The eccentric director Lino Brocka, known for his realist and sensual works that have been met with wide critical acclaim, delivers the masterpiece that is “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag” (Manila in the Claws of the Light) with themes that serve as an eye-opener to the real plight of, and the growing oppression against, the lower social classes in a macho-feudal, Marcos-driven Philippine society. This approach of his serves both radical and personal reasons, as Brocka himself is openly gay—a notion that is in itself subversive to the largely patriarchal status quo, which will be dealt with later on—and is outspokenly political, as people will soon find him joining anti-government rallies to protest the blatant censorship of Philippine cinema and founding an organization driven to fight against such censorship, and ultimately, for the revival of democratic spaces for Philippine film.

Brocka’s radical approach to film serves as what can be called a ‘virtual microcosm’ of Philippine society; an explicit theme that is explored in all of his works but one: his debut film based on The Sound of Music, Wanted: Perfect Mother (1970). In Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1975), Brocka treads on the impoverished cityscapes of Manila and explores it to its full depth; revealing the city’s underground horrors and the ‘real darkness within.’ Contrary to popular belief at the time, Manila did not guarantee success stories, nor promise a good life; it was not equivalent to the Philippine version of the ‘American dream.’ The ultimate reality, however harsh it may be, is that Manila is ugly, filthy, and unpromising—in both the literal and figurative sense of the word. As the title of the film likes to convey, at surface value, a human’s nails (kuko) may look clean, neat, or even polished with a certain color, but when viewed before a source of light (liwanag), one can immediately see through the filth underneath.

The way Brocka approaches Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1975), which likewise prevails in his succeeding works, is to lay out a juxtaposition of sorts: of beauty and the ugly; of light and dark; of good and the bad. He starts off with a premise that shows the ‘good’; then, he gradually transitions into a contrasting surface-level generic theme that, when explored to the depths later on, has all these underlying themes that showcase the deep-seated and otherwise harsh reality of the status quo.

In Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (1975), Brocka starts off the film with different angled shots to showcase the busyness that is the city of Manila: people are seen setting up their shops and stores, preparing to go about their day; there are cars and all types of vehicles honking and revving up their engines; the usual clicks and clacks of people’s shoes on the sidewalk can be heard; the typical Filipino-style gossip and banter along the streets are apparent in this time of day, and so on. Brocka uses both audio and visual to capture such an approach. Later on, Brocka gradually introduces and lays out poverty and the desire to break free from its chains as a contrast. An eye-opener to the socioeconomic conditions of the Ordinary Filipino under the Marcos dictatorship, this (poverty) is the film’s generic theme: a naive probinsyano migrates to the city, tries to locate the whereabouts of his girlfriend who previously went to the city in search of a good life, realizes the city is not what everybody else said and thought it would be, and tries to survive amidst all that busyness and chaos. Immediately, the probinsyano is introduced to the plight of the urban poor and becomes part of it himself. Then, Brocka further explores the underlying themes through the later discoveries of his main character, the probinsyano named Julio, as the latter’s goals and motives of locating his girlfriend’s whereabouts are immediately replaced by the need, desire, and struggle to survive. This is where rural-urban migration, prostitution, homosexuality via underground male brothels, a kapit sa patalim mentality, crime, abuse of power, and the collusion of social classes, all motivated by the need to meet one’s daily subsistence, come to the spotlight; all of such themes shall be explored in their own right later on.

Another explicit example that perfectly encapsulates this so-called ‘juxtaposition’ in Brocka’s approach to said film is his sudden, inserted close-up montage shots showcasing the idyllic beauty of Julio’s lover, Ligaya, that go back and forth with Julio in reel time: a juxtaposition of a beautiful paradise in the person of Ligaya and the horrid conditions faced by Julio in the city that is Manila.

In one of his early interviews, Brocka revealed that he used to think of film and/or cinema in general as something akin to a mirror: an object that reflects reality exactly as it is (Gutierrez, 2016). When he was incarcerated after the Marcos government declared his works as ‘subversive’ and accused him of instigating one particular radical protest, his views immediately changed because of such experience. Thereafter, he declared that cinema is “a mirror that confronts the people with the reality of their human condition, and this reality is (his) responsibility as director to show on screen” (Del Carmen, 1983, p. 29; Gutierrez III, 2016). To note further, in his 1985 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts acceptance speech, Brocka talked about the innate responsibilities of a filmmaker as an artist, where he said:

“The filmmaker, like his peers in the other media, now realizes that the artist is also a public person. He no longer isolates himself from society. Instead of working in his ivory tower, he is a citizen of the slums, of the streets, of the battlefields if need be. The artist is becoming a participant. He tries to be true, not only to his craft but also to himself. . . . To the best of our abilities, and even if we oftentimes fail, we must produce films that will hurt, films that will disturb, films that will not let you rest. For the times are bad and, given times like these, it is a crime to rest. . . . Although it is the duty of the artist to work for what is true, good and beautiful, first we must expose and fight what is wrong (Hernando, 1993, p. 205; Gutierrez, 2016).

Brocka’s explicit mentioning of the phrase “true, good, and beautiful” that was popularized and even enacted as a policy for artistic expression by no other than Imelda Marcos who, true to word, prides herself as the ‘beauty’ of the dictatorial duo, serves as a hint of attack to the status quo, with the dictatorial duo trying to conceal all the ugliness, oppression, lies, and the overall dark state of Philippine society by ways of silencing and social control. Hence, there prevails a need to counter such efforts of concealing by revealing reality exactly as it is, and it is through Lino Brocka that we see independent art forms as in films break the surface and come into the spotlight to “hurt,” “disturb,” and “not let (people) rest.” Alas, film as “a mirror that confronts people with the reality of their human condition.” Alas, film as an art of protest!

Brocka contends further that "art is an imitation of life so an artist must try to imitate life... but art is not just imitating, it is also trying to confront people with certain realities.... the screen becomes not just a mirror that reflects but a mirror that confronts"' (Santiago, 1993). Brocka is a leading artist of the New Cinema in the Philippines and the most prolific filmmaker among those whose works chronicle the underprivileged and oppressed in Filipino society. Through this film, he successfully depicted social realities in Philippine society. For instance, in the making of this film, Brocka made sure that the characters would not be in the scenes just for the sake of acting. He wants the actors to be as natural as possible; hence, he deliberately chose not to hire any experienced actors as background extras in the film but rather used actual slum dwellers residing in the location upon shooting.

To note further, a 1975 documentary on Brocka’s Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag by Filipino screenwriter Clodualdo Del Mundo, Jr. revealed how Brocka deliberately chose to include the explicit student demonstrations scene in the later part of said film. Brocka revealed that he wanted the film to be “authentic” and “realistic,” and called on the Board of Censors to understand why he chose to include such demonstrations, to wit: “I do hope that the Board of Censors, when they see this, would see the point of why these things were used, because as I said, we’re trying to make a realistic movie.”

This film was clearly made to educate and bring awareness to the Filipinos. In a 1983 TV documentary for British television on the state of Philippine cinema, Brocka particularly said that he wanted to make movies for the students and he wants it when teachers assign students to make papers about his films. Though criticism of the Marcos regime is not explicitly stated in this film, it does not have to be. It's implicit in how so many of the people Julio comes across are mistreated.