“I know I’m not perfect, but Jiro [is] strong!”
THIS YEAR’S Metro Manila Film Festival Best Picture is a heartwarming twist on love stories. The spotlight is placed on two individuals finding their independence.
I’mPerfect, written and directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, is a classic telenovela love story between Jessica (Anne Krystel Daphne Go) and Jiro (Earl Jonathan Amaba), who both have the genetic condition Down syndrome.
Throughout the film, the two face the social and familial difficulties of living with their disability. Go’s performance as Jessica landed her the Best Lead Actress in the festival’s Gabi ng Parangal. Additionally, the film won the Best Ensemble Cast award the same night.
The two protagonists meet at a special needs program after Jiro’s parents enroll him in the group. They form a relationship as the film progresses when Jiro discovers that Jessica works as a waitress at a café. This short-lived bond is interrupted when Jiro’s family breaks the news that they are migrating to the United States in hopes of helping him and his brother, Ryan (Zaijian Jaranilla), with their health and studies, respectively.
As the plot centers on a meet-cute encounter, the film’s conflict relies on the world around the two leads rather than themselves. Parental control stands as the central conflict of the story, while they occasionally tackle the day-to-day discrimination that people with Down syndrome experience.
In crafting scenes and characters for the film, the crew consulted the actors, their caretakers, and medical professionals. One scene in particular is inspired by a real experience of actor Gio Dicen, who plays one of the students in the film, and his father.
“There was one time na kumakain kami sa labas, and then there was this table na katabi namin. ‘Yung kids were looking funny at my son, so I approached them… so, similar to that, sabi [ni Bernardo], inspired by [our] personal experience,” Nilo Dicen, the father of Gio Dicen, told The Flame.
(There was one time when we were eating outside, and there was this table next to us. The kids kept giving my son strange looks, so I approached them… So, similar to that, said Bernardo, was inspired by our personal experience.)
The film sought to represent people with Down syndrome to depict them more than their disability, showing how people with these disabilities have the same stories as others.
To better highlight the actor’s speech, the film refrains from correcting their speech and instead uses subtitles.
“They do not want it to be dubbed because, for Bernardo, that is not them. Even though what they were saying was a little garbled, she wants it as authentic as possible,” Dicen said in the interview.
Most of the characters in the narrative grow and develop as their worldviews are shaped by each other. However, Jessica, as a character, remains static throughout the film. While Jiro grows out of his mother’s control and learns new things, Jessica’s character is already solidified.
Aside from Jessica and Jiro, other characters in the film represent the different aspects of a person with Down syndrome’s life. The educational aspect of the film exists through Lizel (Lorna Tolentino), Jiro’s mother, who is a pediatrician. Through her, the viewers are able to understand the condition through a medical lens.
Despite this, her character remains complex. She exists to portray the overprotective caretaker who cannot see past the disability of her son. From the start of the film, she demonstrates how infantilized she views Jiro. He is always with a nanny and is referred to as “baby Jiro,” despite being 29 years old. Although out of concern for her son, it becomes a source of conflict between her and Jiro.
This conflict is shared between Jiro and Ryan, who want to deviate from their mother. Through Lizel’s enrollment of Jiro in the program, Jiro starts to push back on his mother’s constant surveillance through his nannies, deviating from his strict routine to be with Jessica.
It is the film’s simplicity that also hindered its narrative. The duo never experienced a conflict between them outside familial and societal discriminations. Despite the elopement being a big plot point, no actual struggle is portrayed. They express that they miss their family, yet insist that love is enough to patch that wound.
As the film progresses, Lizel’s walls crack as she is forced to accept her son’s desire for independence.
Sex is one of the mature themes and images shown in the film. There are also scenes where the characters are shown drinking alcohol and getting intoxicated, one of smoking and one where they were yelling profanities in Bisaya.
In one scene, the main couple unbuttons each other’s shirts. No privates were shown, nor was the act shown. However, the viewer can easily tell that the two had sex. This raises questions about why the film was rated G for general audiences by the MTRCB, with such themes touched on in the film.
Conversely, the dialogue among the parents and guardians can be awkward at times. There are exchanges in the film where the characters are waiting for one another to finish speaking before responding. They wait to be asked specific questions to get plot points out, rather than having a natural progression of conversation.
Among all the desaturated and dimly lit films of today, I’mPerfect is a much-needed break. The colors in the film are vibrant, and scenes shot at night still highlight the subjects. From Jessica’s yellow party dress to the field of red roses, the colors are bright and eye-catching.
As the first Filipino film to represent Down syndrome, I’mPerfect brought its characters into everyday stories. It challenges the infantilization of people with the disability and reminds audiences with its core motto, “Yes, we can!” Its simple story is what ultimately allowed the spotlight to be on the two leads and how they live with their condition. F
