History Film / BalangigaHowlingWilderness

Unlike many other Filipino {{Period Piece}}s which tend to be directly {{Biopic}}s or BasedOnATrueStory, ''Balangiga'' is spare in its telling, not quite what would be considered "cinematic" or "theatrical", and largely fictional, in that its cast are not based on any named RealLife people or {{Historical Domain Character}}s. In fact, the MinimalistCast does not even include any known revolutionary heroes, generals, intellectuals or leaders—only a very average, poor, rural, peasant duo: an old farmer and his eight-year-old grandson. The staid and slow-paced film follows young Kulas, his Apoy Buroy, and their ''carabao'' (water buffalo) on a lengthy and gruelling trip across the Samar hinterlands to escape the Americans' harsh, scorched-earth policies. Along the way, they pick up an even smaller toddler, whom Kulas quickly warms up to, despite initially calling him ''patiyanak'' ("demon baby") because he was found abandoned and smeared black with grime and soot, bearing an imagined resemblance to the said mythological creature. Apart from this, the film comes off as fairly surreal at times, splicing in other scenes not directly related to the main plot that suggest dreams, memories, parallel events happening elsewhere on the island, or even strange visions.

* HolidayInCambodia

* GratuitousEnglish: One surreal dream sequence echoes out an American taunting the Filipinos with racial slurs and singing the war ditty "Damn, Damn, Damn the Filipinos".

* MissingMom: Kulas and Apoy Buroy set out to find their mutual relation, the former's mother and the latter's daughter, in a far-off but hopefully safer community, but it's never shown if Kulas [[spoiler:and only Kulas—Apoy Buroy dies before the film's midpoint]] makes it.

* CanisLatinicus: It's a bit of a FreezeFrameMoment, but the ''babaylan'' or spirit medium about halfway in has what vaguely seem like Latinesque inscriptions on his podium. TruthInTelevision that these rural spiritual leaders, descended as a class from precolonial ritualists who communicated with native deities and well-known for mounting sporadic revolts throughout Spanish and American rule, would infuse their ritual spells with mixtures of Latin-sounding and Spanish-sounding words or syllables (not to mention their native languages), but which put together wouldn't necessarily make logical sense as conventional languages.

* EagleLand: Largely Type 2. The sole American who shows up in this film, with no lines, is a mud-stained soldier who's never far from aiming his rifle at Kulas and his toddler companion, and he slaughters their carabao for food and makes Kulas dance to the tune of his harmonica. On a wider scale, of course, the whole business with American troops invading the Philippines in the first place, which makes them …
* EvilColonialist: Indirectly, of course; it's the Americans' ferocious tactics of burning or killing all native crops, livestock and other food supplies that denies the Filipino revolutionaries any ability to support themselves in this punishing war, by this point well into guerrilla-warfare mode, and forces even poor peasants and other civilians to flee their homes and migrate for mere survival. About halfway in, however, Kulas and Bola the little toddler run right into a renegade, long-haired, mud-stained American soldier, whose first action of course is to level a rifle at these two ''children''. He also kills their carabao for meat and orders Kulas to dance around to his harmonica tunes—like the little brown monkeys to which Americans often compared Filipinos in general.

* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:Bola, the little toddler, doesn't make it, and Kulas ends up burying him at the water's edge. It's anyone's guess whether Kulas ultimately does, either.]]

* EvilColonialist: Indirectly, of course; it's the Americans' ferocious tactics of burning or killing all native crops, livestock and other food supplies that denies the Filipino revolutionaries any ability to support themselves in this punishing war, by this point well into guerrilla-warfare mode, and forces even poor peasants and other civilians to flee their homes and migrate for mere survival. About halfway in, however, Kulas and the little toddler (whom he now calls "Bola", or "Ball") run right into a renegade, long-haired, mud-stained American soldier, whose first action of course is to level a rifle at these two ''children''. He also kills their carabao for meat and orders Kulas to dance around to his harmonica tunes—like the little brown monkeys to which Americans often compared Filipinos in general.

* ItsAlwaysSunnyAtFunerals: [[spoiler: When Bola finally dies, Kulas buries him in broad daylight]], the sun literally shining behind him and in full glare of the camera.

* ItsAlwaysSunnyAtFunerals: [[spoiler: When Bola finally dies, Kulas buries him in full daylight]], the sun literally shining behind him and in full glare of the camera.