The film has minimal dialogue and the viewer has to supply all the missing pieces by making his own conclusions about the narrative. The final scene will shock you. Jodi gets into a truck and opens the pants of the driver (Paolo Rivero). She gets his member (Jodi is actually shown holding it) then the camera pans up to Paolo while Jodi gives him head. Then Paolo screams in pain and Jodi is shown slicing off his member. It’s not clear if Paolo was the driver who killed her child but that’s what you’d conclude after seeing what she did to him. We saw the film’s integral version at its UP screening and we don’t know if it would be shown uncut in our theatres with its sexually explicit and very violent ending. But it’s been screened at the Pusan and Toronto International Filmfest and here’s what foreign critics wrote about it. From Variety: “Continuing to examine those on the margins of Filipino society, helmer Alix casts a compassionate eye on a homeless young mother fiercely determined to give her young daughter a better life... Immaculately shot, Sta. Maria is quietly compelling as a woman with a single, unshakable reason to live.” From Cinelation: “One of the year's best." From the Mar del Plata International Filmfest where it now competes: “The film’s resolution doesn’t hesitate to combine neorealism’s discomfort with the fatalist bitterness of the best Fassbinder." From Pusan International Filmfest: "This is a bold film by Adolfo Alix Jr. that criticizes society, venting sympathy and anger at the same time." From Tony Rayns of Vancouver International Filmfest: "This scrupulously precise social-realist drama, shot in steely monochrome, and its savage, explicit ending make it suitable for adults only."
We wonder what Jodi’s husband who’s the son of Sen. Ping Lacson would feel and say when he sees his wife doing such a scandalous scene in “Chassis”?
