Metro Manila – review

Tales of country innocents corrupted by the big city have been a staple of cinema since the silent era, but the theme is bracingly updated here, in the colourful squalor of modern-day Manila. British film-maker Sean Ellis, clearly energised by a change of scene, plunges us into this chaotic world at street level, piling the hardships of urban life upon a hopeful young farmer and his wife from the moment they step off the bus. Within the week they're broke slum-dwellers, struggling to feed their young kids and sliding into the poverty trap. The tide starts to turn when husband Oscar lands a job with a security-van company, a development that slowly, stealthily leads the story out of social drama territory and into a crime-thriller realm. You could complain that the characters are a little thin(perhaps owing to the language barrier), but it's a resourceful, distinctive film that builds to a satisfying crescendo.