Manila’s Finest is about flawed men trying to do their best for their family and for society.
It delivers a relevant lesson: that the march to dictatorship doesn't happen overnight.
It unfolds as good men are tested again and again until, at last, they fail.
This Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 2025 movie features a fictional retelling of the fall of the Manila Police District before the start of martial law.
MANILA'S FINEST: CAST AND SYNOPSIS
We start in 1969.
We meet a group of policemen who call themselves Manila’s Finest, because they take pride in their integrity and respect while in the line of duty.
They’re not entirely clean.
There’s Homer Magtibay (Piolo Pascual) and Billy Ojeda (Enrique Gil), who spend nights patrolling brothels and roughing up drunks.
Homer is happily married to Yoly (Rica Peralejo), but he has a secret affair with Janette (Jasmine Curtis-Smith), a popular prostitute.
They have their moral failings, but both characters still retain a sense of right and wrong.
As crime and violence escalate in their territory, the police officers begin to sense that something larger is at work, and that their shiny badges may no longer be enough to stop it.
THE VERDICT
The premise is undeniably heavy, yet the film never feels tedious, thanks to the excellent screenplay by Moira Lang, Michiko Yamamoto, and Sherad Anthony Sanchez.
The cinematography is also top-tier, helmed by award-winning filmmaker Raymond Red after a 10-year break from directing.
The visuals are stunning, and Digo Ricio's period-accurate production design crackles with life. You really feel like you are in the 70s.
Of course, praise goes to the actors for bringing their characters to life.
Lead actors Piolo and Enrique perfectly represent contrasts: a man unwilling to compromise his principles, and a man willing to bend to protect himself.
Even the minor characters make lasting impressions, including Ashtine Olviga as Piolo’s loving daughter Agnes; Cedrick Juan as Danilo Abad, who can communicate bad intentions even without saying a word; and Rico Blanco, who is equal parts delightful and diabolical as Epifanio Javier.
At the screening this author attended, a man in the back row began grumbling loudly when a character mentioned the words “martial law.”
He went on and on about having to pay expensive movie tickets and braving heavy traffic just to watch a movie that he didn’t expect to disagree with.
The man walked out and never returned.
That sudden reaction is proof that Manila’s Finest works.
It is visceral and deeply affecting because it forces the audience to face uncomfortable truths.
And while that man left, hopefully the lesson remains for everyone else: good men must stop the march toward dictatorship.
Even if it is hard, even if corruption is tempting.
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