In 2017, Ma’ Rosa’s now-iconic one-minute close-up fishball scene was voted by Pinoy Rebyu annual poll voters as 2016’s scene of the year.
The film’s writer, Troy Espiritu, told us how the scene was written and how Jaclyn Jose was called back to reshoot the scene, which Cannes Filmfest jury chair Donald Sutherland singled out as an acting masterclass.
Espiritu: “‘Ma’ Rosa’ was initially titled ‘Palit-Ulo‘, derived from a typical extortion activity of the police that has been existing for quite a while under our noses and yet few of us know of. It was inspired from an actual event in 2012 and, after being shelved for 2 years, I was entrusted by Direk Brillante Mendonza and our mentor, Armando Lao to write it.
I wrote the screenplay into 4 acts; each has its own punctuation or statement scenes. But generally, what we want to show in each punctuation, especially in the last scene of the film, is that the life of a typical Filipino family runs on small retail or the concept of “tingi”, which is uniquely Filipino. They go to a sari-sari store to buy a small sachet of shampoo and make the most out of it. They go to a convenient store to buy 10 or 20 peso-load instead of a 500 call card. Even vices are being bought in small retail: from cigarettes to shabu. In times when they are in conflict with the law, justice is also commoditized by the police in small retail. And in times of need, we give our importance for family through small contributions or ‘sa abot ng makakaya.’
However, that unique and extraordinary trait of Filipinos can sometimes be dangerous. Most of the time, we tend to compromise what’s right for the love of family members even when that love becomes amoral.
We made some quick adjustments during the shoot. Originally in the script, Rosa was supposed to pass by a karinderya along the talipapa after pawning her daughter’s cellphone. While eating, she sees an ideal family across her table enjoying their dinner. However, there was no karinderya along the talipapa in our actual location and Direk Brillante was thinking of a more powerful visual punctuation for the film’s ending but with the same message. So our only alternative was to use what was available in the location: a fishball stand and a mobile sari-sari store.
We shot the last scene twice and both were guerrilla shoots with limited crowd control. Jaclyn, being a well-immersed actress, did a great job in blending in with the people along Barangka Drive. But we had to move fast because the longer we stayed, the more she was being recognized by pedestrians.
The reason why we shot it twice is because Jaclyn was not supposed to cry in that scene because we were afraid that the scene might become melodramatic and ruin the overall design of the film.. But while editing the film, we thought something was missing. We felt the character needed to be more relatable, especially her reflections about what happened to them; her remorse, perhaps her guilt if there’s any, or maybe just plain hunger since how can you eat properly if you’re being held by policemen in 24 hours? So Direk Brillante called Jaclyn for a reshoot, this time giving her the moment to cry. And upon watching the second cut in post-prod, I could already feel she might win best actress if we were allowed to enter the main competition in Cannes.”
Jaclyn Jose also spoke about the scene in a press conference: “Alam mo naman si Brillante, ayaw niyang umaarte ka, kaya kinalimutan kong lahat ang alam ko sa acting. Ginawa ko kung ano ang character na ginagampanan ko. Kaya alam kong ang eksena na iyon na ginawa ko, yung kumakain ng fishball, it was from my heart.
Hinimay talaga ni Brillante ‘yun. Na ‘yung ending, kumakain siya ng fishballs. Ginutom eh! When I saw it din nga ay parang alam ko sa sarili ko na I did one good scene. Kahit dito naman sa atin eh kapag nakakita sila ng isang ‘Pak!’, mag-aantay ka na ng pansin mula sa award-giving bodies. Alam ko in my heart na may nagawa ako na mapapatinag ko ang damdamin nila.”
The SFFR mourns along with the film industry for the passing of a one-of-a-kind actor. Rest in peace, Jaclyn!