Ending Of 'Hustisya' Showing Nora Aunor Laughing Like A Hyena Sure To Be Talked About

NORA AUNOR in “Hustisya” will be the one to beat as best actress in the Cinemalaya Directors Showcase category. Congrats to Director Joel Lamangan as “Hustisya” is one of his best works so far. No wonder it’s already been accepted in two international festivals, one for exhibition in North America and one in competition in Europe. The film is about the personal journey of Biring, the character Nora Aunor plays, and Direk Joel makes her walk through all the streets of Manila: from Quiapo and Sta. Cruz to Blumentritt and Delpan.

She walks through crowded footbridges and alley ways, exposing the poverty that pervades the city, from beggars roaming around the streets to homeless people sleeping on the pavement. She rides the jeepney and the train. Manila is portrayed as a dangerous place where crime is rampant. Cellphone snatchers stab their victims when they refuse. People are abducted in broad daylight. Riding-in-tandem criminals shoot people in cold blood. The film is also an expose about pervasive corruption in high places, from cops to politicians to members of the clergy.

Ate Guy starts as the errand girl of a petty crime boss who does illegal recruitment and trafficking, Vivian (Rosanna Roces). She knows the ins and outs of their illegal activities. Osang becomes discredited in the eyes of their top boss (Jim Pebanco in another splendid performance) because of her proclivity for seedy guys. Biring is then groomed to replace her and this is not done easily as Biring has to be made docile and malleable first by putting her in prison.

At first, Biring resists, but when the lives of her daughter and grandson (Sunshine Dizon and Jeric Gonzales) are threatened, she has no choice to comply and later becomes a murderer herself. The final sequence shows a complete character arc. She’s having a lavish birthday presentation wearing a beautiful red gown. The last scene will surely be talked about. Rocco Nacino as Gerald, the young lawyer who helps transform her, whispers something to her and she reacts by just laughing and laughing. After the screening, Direk Joel is besieged by writers asking: Why is Ate Guy laughing like a hyena? What did Rocco whisper to her? Of course, it’s up to you to draw your own conclusions. Our guess is that Rocco whispered to her: “Ang chaka ng SONA ni Pnoy. Okay nang hindi ka naging national artist.”

It’d be a sin if Ate Guy wouldn’t win a best actress award for her sprawling and superb performance in “Hustisya”. She gets excellent support from Sunshine Dizon as her daughter with a bum husband, Mailes Kanapi as the lesbian prisoner who loves karaoke, Jim Pebanco as the cultured crime boss who loves opera and Rosanna Roces as Nora’s cousin who frames her up for a crime she didn’t commit.