Elijah Canlas as Edgar Jopson in 'Edjop.' Handout
Edgar Jopson or "Edjop" (Elijah Canlas) was the second of 12 children of supermarket owners Hernan and Josefa Jopson (Teroy Guzman and Issa Litton). He had his high school and college years at the Ateneo. He was active in political issues and soon became the president of the National Union of Students in the Philippines. He was able to challenge President Ferdinand Marcos face to face to promise not to run for a third term.
Joyette Jopson (Jodi Sta. Maria) was the second child of Edjop and his wife Joy (Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo) after eldest son Noy (Cedrick Juan). She was only 3 when her father died. She was into running long road races, most notably the grueling FWD 78° North Marathon in Norway in which she finished first in 2019. When her sister Risa (Regina de Vera) invites her to attend an event held in their father's honor, she would decline.
This film was co-written (with Jade Castro) and directed by Katski Flores. In the very first scene, Joyette enumerated for us the different kinds of races that she had run in -- point to point, out and back, and multi-loop. She tells us how these types of races can also refer to the various ways a person's life story can be told. With such an unexpectedly astute introduction, we already knew right there that the film we are going to watch will be a very intelligent one.
Edjop's story was told in flashbacks, but even these flashbacks were not in linear order. It started in Davao City 1982, detailing the events on the night which would prove to be his last. We were then brought back to his halcyon school days until his political activism took over. In a most transformative performance, Elijah Canlas played Edjop from his teens up to his death at age 34, portraying his evolution from moderate reformist to Communist rebel to address his social advocacies.
Jodi Sta. Maria has always been a reliable dramatic actress and her performance here was as excellent as she was expected to deliver and more. As she is portraying a topnotch athlete here, there was an intense physical component to her role here than most of her usual roles. Her running, open water swimming and bicycle stages in Ironman were convincingly staged. Her emotional monologue about her father at the end was impeccably delivered.
Another notable performance was turned in by Kakie Pangilinan as young Joy Asuncion, in a most impressive big screen debut. Her Joy was a sensible and brave young woman who was herself very politically aware and staunchly supportive of Edjop. She also had her own opinions and voiced them out, as shown in that China visit scene. For an acting neophyte, Pangilinan gave a natural and assured performance, remarkable in its subtlety.
Minor characters were played by theater actors, several Ateneo-based, as Flores also is. Thea Marabut, Jam Binay, Nour Houshmand play Edjop's sisters. We also see Bryan Sy, Missy Maramara, Kalil Almonte, Gab Pangilinan, Delphine Buencamino, Nor Domingo, Ron Capinding, Joseph dela Cruz, Yan Yuzon, Gold Soon. Inka Magnaye played intellectual prostitute Ursula Andres. VMX star Nicco Locco was Joyette's coach Thomas. Members of SPIT Manila were in the mix too. However, seeing Christian Esguerra as the late dictator was rather distracting.
The cinematography of Neil Daza was topnotch, with all his vivid colors and camera angles. One memorable shot was that when Joyette swims out into the ocean as the water turned from bright to dark blue. The film editing done by Benjamin Tolentino was clean and seamless. The period production design by Erik Manalo for the 1970s to the 1980s was meticulously recreated. The choice of Mike Hanopol's "Laki sa Layaw" over the closing credits, while invigorating, seemed ironic given Edjop's decidedly "un-jeprox" personality.
Joyette's final speech here was essentially a call to action for the audience to be brave, a message still very much appropriate for the turbulent political climate today. For her, Edjop is a symbolic concept for hope as our country continues to face adversity. She talked about another kind of race she has yet to run -- a relay race. This is an eloquent metaphor for the passing on the torch of nationalism to succeeding generations so our country can eventually crawl out the dark tunnel of corruption and emerge out into the light in the future.
This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."