Natutulog Pa Ang Diyos (lit. God Is Still Sleeping) is a 1988 Filipino drama film directed by Lino Brocka. It was adapted from a comic serial of the same name written by Ruben R. Marcelino and illustrated by Mar T. Santana. The film stars Lorna Tolentino, Ricky Davao, Gary Valenciano, Gina Pareño, Dante Rivero, Ricky Belmonte and Maria Zobel.
Patria Ramirez (Pareño) and and their boss's wife Rose Velasco (Zobel) give birth together during a dark and stormy night while driving towards the hospital. The midwife makes it clear that he has a son while the other had a daughter. To ensure that their son will have a better life and not having to suffer poverty and hardship like they did, Bernardo (Rivero) decides to give the son to Rose, making her and their boss think that she had given birth to a boy, eventually Christened as "Andrew" (Davao), while only he and his wife know about this. As a result, the children grow distant from their families and out of frustration of having to give up her real child, resorts to maltreating Gillian (Tolentino), the Velasco's real child. However, the children who were not aware of being switched at birth find themselves drawn closer to each other's respective parents. Gillian finds comfort with Andrew's mother and vice versa. She eventually finds comfort with Mark (Valenciano), a rich suitor. Jealous of Gillian's new found attention, Andrew decides to force himself on Gillian, an act which leads to the revelation of the secret of their parentage.
It was remade in 2007 as a TV series entitled Natutulog Ba Ang Diyos? (lit. Is God Still Sleeping?)
Provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Gillian's "parents", especially her mother. Sure, Patria knows that that's not her real daughter and it's understandable how upsetting it must've been to give up her biological child, but the beatings she gave the poor girl was still uncalled for. Their worst came into head when after Andrew attempted to feel her up and Gillian is obliged to say what happened, they gang up on her back home and Bernardo is the first to hit her before proceeding to give her a verbal lashing.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: Inverted. Mrs. Velasco first insisted they accept her payment for having raised Gillian. Then she delivers an open-palmed slap to Patria for all the pain and suffering they gave her.
- Berserk Button: Both Andrew's real parents won't stand by seeing Andrew offended or in trouble. They take it out on Gillian, as a result, especially if she was involved in said trouble.
- The moment Gillian figured out that Lani had thrown away Mark's presents for her incurred her wrath. The results are not pretty.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Mrs. Rose Velasco for the most part in the movie is very timid and soft-spoken, never raising her hand to the point of pacifism. Yet after truth came out and pays the Ramirez' out of the kindness of her heart for raising Gillian, she slaps Patria and screams about it to her face afterwards because Patria was especially cruel to Gillian. This action notably shocked everyone in the room.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family:
- The Ramirez', to dramatic effect. The parents beat the eldest and intentionally ignore her, the second daughter is a whiny brat that inherited the mother's negative qualities, and the youngest son is forced to have no say about the abuse they hand out to Gillian and even gets beaten as well for trying to interfere.
- The Velasco's are a downplayed version because of only having one child and said child being rather lazy and back sasses results in a fight between father and son with the mother standing on the sidelines.
- Big Sister Bully: Inverted. Lani is one of the causes of Gillian's suffering, like whining to her about not ironing her uniform and other things she supposedly forgot to do for her. If anything, she plays the trope straight with her treatment towards her younger brother, Boy.
- Bratty Half-Pint: The young Andrew.
- Bratty Teenage Daughter: Lani, oh so much. She takes her mouthiness after her mother.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Any fight with Andrew results into this. He always ended up losing..
- The Dog Bites Back: It was the last straw for Gillian when she found out Lani decided to not let her know about the chocolates that Mark brought for her [Gillian] and quickly proceeds to torment her in the shower while at the same time, makes her confess about stealing the jewelry her mother planned on selling herself.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The truth was out and Gillian and Andrew are back in their rightful families. Gillian also married Mark by the end.
