Nunal sa Tubig

A Speck in the Water (Filipino: Nunal Sa Tubig) is a 1976 Philippine drama film written by Jorge Arago and directed by Ishmael Bernal. It tells the story of a love triangle in the impoverished village involving Benjamin (George Estregan), a fisherman in the Laguna de Bay and two women in the villageーChedeng (Daria Ramirez), a soon-to-be midwife and Maria (Elizabeth Oropesa), a beautiful young woman from the barrio.

Nunal sa Tubig
Poster of the restored version featuring Chedeng.
EnglishA Speck in the Water
Japanese水の中のほくろ
HepburnMizu no Naka no Hokuro
Directed byIshmael Bernal
Produced by
  • Emilio Ejercito
  • Jesse Ejercito
Written byJorge Arago
Starring
Music byVanishing Tribe
CinematographyArnold Alvaro
Edited byAugusto Salvador
Production
company
Distributed byCrown Seven Film Productions[lower-alpha 1]
Release date
  • 6 August 1976 (1976-08-06)
Running time
119 minutes
Country
Language
[lower-alpha 3][2]

It won Best Picture at the 1977 Catholic Mass Media Awards. It received seven nominations from the 1977 Gawad Urian including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Sound. Daria Ramirez was nominated for Best Actress, while Bernal as nominated for Best Direction.[3]

Plot

In the impoverished village of Sta. Fe, some investors capitalize on fish pens growing milkfish under the care of Mang Pedro (Ruben Rustia). But for some mysterious reason, the fish are dying. To save the situation, they decide to salt the fish and dry them under the sun. Benjamin (George Estregan), who owns a boat that shuttles passengers to town, has a regular passenger Chedeng (Daria Ramirez), who is going to be a midwife soon. Chedeng has a close friend and neighbor Maria (Elizabeth Oropesa), but unknown to each other, they are both Benjamin’s lovers. When Maria becomes pregnant, she becomes Chedeng’s first patient and a disastrous situation that ends in tragedy ensues.[4]

Cast
  • Elizabeth Oropesa as Maria
  • Daria Ramirez as Chedeng
  • George Estregan as Benjamin
  • Ruben Rustia as Pedro
  • Pedro Faustino as Jacob
  • Ella Luansing as Banang
  • Rustica Carpio as Chayong
  • Nenita Jana as Adiang
  • Ven Medina as Mr. Blanco
  • Leticia de Guzman as Ilo
  • Tita De Villa as Mrs. Blanco
  • Paquito Salcedo as Elder
  • Lem Garcellano as Pablo
  • Carlos Padilla Jr. as Dr. Villamaria
  • Tony Carreon as Lake Analyst

Also starring
  • Bong Perez
  • Joey Bolisay
  • Rey TablaIda Bautista
  • Al Garcia
  • Jimmy Preña
  • Erna Menesses
  • Ricky Garcia
  • Milo Sario
  • Santiago Balse

Production

The film was shot in Laguna de Bay which is located in the province of Laguna and the town of Binangonan, Rizal.

Bernal eventually took pains to abandon the style he had initiated with Aliw and returned to his less controversial “polished” filmmaking style. Not surprisingly, his winning streak with the critics’ awards returned, and he wound up copping four best director prizes, more than any other Filipino winner. Ironically, none of the films he had won for share the same prominent canonical stature that Manila by Night, Nunal sa Tubig, Himala, and even relatively smallscale works like Aliw and Pagdating sa Dulo (his first film) enjoy. A more plausible explanation for Bernal’s resort to “flawed” technique in Aliw can be inferred from the fact that it was produced by the same person, but not the same production company, that financed his 1976 fishing-village epic Nunal sa Tubig. The production company could not be the same because Nunal sa Tubig had caused Jessie Ejercito’s Crown Seven Film Productions to collapse. deployed a severe, distant, highly visual, and open-ended treatment that could not surmount the presence of “sexy” performers playing out a roundelay of lust and subsequent guilt. One may reasonably speculate that Ejercito, whose record of risk-taking contrasted with the safer sensibility of his more famous brother (and eventual Philippine President) Joseph Estrada, decided to gamble once more with a Bernal project once he had launched his new company, Seven Star Productions[5]

