One of the sought-after titles at the just concluded Tokyo International Film Festival was Mikhail Red’s Arisaka starring the popular actress, Maja Salvador from The Philippines. She plays the part of a gutsy cop, who struggles to stay alive after a prized witness is killed in an ambush, leaving her as the sole survivor. Her star power is bound to up the commercial prospects of Arisaka. And Mycko David’s widescreen camera work will appeal to the theatre-going audiences.
Salvador essays Mariano, a policewoman who is part of a security group taking Vice Mayor Rosales (Archi Adamos) to court. He will testify against corrupt government officials, and they could all be sacked. But on the way through a forest, Mariano’s car is attacked by the other cops inside her car. Everybody, except she, dies. Even the Mayor.
She takes cover in the woods, pursued as she is by the boss of a criminal syndicate, Sonny, (Mon Confiado). A chance encounter with an indigenous girl, Nawi (Shella Mae Romualdo), helps the policewoman ward off the thugs. With bullet wounds in her belly and arm, survival becomes an uphill task for Mariano.
In the midst of all this, Red infuses his work with finer moments. The relationship which develops between Mariano and the little girl is warmly touching, and contrasts with Sony, who is almost painted in black and white in a very cartoonish kind of way.
The third act sees the actual confrontation between the good and bad – Mariano and Sony — and the fight to finish between them with bullets whizzing past and fisticuffs. Arisaka panders to those who love action-thrillers. But what really stands out is the poetic touch in the last shot that underlines the contrast between Mariano and Sony.
(Author, commentator and movie critic Gautaman Bhaskaran has covered the Tokyo International Film Festival several times)
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