SARI-SARING SINENG PINOY

Lumapit... Lumayo Ang Umaga

Lumapit... Lumayo Ang Umaga (LEA Productions) seems to ask the question Can a woman love two men simultaneously? Or it can also ask Can a woman continue to love a man after he disappears for the required number of years to allow her to marry and fall in love with a second husband? The film poses these questions and proposes an answer absent of the all-important economic matter. In effect, Lumapit... Lumayo Ang Umaga makes the love triangle the problem when in reality it really is a matter of economics. Amy (Elizabeth Oropesa) is a fish vendor who bumps into Vic (Dante Rivero), falls in love with him and marries him. She mothers his child while he is imprisoned. Vic never revealed his past to her. He disappears from her life completely. Enter William (George Estregan), a rich Chinese businessman who offers Amy his love, money, understanding, faith and trust. Very maturely, the second marriage is one of love after marriage or so the film implies, whereas the first was young, impulsive, first love. Vic returns after nine years and expects Amy to come back to him. This situation becomes the source of conflict. Despite the fact that the film is technically smart and the dialogue sparkling, Lumapit... Lumayo Ang Umaga fails to pose the real conflict. From the start, there is the economic struggle that is a strong controlling factor in the character's motivations. Vic murders because of economic struggle. Amy works in the market for money and lies about her marital state to apply for a job.

Amy's life and future with Vic was undoubtedly, financially insecure. William accepts her for who she is, obviously, her life changed. Vic would be a thing of the past. A beautiful memory maybe, but not the source of a credible conflict. How could Amy think of changing her life at this point? Not her life and certainly not her children's. If at one point William was shown as an unreasonable husband who doubts or blames her for her past, then we could believe that she would have wished for her old life despite the economic problems. However, William offers no problems whatsoever, he is the ideal, good man-husband. Rather than making this love angle a melodramatic problem, the film would have been more mature and interesting if it chose to show how a young, first love becomes a thing of the past that dies because of the changes that come about with economic advantages that alter the lives and attitudes of the people involved. Most mature people will have pasts, lovely and sentimental which pale and recede in the context of the present. The new person who would have emerged after years of a different kind of a life, challenges and demands. Elizabeth Oropesa is outstanding as Amy, Dante Rivero and George Estregan equally so. Lumapit... Lumayo Ang Umaga is good melodrama although it could have been a good mature film.

Screenplay And Direction: Ishmael Bernal
Story By: Liwayway A. Arceo
Serialized In Liwayway Magazine
Director Of Cinematography: Jun Rasca
Music By: The Vanishing Tribe
Film Editor: Nonoy Santillan
Art Director: Francisco Balangue
Release Date: October 17, 1975