Staff and crew
  • Director: Ishmael Bernal
  • Writer: Jorge Arago
  • Producers: Emilio Ejercito and Jesse Ejercito
  • Music: Vanishing Tribe
  • Cinematography: Arnold Alvaro
  • Editor: Augusto Salvador
  • Art Director: Betty Gosiengfiao
  • Sound: Godofredo de Leon
  • Sound Supervisor: Manuel Daves
  • Sound Editor: Ruben Natividad
  • Casting Director: Angie Ferro
  • Production Supervisor: Edgar Garcia
  • Post-Production Supervisor: Zeny Ambos
  • Post-Production Facilities: LVN Pictures
  • Japanese Subtitles: Erwin John Soriano Viray

Release

The film was released on August 6, 1976. It was approved by the Board of Censors for Motion Pictures (the predecessor of MTRCB).

The restored version of the film was premiered on August 8, 2018 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines as part of the 14th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival. The premiere was attended by the film's stars Elizabeth Oropesa and Daria Ramirez, actor Kiko Estrada (grandson of George Estregan), and the staff of the ABS-CBN Film Archives. Modern era film directors Adolfo Alix Jr. and Benedict Mique, Carmona Gale (representing the Kantana Post-Production), Sabrina Baracetti and Max Tessler (of Udine Far East Film Festival), and Ronald Arguelles (Cinema One - Channel Head) also attended the premiere.[2]

Release dates
Country Date Notes
Philippines August 6, 1976 Original release date.
Japan November 1, 1991 One of the feature films for Filipino Movies Festival 1991, presented by the ASEAN Cultural Office.
Japan November 2, 2003 As part of Fukuoka International Film Festival
Germany January 20, 2008 Asian Hot Shots Berlin Festival for Film and Video Art
Philippines August 8, 2018 Theatrical premiere of the digitally restored and remastered 4K version of the film for Cinemalaya Film Festival.
Japan September 14, 2018 As part of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2018 - Cross-Cut Asia.

Digital restoration

The only existing 35mm copy (with Japanese subtitles) of the film was in the Fukuoka City Public Library Archive and it has found its way home. Before its restoration, the film had numerous defects such as dust, scratches, line scratches, patches, continuous dust, flicker, stabilization, squeeze, bump, film tear, band, gate hair, reel changeover marks, and stains, which were all successfully eliminated at 3,600 total restoration hours by more than 250 professional restoration artists. Nunal sa Tubig was scanned in 4K at Tokyo Koon Co. in Japan and digitally restored in 2K resolution at Kantana Post Production (Thailand) in February 2018.[2]

The Japanese-language subtitled 35mm print, the sole element used for the restoration, was from the collection of the Fukuoka City Public Library Film Archive. This print has been in the Fukuoka collection since 2002 along when it was acquired along with prints of four other Philippines’ films from Japan Foundation. The print was screened in 2003 as part of the Archive’s ‘Philippine Film Festival” held that year. That festival featured 12 works as well as including a keynote lecture by renowned Philippines’ screenwriter and director Clodualdo Del Mundo Jr.[1]

The 35mm print was prepared and digitally scanned in 4K resolution by Tokyo Ko-on Ltd in 2017; a presentation on this work was made by Nobukazu Suzuki of Tokyo Ko-On last year. After scanning the data was digitally restored in 2K using a 1:1.85 aspect ratio by Kantana Post Production (Thailand) by ABS-CBN, Manila, and successors to Crown Seven Film Productions. Nunal sa Tubig was screened with both Japanese and English subtitles. The domestic première of the restoration took place in August, 2018 with the international première being this screening in Fukuoka at FIFF 2018. The screening was followed by a discussion on the restoration of Nunal sa Tubig and film restoration challenges in Asia where so much content is not even within the continent, let alone the country of origin.[1]

References
  1. "Restoration Asia VI". Restoration Asia. September 1, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  2. "NUNAL SA TUBIG - Cinemalaya Premiere". Facebook. August 9, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  3. "Digitally restored Ishmael Bernal classic returns on screen". Manila Standard. August 15, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  4. "Nunal sa Tubig". Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival. August 9, 2018. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  5. David, J. (2012). Film Plastics in "Manila by Night".

Notes
  1. The film's ownership rights is currently handled by ABS-CBN Corporation through Star Cinema.
  2. The only surviving 35mm copy of the film (with Japanese subtitles) was found in Fukuoka City Library Archives and digitally scanned at Tokyo Koon Co.Ltd. in 4K.
  3. Restored 4K version only.
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