Respeto

An excellent film that shows life in Manila without relying on overdramatic poverty porn or stereotypical love stories with the mestiza crush. Characters are layered and relatable. It has nothing to do with 8 mile and people saying that make zero sense. Hip hop is the background to a story about systemic corruption and a system that tells young, poor manileños that they are not valuable. In that sense, it reminded me more of Finding Forrester but it is by no means a copy