“Actually, kinuha ako for the movie as talent coordinator to help sa casting,” he says. “Then, nagulat na lang ako, Direk Sean told me that he has personally chosen me to play the male lead role of Oscar, a former soldier na naging farmer at dinala sa Manila ang asawa’t mga anak niya. He’s hoping for a better life in the big city, pero iba ang nangyari sa kanila.”
The film’s opening scene is in the Banaue Rice Terraces where Jake is a farmer. “We shot there on location and it’s beautifully captured sa big screen. Sa Manila, we shot in actual locations sa slums. Ipakikita talaga ang kahirapan ng marami nating kababayan and why some of them are forced na kumapit sa patalim para lang mabuhay.”
Jake gets a good job when he meets Ong (John Arcilla), an ex-cop and senior security officer in an armoured truck company. Ong personally chooses him to be his partner in his daily rounds to get money boxes from their clients. Ong is very kind and friendly to him and even allows him and his family to live in the comfortable room that he is renting for his other woman. But it soon becomes clear that he is expecting something in return from Oscar.
Ong reveals that his last partner was killed in a previous holdup. He was able to secretly get one of the locked money boxes in the holdup and is now keeping it in the room where he asked Oscar and family to reside. He now wants Oscar to steal the key for that box kept in their company’s head office. Oscar is basically an honest man and refuses to do it, but Ong threatens him and says he will lose his job.
The film then takes a very unexpected turn and the climax is also unexpected, with the tension gradually building up as Oscar takes an option that he believes is best for the good of his family. Jake is elated that feedback on his performance as Oscar is generally positive. We won’t be surprised if he’d later get some acting nominations for his portrayal of Oscar.
