Major spoilers ahead.
Content warning: Rape, abortion, and overall upsetting themes
“Naiintindihan mo ba ko?” Do you understand me? Sunshine asks the little girl phantasm as she makes her final decision.
I watched Sunshine, not knowing what it was about, but the theme was set very early on. My primal fear was that it would deeply upset me, and it would have, had Sunshine decided otherwise. But it still upset me…for a different reason.
Set in the chaotic Sampaloc area of Manila, where I grew up, the movie sure has a hold on me. Sunshine (Maris Racal) is a student training to compete in the nationals as a gymnast with dreams of making it to the Olympics. An unexpected pregnancy derails her plans as she begins to gain weight and feel nauseated. As expected, the baby daddy is a teenage boy who has no interest in taking responsibility for the child or Sunshine. Elijah Canlas does quite a convincing portrayal of Miggy, a conyo fuckboy who relies on daddy’s money to bail him out in every sticky situation he creates for himself.
Worried about her future, Sunshine sets out to find solutions on her own, albeit not the safest ones. Since terminating pregnancies, no matter how early, is illegal in this country, Sunshine (and I bet, many other women) resorts to shady abortifacient sellers in Quiapo. The phantasm of a little girl whom she’s been seeing appears and tries to stop her from going there, guilt-tripping her into believing what she’s doing is a sin. But she is determined to do it. She tries and fails to do the deed and ends up in the maternity ward, almost losing her life. This is where she gets a lecture from a doctor who forces her to beg God for forgiveness for what she’s done. Luckily, her older sister, a former gymnast, gets there in time to tell the doctor off.
Desperate not to lose her spot in the competition, Sunshine tries to get her hands on the medicine again. However, she encounters another pregnant young girl who begs for the abortifacient as she has no means to take care of her situation. We find out later on that this pregnant young girl is a 13-year-old raped by her uncle and is just walking around with a huge belly on the streets, hoping to find someone to give her money to pay for a “hilot,” a traditional massage therapist who can help her abort the child. Sunshine hands her some money, and the girl sets off for it.
More than anything in this movie, this pregnant 13-year-old girl broke my heart. She is a rape victim whose mother couldn’t care less about. Without any adult to protect her or help her get out of her situation, she almost dies after going to the hilot. Luckily, she survived, and the attempt was successful.
What troubles me most is that this is not entirely fiction: The Philippines remains one of the countries with the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Asia. It ranks second in Southeast Asia, with over 500 girls aged 15 to 19 becoming mothers each day. Even more concerning is the increasing number of pregnancies among girls under 15. Live births in the 10 to 14 age group rose from 2,411 in 2019 to 3,343 in 2023, marking a 6.6% increase in just four years. In 2023 alone, 17 young women under 20 had already given birth five or more times, and 38 girls under 15 experienced repeated pregnancies. The youngest recorded case involved a girl who became pregnant at just 8 years old and gave birth when she was 9*.
With no safe and legal way to help kids terminate pregnancies, their future is bleak. While the 13-year-old girl survives in the movie, there is the impending doom that she has no choice but to return to her home, where the rapist uncle is unlikely to stop harming her.
As for Sunshine, she refuses Miggy’s and his father’s offer to pay for the child’s expenses, expressly saying in the end that “I don’t want to be a mom.” She finds help from a friend who refers her to a proper doctor to help her resolve her unwanted pregnancy and be able to fulfill her dreams of becoming a professional gymnast.
Toward the end, Sunshine sees the phantasm of the little girl again, and she asks her…“Naiintindihan mo ba ko?” Do you understand me? The girl nods.
This movie is excellently acted and directed. It’s believable, heartbreaking, and if you can believe it, hopeful.
I dare say, Sunshine by Antoinette Jadaone, starring Maris Racal, is a film every Filipino should watch.
*https://www.humanium.org/en/the-current-teenage-pregnancy-crisis-in-the-philippines/
Photo from IMDB
Published by