiers, medical personnel, and two Chinese businessmen although the people thought that the Japanese soldiers returned. In the captain's office, the Chinese businessmen and Mayor Valle informed Captain Salgado about the plane crash, and the suitcase they wanted to find belonged to an American named Mr. Murphy, the business partner of the former. As the people and personnel help retrieve the dead from the plane crash, they discover the remains of the American but his briefcase is gone.
Meanwhile, the trio still has no idea what are they going to do with the money they got from the recovered briefcase but Jamin is worried about Castro due to the said thing. While the personnel is leaving for Manila, Castro tells Mayor Valle about the briefcase and the latter makes a deal with him. Castro agrees with the deal and admits to him that he was fed up living in the camp. With the worry about the rumors, Mesiong said that the money now belongs to the trio themselves and he would threaten to kill them if someone wanted to take back the money they got from the briefcase.
At the town's capital, the townsfolk gathered together at the Anti-Rat Campaign and Mayor Valle was present at the event. As the town secretary began to talk, Mayor Valle began creating a plan to take back the briefcase with Santos, who had second thoughts about the plan he would do. On the following day, Mayor Valle returns to the camp and talks with the other men, especially Castro about the plan privately. Moments later, Ponsoy, Mesiong, Jamin, and the rest of the loggers return home but at night, things get even worse. A group of men, whose heads were covered with bayong, began terrorizing the village, kidnapping the trio one by one, and when Didong came to check at Mesiong's house, he was shot to death, leading to the panic of the villagers and soldiers. After Santos informed the success to Mayor Valle and started to regret it, the latter told the former that there would be no back-outs in the mission. The following morning, Mayor Valle arrives at the camp furious and asks Captain Salgado where Castro is.
Within the mountains, the trio was tied up and held hostage by the men led by Castro, whom Captain Salgado noticed his unusual behavior in the previous days. Ponsoy, Mesiong, and Jamin were given torture and interrogation by Castro one by one and he asked where is the briefcase. On the day of Didong's funeral, a group of Hukbalahap arrived in the village but they told them that they were not involved in the crime of kidnapping the trio and Didong's death. Later on, the trio continued to be tortured one by one while their whole bodies (except their heads) were buried in the ground until the captors decided to kidnap Jamin's lover, Ising. At the village, Pinang and Ada begin to realize and suspect that Castro was involved in the kidnapping of their husbands while the latter also realizes that Mayor Valle is a liar and untrustable.
At night, while Benito is on his way home from fishing, he discovers the location where the captors torture and hostage the trio and he even witnesses the intimidation done by Castro to Ising. After seeing the whole act, he returned home immediately and informed Pinang, Ada, and the rest of his family about it. On the following morning, Mayor Valle and Santos prepare to go to the mountains to retrieve the money while the platoon of soldiers led by Captain Salgado begins their last mission (also in the mountains) before they are reassigned to the town capital. At the same time, Pinang and Ada decided to arm themselves and release their husbands from their captors.
As the wives finally arrived at the location and returned the briefcase, a battle between them followed. As Castro tries to flee with the briefcase, Pinang shoots him in the leg before Ada can finish the job by stabbing him to death. After killing Castro and their fellow captors, the wives and Benito finally freed the trio and Ising and they fled from the area immediately. Moments later, Mayor Valle and Santos finally reached the location, and despite discovering that Castro and the others were killed, they found the briefcase lying on the ground. As Santos gave the briefcase to the mayor, he was shot to death, and as he opened the briefcase, the platoon arrived and a firefight began. The firefight between Mayor Valle and the platoon ended with the former being shot to death and Captain Salgado, who was shot in the arm, discovered the nasty motives of the mayor and his men.
In the following days, the army outpost was dismantled as the personnel moved to the town capital. The film ends with the wedding of Jamin and Ising and the village folk begin to enjoy themselves together.
The director and its crew members also hired the townspeople of Lucban, Quezon, and the Lucban Theatre Ensemble as extras for the film as well as the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Peque Gallaga, the director of Oro, Plata, Mata, played the role of a dead American passenger.
Production
Misteryo sa Tuwa was adapted from a winning entry from the scriptwriting contest of ECP in 1982.
The film was shot in the town of Lucban, Quezon, the hometown of the director Abbo Q. Dela Cruz and his brother Rosauro "Uro" Q. Dela Cruz who served as the crowd director of the film.
Release
Misteryo sa Tuwa was released by the Experimental Cinema of the Philippines on December 25, 1984, as part of the 1984 Metro Manila Film Festival. In Japan, it was released on June 1, 1985, as one of the films exhibited for the 8th PIA Film Festival at PARCO Theater in Tokyo, Japan, and its literal Japanese title is also Joyful Mystery (Japanese: よろこびの神秘, Hepburn: Yorokobi no shinpi).[1]
Digital restoration
The film was restored by the ABS-CBN Film Restoration through the Kantana Post-Production (Thailand) Co. Ltd. and L'Immagine Ritrovata for the image restoration from film prints and Wildsound Studios for its color grading and audio restoration.[2][3]
To address the issue of the damaged parts of Reel 3, the restoration team contacted the film's cinematographer Rody Lacap for approval to fix the parts of the film. In the end, Lacap decided to make the damaged parts to be colored in sepia tones. Leo P. Katigbak, head of the archives division, said that they could spend ₱500,000 on the colorization of the damaged scenes but it was turned down due to Lacap's instructions. The whole restoration process of Misteryo sa Tuwa cost ₱5 million and the total duration of restoring the film was 3,440 hours.[3]
The restored version was premiered on November 11, 2019, at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay as part of the Cinema One Originals film festival. The premiere was attended by Vangie Labalan (one of the film's surviving cast members), film editor Jess Navarro, and the representatives of the cast and crew members of the film who are deceased or unable to attend: Wanggo Gallaga (son of Peque and Madeleine Gallaga), Rose S. Alimon (daughter of Tony Santos Sr.), Teresita V. Dela Cruz (wife of the film's director), Esperanza "Espie" Dela Cruz-Salva (sister of the director and the film's wardrobe assistant), Juan Miguel Escudero (nephew of the film's production designer Don Escudero) and Eduardo R. Meñez, the head of the Office of Strategic Communications and Research - Department of Foreign Affairs.[4]
Reception
Critical reception
According to a review by Panos Kotzathanasis for Asian Movie Pulse, the film is considered "a great film that manages to communicate the plethora of its comments with utter eloquence, while entertaining significantly in the process." He praised the film's storyline and settings, the cast members, Rody Lacap's cinematography, and production designs by Rodell Cruz and Don Escudero.[5] Hayley Scanlon of Windows on Worlds described the film as "both a tale of human greed and selfishness", owing to the scenes that were alluded or referenced to the then-Martial Law era.[6] Matthew Ecosia of Film Geek Guy described the film's restoration as "far from perfect, but it is something special" and he praised the restoration efforts of ABS-CBN Film Restoration despite the encountered discolored and damaged frames that cannot be eliminated entirely by the restoration team. In terms of the film's story, he described it as "a tense display of how our drives as humans never really change regardless of time".[7]
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