A Psychoanalytic and Feministic literary Analysis on the Movie, Kisapmata (1981)

I’ve watched movies that starred psychopathic narcissistic characters, like the movies american
psycho, no country for old men, joker, and a movie that I recently just watched Kisapmata by
Mike De Leon. As I watch those other three movies that I’ve mentioned, Kisapmata also did a
great job portraying a psychopathic narcissistic character which happens to be Dadong the
husband of Adelina, Noel’s father in law, and Mila’s father. But just like any other psycho movies
that I’ve watched, I can’t help but to analyze Dadong’s character so we can all understand his
psychopathic character which affected the people around him, especially his own family,
especially Mila who received the short end of the stick. Because of his father’s actions, she and
her own mother was forced to live and survive in her father’s deranged world, where Noel was
sadly involved in an attempt to save Mila in this predicament. Here, we’ll get into a deep dive in
Dadong’s mind and how his actions affected the people around him.

Dadong, a 45 year old police detective, a husband, and a father who “loves” his family just too
much. For his whole life, he acted as an authoritarian to his family, he controlled everything in
their lives; from him having absolute control with his wife and absolute control over his own
daughter. His attitude, the way he brings himself, and the way he thinks reeks of arrogance and
narcissism that in his manner of behaving he’s like implying that what he says is absolute and
he won’t let you say otherwise. Such actions are seen when someone is trying to assume power
over him, just like the time when Noel had a face off with him when he first confronted Mila on
why she’s not choosing to come with him and why does she keep following his tatang’s order;
there they stood of and I can clearly sense tatang’s anger and intimidation which really
intimidated Noel. There are other instances too where he assumed dominance over others,
when Mila talked back he smacked the living hell out of her for just trying to express her
thoughts, hurting even his own wife, and when meeting Noel’s father his word was absolute,
Noel’s father didn’t have a choice but to bend in his will. Then, when thinking about it, he’s not
just your typical authoritarian parent, he’s something far more obscene than that. He’s
psychopathic, manipulative, and possessive which is really frightening to witness while I was
watching the movie, just like how I felt when watching no country for old men, it’s just I feel fear
on what might Dadong do in that moment, will he just kill Mila if he catches her even attempting
to answer the phone, will he kill Noel when he just barged into his own home, what if he gets
mad at the nurses at the hospital because Mila escaped and he’ll just go on a killing spree in the
hospital. Things like this, might just happen because of Dadong’s psychopathic behavior and
with this derangement comes the obsessiveness to his own daughter, which he manipulated
and took advantage of, her very own daughter. Even Mila is set to start her own family, Dadong
can't just let her own daughter go, he did everything just for her to stay, he raped her,
thereatend to hurt her, and just did about everything just for her daughter to stay; not because
he loves her or anything like that, he’s just obsessed with her and she sees her as his
possession.
Because of Dadong, Mila didn’t have the chance to live in her own world, her whole life was
controlled by a patriarchal power which is her own father. It’s not just Miila who was also a victim
of the Dadong’s patriarchy, but also her mother Adelina. Where they both faced serious abuse
from Dadong, where they were oppressed consistently, where their freedom was sapped out of
them, just because of Dadong. Because of this, Adelina and Mila developed this trauma where
they think they cannot escape his grasps even if there are countless opportunities that they can
just leave because of their fear that their tatang might be mad. Because of Tatang, their lives
were ruined and eventually even got taken away by his own hands, implying that he as a man
has power over his family and those who try to take it away from him.

As the ending plays out, I was just baffled how the movie just ended on that note, very grim,
dark, and quick. Like in the blink of an eye all of that just happened, in the blink of an eye the
opportunity for them to finally leave Dadong for good just perished, their hopes of finally being
able to live a new life, and their hopes of finally being able to escape their Tatang’s grasp just
perished in a blink of an eye, with just a kisapmata all of those aspirations were ruined. This
movie really showed the harsh part of reality, where there won’t always be a happy ending, well
because this movie is based on a real life event. This movie showed us how dangerous a
psychopathic man is to others and to his own family, that he will even do anything just for them
to stay in his grasp. Truly one of the darkest Filipino movies that I’ve ever watched.