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Jopy Arnaldo (director), Gitling, 2023. 105 min.

The world’s noise fades into the background when you’re with the right person.

Gitling (or Hyphen in English) (2023) is a triumph in using a variety of languages to weave together the story’s focus on words. The title is an ode to connection, evident in its greatest strength: its screenplay. Five different languages are used: English, Japanese, Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and a made-up language (Jamie-speak), shown on screen with colour-coded subtitles. Jopy Arnaldo’s feature-length debut won Best Screenplay at the 2023 editions of the Philippines’ Cinemalaya Film Festival and the QCinema International Film Festival. It also participated in the Competition section of the 19th Osaka Asian Film Festival, was screened at The Projector in Singapore, and had local screenings at Cinema ’76 Film Society in the Philippines.

This well-woven story about food, films, and language asks its viewers, “How do our words change lives?”

Its premise revolves around Jamie Lazaro (Gabby Padilla), who is hired as a translator for Japanese filmmaker Makoto Kanno’s (Ken Yamamura) film, which is premiering at a film festival in Bacolod, Philippines. The two slowly connect as Jamie creates Ilonggo subtitles for Makoto’s film. She also shows the filmmaker around the City of Smiles, immersing Makoto in Bacolod’s multisensory offerings. Both characters carry personal emotional baggage. Yet, there is art in restraint. Instead of diving head-first into their skeletons, Jamie and Makoto talk about other mundane stuff. Their ease with each other grows from simple conversations in restaurants and parties to quiet revelations in at the poolside and in country houses. The beauty of Bacolod shines, especially in the night scenes capturing The Lacson Ruins, the remains of a real-life ancestral mansion, with such classic elegance.

There are scenes where a cinephile, especially those familiar with Richard Linklater and Wong Kar-Wai’s works, would enjoy esoteric references. Watching this in a micro-cinema was a communal experience as the nods to Chungking Express delighted the audience. To say more is to spoil the intimacy of their conversations, but the leads’ unexpected friendship and self-awareness make it universally appealing. As they navigated the filmmaking process, they came to terms with their baggage and slowly unpacked it with each other. It’s a film performing a balancing act between contemplation and conversation. The last act is an exercise in words left unsaid. There is a Chekhov’s Gun moment where the subtitles the viewers heavily rely on would be swapped in favour of personal interpretation. But the feelings are all still there, quiet yet pulsing. Let’s hope the film finds its streaming home soon so more people can appreciate its subliminal messages. Padilla and Kanno’s subdued and balanced performances speak for themselves.

Having been to Bacolod just two weeks before the film premiered, I found the story’s pace all too familiar as the film’s yearnful mood hit close to home. Maybe there is a certain magic in processing complex emotions in a foreign town or city. Yet, with the right person, unexpected connections glow in the dark, however briefly or transiently. The passage of time and memories are soon-to-be thorns, yet like Jamie and Makoto’s journey, the best thing to do is savour it.

I remember Bong Joon-ho’s “1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” quote because Gitling is a multicultural film that uses its novel concept of colour-coded languages to deliver a profound experience. If there’s a perfect double feature for 2023 films about yearning and language, it’s Celine Song’s Past Lives and Jopy Arnaldo’s Gitling to warm people’s hearts on a rainy day.

How to cite: Muñiz, Richard. “Love In Translation: Decoding Jopy Arnaldo’s Gitling.” Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 7 Jun. 2024, chajournal.blog/2024/06/07/gitling.

Richard Muñiz, 24, is from Manila, Philippines. He has a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Santo Tomas and is currently a medical student at the same institution. Beyond medical school, he mostly watches films, attends film festivals, and logs personal reviews into his Letterboxd. He also writes poetry, and his work has been published in local student publications. A poem, titled “Frames of Our Youth”, is forthcoming in Hong Kong’s Voice & Verse Poetry Magazine.

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