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Lino Brocka is the best Filipino filmmaker ever; his masterpiece, Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag (Manila in the Claws of Neon) the greatest Filipino film ever made.

Many films about people moving from the country to the big city detail the loss of innocence as the dream of a shining land of opportunity yields to a grim reality. Julio Madiaga (Rafael Roco Jr.) arrives in Manila with no such delusions. His eyes are already wide open to potential horror as he has come to search for his girlfriend Ligaya (Hilda Koronel), who he suspects has been lured into a sex trafficking ring. Already expecting to find a nightmare, what Julio discovers in Manila turns out to be even worse.

Lino Brocka achieved international acclaim with this candid portrait of 1970s Manila, a breakout example of the more serious-minded filmmaking the director had turned to after building a career on mainstream movies he described as “soaps.”

Mixing visceral, documentary-like realism with the narrative focus of Hollywood noir and melodrama, Manila in the Claws of Light is a howl of anguish from one of the most celebrated figures in Philippine cinema.

Director: Lino Brocka
Cast: Hilda Koronel, Bembol Roco, Lou Salvador Jr., Joonee Gamboa, Spanky Manikan
Country: Philippines
Genre: Drama, Mystery

BD50, 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 02:06:46 | 45.6 Gb + 13.1 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Tagalog
Subtitles: English

Extras:
• Introduction by filmmaker Martin Scorsese (2:03)
• Signed: Lino Brocka, a 1987 documentary about the director by Christian Blackwood (1:23:40)
• Manila... A Filipino Film, a 1975 documentary about the making of the film, featuring Brocka and actors Hilda Koronel and Rafael Roco Jr. (22:58)
• New interview with critic, filmmaker, and festival programmer Tony Rayns (19:02)