What started as a glimpse into the life of street people slowly progressed into the

harsh consequence of succumbing in the bottom barrel of status division.

Pamilya Ordinaryo is not an easy film to watch. Its depiction on how society sees
and treats the lower class is provocative, never shying away with what they want the
audience to see and reflect upon. What you will witness in this movie is what happens in
real life, and it’s not even half of the many situations impoverished people have to go
through in order to survive.

The movie introduces a 16-year-old Jane, a 17-year-old Aries and their child, a
baby Arjun who is less than a month old. Living on the streets of Manila with nothing to
sustain their daily needs, the young couple resorts to theft with the help of three young
boys and a tricycle they often use to escape. Their difficult lives gone further downhill
ever since a kidnapper posed as a good Samaritan came in their lives.

Their desperateness to provide became the very reason as to why their baby had
been stolen away, as a transsexual named Ertha approached Jane intending to kidnap
her baby. At first Ertha was trying to convince Jane to “loan” some baby clothes and
diapers, to which Jane politely declined due to not having the ability to pay for it. Until
Ertha found where they were living and offered Jane to buy some baby supplies in the
nearby supermarket. That’s when Ertha told the unsuspecting Jane that she will just
withdraw some cash outside while still holding the baby in their hands. After a while
Jane looked for Ertha but they were nowhere to be found, soon she realized that her
baby had been kidnapped.

And so, begins the montage of the young couple being exploited and
manipulated by the people and even institutions they reached out for help. It couldn’t
help that Jane and Aries were willing to take desperate measures just to bring their child
back. The film never failed in making us feel on edge for every possible outcome the
characters might get themselves into. The shaky camera shots, the acting of the cast,
the security camera scenes that will always make you feel that something bad is bound
to happen, everything in the film had effectively served its intended purpose, to open
your eyes, empathize and be disturbed by the state of living a lot of Filipinos are
currently in.
 You’ll feel pity for the poor and uneducated, disgusted and grossed out by the
selfish opportunists and the privileged taking advantage of their power, enraged by the
liars and the so-called “concerned”, and emotionally empty from the end result of all the
effort it took for the protagonists to find their baby.

Pamilya Ordinaryo leaned on two major issues: Poverty and the lack of education
in general. The problems the characters struggle in from the beginning until the end
were all caused by these two problems.

First off, there are many aspects of education that they lack of in, but this paper
would like to focus on their lack of sex education. Having at least surface knowledge on
the risks and outcomes of sex, especially at their age, could have helped them avoid
adding more weight to their already heavy living conditions. With proper education in
this topic, they would be aware that sex could lead to pregnancy, whether they like it or
not (Jane and Aries frequently doing “quickies” as a means of physical escape were the
cause of Jane conceiving Arjun). They would be able to identify and know if they are
being taken advantaged or abused sexually (Jane’s past experience with her stepfather,
the police scene and Aries’ car scene). there are risks including the possibility of getting
a sexually-transmitted disease. In many ways, this film had shown why everyone of any
age must undergo sex education as Jane having a baby at a young age reflects the
booming teenage pregnancy issue we currently have in this country.

Poverty. The main contributor to a wide range of problems both in the film and in
real life. Why a lot of poverty-stricken families struggle in feeding their kin and even
themselves. Why they can’t refuse any sign of help even if it came from the most
suspicious looking people, why people in need are a subject to societal degradation.

“If you cannot help them, at least do not hurt them”

In the search for baby Arjun both have experienced being ignored, assaulted,
violated, used by media opportunists, scammed, all just because those people knew
they do not have the means to fight back because of their status. What’s sad is that only
one person genuinely wanted to help them. It was the lady in white blouse who spotted
Jane outside crying near the supermarket. It was relieving to know that although the
world is filled with greedy people, there are still those who chose to do good even if they
know that the person they offered help to could not give something in return.

As much as there are a lot of reasons why people end up in poverty, there are
also various circumstances that made them that way which is out of their control. This
and the rise of ongoing social inequality were never helpful for them and just adds up to
their pain of living.

Ending the film with them gaining nothing, not even the tiniest of leads in their
search was the director’s last attempt to slap us with the realization of how hopeless it is
to live life like Jane and Aries. No matter how much we want them to have their happy
ending, in reality it doesn’t work that way. After all, status and financial division will
always remind you that if you are one of the poor, you are not a priority, not even a
person deserving of rights and protection. Overall, the depressing but realistic take of
the film is commendable for not sugarcoating any of the depictions they had for its
characters and their scenarios.