Citizen Jake. 2018. Philippines. Directed by Mike De Leon. Screenplay by De Leon, Atom Araullo, Noel Pascual. With Atom Araullo, Cherie Gil, Teroy Guzman. DCP. In Filipino; English subtitles. 137 min.
“Citizen Jake is not only a summation of all of [Mike De Leon’s] work to date but also one of the finest East Asian films of the past decade…. The protagonist Jake Herrera (Atom Araullo) is the only ‘good guy’ in De Leon’s cinema who shoots and kills a bad guy, an attack which avenges a dead friend. And in the most startling of the formal innovations, he twice ‘doubles’ himself to break the ‘fourth wall’: while remaining within the fiction (the character is a former investigative journalist returning to his old profession), he simultaneously appears outside it, directly addressing the viewer. In the course of the film, he learns a harsh lesson in realpolitik (the political realities of the Philippines, as opposed to idealistic posturing) and writes up his discoveries...in the form of the film we are watching. This audacious and fully achieved film confirms De Leon’s mastery of his medium, expertly combining the story of an investigation into a brutal crime with a portrait of a man coming to understand the limitations of his own position” (Tony Rayns).
A Word from the Director. 2018. Philippines. Directed by Mike De Leon. 5 min.
Mike De Leon imagined Citizen Jake “as an indictment of the Duterte regime using its horrific forerunner [the Marcoses] as a template of authoritarian rule,” and he caused a stir, as usual, in posting this promotional short for the film on social media.