The Politics of Art & Authenticity

Jun Robles Lana‘s feature film debut, Bwakaw, is a delightfully simple dramedy filled with heart and thoughtfulness. While it hardly deviates from a straightforward, predictable – and sometimes cliche – plot, Bwakaw has left me with a question I hope this critique will help answer. Though it’s the dog, Bwakaw, that gives the film its title, it’s the story of Rene, portrayed by Eddie Garcia, that assumes the role of main character. A lone, older man, Rene is a living corpse, mindlessly working at a job he’s already retired from, and passing each day fully aware that he’s doing to die eventually. He’s not afraid of death, and the film sees Rene treat this inevitability as a long-awaited event. As he learns to appreciate life after a series of increasingly devastating loses, my question arises: By the film’s end, when Rene becomes the most alive we can assume he’s ever been, has he finally come to fear death? After living so long waiting to die, as paradoxical as that is, I believe that Rene learns what really drives liveliness: a fear of death, and a desire to fight to stay alive.

Lana puts a comical spin on the bare facts of dying, and I often found myself laughing the hardest in scenes where the topic of death is in the forefront; Lana makes death a tangible reality, no doubt as a way for us to see it the way Rene does. I know that I think of death as a mysterious, mystical, frightening act of unparalleled proportions, but Rene sees it as just another facet of life. He has a will that he constantly changes based on who’s going to be around after he dies, and all his possessions are already packed away and labeled to make the distributing easier . Rene’s stripped death of its importance, and the way Lana incorporates humor in these “should be heavy and deep” scenes – such as when Rene’s neighbors find him “dead” in his coffin after he goes to test it out – could become a motif in his later work; he’s morphing the typical reaction to death.

I saw Rene start to subtly change as he began to find himself more alone in his already secluded life. Though he remained gruff and standoffish for most of the film, Rene’s attachment towards Bwakaw – whom he takes everywhere, and his continued devotion to visiting Alicia, the woman he technically used as a beard for his closeted sexuality, shows that Rene is a caring individual hardened by the fact that he’s remained closed off to the world at large. All these other characters supposedly fear death, and they all engage in behavior that makes it obvious that they have things to live for, unlike Rene. Then things turn bleak for, well, almost all of them. A woman Rene works with dies after he throws her a surprise party before her heart surgery, he almost loses his best friend because of his grumpy attitude. Alicia, dealing with some sort of Alzheimer’s, tells Rene never to visit her again in one of her last moments of clarity – so in theory she’s dead now too. Towards the end of the film, he loses the trust and friendship of a cab driver who befriended him in a time of need because he began to love him. Because Rene has locked himself away from the world, waiting to die, he loses the people that could free him from that mindset, and he luckily starts to realize that.

Life and death juxtaposed; then switched.

Like I said, the film makes its plot very obvious, so Bwakaw’s fate is easily figured out, but the symbolism behind Bwakaw is what makes her part in the story crucial to Rene’s development. We learn that Bwakaw was a stray dog that Rene adopted, so right off the bat there’s a relationship built off of two “outcasts.” Rene truly loves this dog, and when he admits that Bwakaw is “the only woman he’s ever brought to bed,” the gentle humor underscores the deep bond they’ve formed. Bwakaw is a symbol of life, but also the tether that keeps Rene from actually living. He fights for life, but that’s for Bwakaw, not himself. Yes, Bwakaw dies, but it’s Rene’s realization that in her death, that he can find a will to live, and Lana uses to drive home a message of living life to its fullest.

So, I wonder: As the film leaves Rene alive and healthy, what’s he thinking? He’s lost the ones he holds dear to his heart, but it’s now that he finds a reason to live. As I write my thoughts down now, I’m understanding how Lana plays with this irony, and I hope he continues this theme. Lana’s strive for action over dialogue peaks in the ending of the film, as it did in the beginning – with extended shots of Rene alone, but now you can tell he’s changed. He’s woken up and found a will to live, but has he been shocked enough to fear death after being exposed to so much of it? I think that’s what Lana’s trying to say: fearing death is what keeps us happy and alive.

Photo Credit