What happens when the most powerless gets paid by God to wreak vengeance upon the world that had so tormented him? What happens when downtrodden cook Daniel who as a boy had been pimped out by his mum to a nasty gang pandering to international paedophiles, suddenly wins the lottery? 

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Simultaneously brutal and sensitive, furious yet funny and extremely disturbing, ‘Moneyslapper’ is not like any movie you’ve ever seen. The satire, the sex and violence are outrageous and explicit, but surely not disproportionate, considering the Philippines’ pain and humiliation under repeated colonial invasion and oppression. From the very first scene, you’ll find it either absolutely riveting or utterly off-putting as three colonially garbed men—Spanish, American and Japanese, stick lit incense sticks into the vagina of a native woman splayed and bound on a sacrificial altar. Visually intense with a wonderful score and sound design that let you know you’re in a Pinoy Western of a cowboy returning home for vengeance.  Love the moth halos around the plaster saints that line the path to the heroine’s parents’ Very Catholic House—all that’s missing is a fat Southeast Asian gecko slurping them (the insects) up. The script is extraordinary in its storytelling and sensitivity, bringing us at last to the choice of forgiveness and generosity or revenge and tyranny, when we ourselves thereby become the tyrant. Sorry, no Thai subtitles, and not recommended for viewers under 18.

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(Alice Skinhead)