- Easily Forgiven: Subverted. Bernardo begs for Gillian to forgive him and Patria for treating her so horribly after they put her back to her rightful parents. She then runs off, explaining to Mark that she's not yet ready to do so because she put up with their abuse for so long and needed some time to think about it. They're still invited to her wedding in the end, though.
- Even Evil Has Standards: His morals may be dodgy, but Bernardo is apparently not okay with Patria forcing Gillian to work at the club to be a call girl and calls her out on it for doing so, telling her not to make her go back there again.
- Fairytale Wedding Dress: Gillian when she was marrying Mark. The gown she wore, even by the standards of the 80s, couldn't get any more ambitious than that.
- Film of the Book: From an Anthology Comic book, to be specific.
- Foil: The Ramirez parents to the Velasco parents. Both don't get along with their children, but the former's horrible treatment of their mostly timid daughter contrasts with the latter's much more sensible disciplining of their out of control son.
- Freudian Excuse: Your husband forcing you to give up your first-born son and to be quiet about it can somewhat excuse your maltreatment of the "daughter" you never even had in the first place.
- Freudian Slip: Patria delves into this several times, especially her treatment towards Andrew and when introducing Boy as a baby, she almost said he's his brother.
- Good Parents: Rose Velasco is the only decent parent seen for the most part, and genuinely loved Andrew and still does even after knowing that he was not their real son. Before that, she never beat him and even when she didn't know yet that Gillian was her real daughter, she treated her much more tenderly as if she was her own.
- The Velasco parents in general, including the father. Because Andrew is a spoiled, irresponsible jerkass of a son that talks back to his father and refuses to do better in his studies, you can't blame Mike for having to hit him at least once. And when he does, it's never senselessly, unlike Patria towards Gillian.
- Grew a Spine: Gillian, after meeting Mark who advises her to at least fight back. Notoriously cemented when she beats Lani, having deceived her for the last time when she purposely hid the fact about Mark coming to their house to give Gillian flowers and a box of chocolates.
- Groin Attack: Gillian does this to Andrew to get out of having him force himself on her.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: A Precision F-Strike variant as quoted on the said trope below.
- Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: The Ramirez' act like this every time they see their son in trouble, to the point of blaming Gillian for something that was clearly his fault just to protect him. Obviously, it's the rare instance in which this is portrayed negatively.
- Muscles Are Meaningless: Andrew. He exercises, sure, but is overpowered by the less-imposing Mark.
- Nice Guy: Mark, who eventually becomes Gillian's love interest. Gillian's "younger brother" Boy is also this given that he's the only one in the family that didn't treat her like dirt, to the point of protecting her when their mother gets too out of hand with beating her.
- Parental Neglect: Her treatment of Gillian when not physically abusing her. As a baby though, she deliberately distanced herself from her.
- Pet the Dog: Bernardo and Patria still have a soft spot for their biological son, Andrew, even when they saw that he's turning out to be a Spoiled Brat, which worries them to no end, especially Bernardo who saw that he's not turning out the way they'd hoped.
- Precision F-Strike: Bernardo fed up with the way Andrew is treating him decides to deliver the news that goes by the line "This fucking old man is your father".*
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mr. and Mrs. Velasco.
- The Reveal: The birthmark both Bernardo and Andrew have on their feet as a damning evidence to confirm who's child is whom.
- Screaming Birth: Rose gives birth this way in a stretched-out scene. Averted with Patria who, while obviously in pain from labor, gives birth much more quietly alongside the screaming Rose.
- Spoiled Brat: Andrew, as a kid. He doesn't grow out of it unfortunately, making him a Bratty Young Adult Son later. Only until the end was when he realized his mistakes.
- Switched at Birth: The main premise of the film.
- Token Good Teammate: Boy, of the entire Ramirez family.
- Took a Level in Badass: Gillian beating Lani for not telling her about Mark's presents for her and for having been blamed for stealing the jewelry.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Boy, Gillian's younger "brother".
- Would Hurt a Child: Patria's treatment of young Gillian, to an infuriating degree.
