Empathy comes naturally to Lino Brocka, director of the overpoweringly intimate Cain at Abel (Cine Suerte, Inc., 1982). Working with screenwriter Ricardo Lee, he skips among his two protagonists without losing the story’s pulse. Every narrative beat is also a heartbeat. Christopher de Leon's tautness radiates strength, single-mindedness is Ellis' goal. As much as I like Phillip Salvador, I’ve often found him fuzzy, as if he’s wary of losing control. Is that why he’s so affecting here? The dissolute Lorenz turns out to be as tightly wound as his younger brother, only too scared to focus, he looks pitifully vulnerable. Baby Delgado has the kind of role that turns actresses into dullards, the wife who stands and looks stricken at her man in paroxysms of rage and grief. But she’s so grounded that as the others carry on, your eyes keep drifting to her, it’s her immediacy that keeps you glued to her face. In the role of Rina, Cecille Castillo is not as dazzling, but she doesn’t have to exaggerate her naïveté. Brocka’s actors work with their intellects fully engaged and they engage us on levels we barely knew we had. Cain at Abel pulls you so deep, so fast. You never catch Brocka or Lee grandstanding, only observing. Cinematographer Conrado Baltazar uses color to convey inner states without calling attention to itself and Efren Jarlego’s editing in two fraught dinner-table scenes is so exquisitely calibrated it’s as if the cuts were generated by the characters’ psyches. The crosscurrents keep you scanning the frame for Brocka's subtly vibrating features, each with their own distinct reaction.
Now, as to the 1080p transfer, it's good, but not quite elite. Black levels fluctuate between appearing a little too heavy-handed in spots, revealing a fair bit of evident crush, but looking inky and sturdy in other scenes. The beginning of the movie looks particularly overwhelmed by crush. The transfer is marred by excessive film grain, but the image is nevertheless a hair soft throughout and detailing generally ranges between adequate and good, favoring the latter. Facial textures are nicely intricate, but a somewhat flat overall image doesn't allow the smaller nuanced details to spring to life. It features an inconsequential amount of banding and no perceptible blocking. The restoration could stand to be a little less soft and show a little more detail, but for the most part it's a solid, if unspectacular, hi-def image.The audio is presented in 2-channel PCM, but the original stems are the weakness of this soundtrack. Overall, the sound is band limited, but none the less quite pleasing for an 80's mix. Gunshots sound just a bit anemic, lacking body and weight. The score by Max Jocson wraps pleasantly creating an enveloping quality. Overall the score fares better than the dialog and sound effects. Cain at Abel is far from flawless. The scenes leading up to the key moment are a little lackluster and Lorenz may appear to be the perfect family man, but in drama, as in life, appearances can be deceiving.
Screenplay: Ricardo Lee
Cinematography: Conrado Baltazar, F.S.C.
Music; Max Jocson
Film Editor: Efren Jarlego
Production Design: Joey Luna P.D.G.P.
Sound Supervision: Rudy Baldovino, Willy Islao
Directed By: Lino Brocka
