"PX"
Sining Silangan, Inc.
A Trigon Cinema Arts Corporation
Release Date February 25, 1982
Screenplay Ricardo Lee
Cinematography Conrado Baltazar
Direction Lino Brocka
Cast Hilda Koronel, Phillip Salvador/ Also Starring Leonard Urso
Synopsis: The bar girls working in the nondescript cocktail lounges near the Clark Air Base dream of greener pastures in the States and hope to bag servicemen who would lift them from their misery. There is a violent backside to their aspirations. The girls are sometimes found dead among the tall grasses in empty lots.
Lydia (Hilda Koronel) works as a hospitality girl but is not keen on sharing her life with an American. She has been exposed to the abuses of the American military and is still reeling from the trauma of a friend’s violent death. She is shacking up with Isidro (Phillip Salvador), a hit man who desires to be head honcho of a gun-for-hire syndicate. Isidro allows her to entertain customers but not to have affairs. He supports her and pays for the apartment.
After three years, Lydia is tired of his snarling ambition and wants to leave him. Jocelyn introduces her to George (Leonard Urso). At first, she is rude to him but warms up when she realizes that he could be her passport to the States. Lydia is making up her mind whether to pursue the American dream.
Isidro has recently killed a Filipino base employee who squealed on drug dealings in the base. The murdered man’s nephew tracks him down in his love nest and attempts to kill him. But he proves to be wily. Lydia berates him on the murder of innocent people but he dismisses it, saying his victims deserve their fate.
Isidro’s mother sells PX items while his brother, Boy, scavenges for empty shells inside the American base. One day, he invites his friends to join him. They are spotted by the sentries on duty. One of them is George who is egged on by his companions to open fire. Boy is shot dead. Isidro becomes bewildered and wants revenge. However, his mother wants action from the authorities first. The police tell them that they cannot do much, citing numerous unsolved cases. They are told that the base is the property of the Americans. His friend, Gimo, tells him that should a GI be tagged as a perpetrator of a crime, he is shipped out.
Isidro decides to go at it alone. He asks Gimo, a base worker to help him identify the culprit. Gimo informs him that it would be a difficult task as Americans consider Filipinos as thieves inside the base. However, he will keep his ears open for any incriminating conversation; Isidro would do his best to monitor the clubs.
Inside an Angeles nightclub, George’s two American companions try to recruit him for their marijuana operations. He is not keen on joining. To make sure that he would not reveal their operations, his friends point to Isidro who is sitting opposite them. They would point the finger at him and Isidro would surely come running.
George is drunk and is brought by Lydia to Jocelyn’s pad. Their eyes meet and they make love. George confesses to shooting Boy. The two become a steady couple. Lydia leaves Isidro who becomes jealous. He tries to win her back. He tells her that he was doing all these things for her — and for Boy. Lydia says she has a different dream now and doesn’t want to be part of his plans. He asks her if she ever loved him. She says no.
George refuses to be reassigned. His American companions become nervous. They set him up by planting marijuana in his room. He is caught by the military police. However, he manages to run away. Jocelyn and Lydia hide him in the house of their friends, Juling and Mario. There he has time-out from his pressing circumstances and becomes a fast friend of Juling’s son.
Gomez is ordered to hunt down George. He threatens to kill Lydia — along with Isidro and his mother --- if she does not produce George in twenty-four hours. She runs to Jocelyn whom she finds strangled. She hops into a taxi and makes a maddening dash to Juling’s house. Isidro has been waiting for her outside the nightclub and follows her taxi.
Gomez’s men have located Juling’s house. George spots them and jumps out of the window. There is a chase. Lydia’s taxi appears just in the nickof time and he hops into it. They alight near the nightclub. Gomez’ men follow them. Isidro is not far behind. There is an exchange of bullets. George is wounded but he has shot Gomez. Isidro kills the other men. There is now a confrontation between George and Isidro. Isidro aims his gun. Lydia pleads for his life. Isidro finds that he cannot pull the trigger. George is allowed to go back to the base. He follows the railroad tracks to the base perimeter. He climbs over the fence but he is fired upon by the guards.
Night falls on the bars of Angeles once more. Isidro and Lydia are walking down the street. They are lovers once more.
(Source: Lino Brocka: The Artist and his Times)
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