Mariquina: The Fall of a Shoemaker

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still had its shortcomings. With a running time of 116 minutes, this should have been ample time to tie up every loose end. Sogueco purposefully left important questions unanswered; which for some films work for it encourages the audience to think and speculate, but it did not do so well for Mariquina. This fact combined with the film’s unorthodox present to flashback screenplay, lapses in the character’s journey are bound to happen thus making the characters highly dependent on the audience’s perception and their ability to connect the dots.

Sogueco created a paradoxical character that is Romeo Guevarra. The entire film revolved around his failures, which was pretty evident as it started off with his suicide. Despite this fact, the movie was successful in making the audience love him. He is neither a hero nor a villain. He is simply human. He may have made bad decisions throughout the movie, but his reasons for doing so were shown as well. It is very hard to hate him, when the movie is told in such a way that the audience is bound to justify him and his actions.

Sogueco, through the adult Imelda, told a tale which realistically conveyed what grief and loss meant as he merged it into the normalcy of daily life. It was created to elicit a plethora of emotions from its audience. It was successful for the situations he depicted are far too real and relatable for most of the audience. Familial problems, separation, business failure, and rejection both as an adult and as an adolescent, appeal to the heart of many. Hard realizations such as being told that your passion, despite all your achievements because it, can no longer support you financially. He appealed to the emotion of the audience, especially given the Filipino culture where great value is being put into family. There was no climax. Every scene, added up to the significant whole and it is capped off with a very emotional resolution.

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