This review contains light spoilers.
For DreamWorks Animation, it is a welcome opportunity to have a Filipino-centred film like Forgotten Island showcase Philippine culture. Whether you are Filipino, half Filipino, or encountering these traditions for the first time, the film’s cultural identity is difficult to miss.
The recognisably Filipino classroom setting immediately draws you in, as Jo, voiced by H.E.R., gives a presentation on the mythical creature known as the Manananggal. From there, the story explores Jo’s long-standing friendship with Raissa, voiced by Liza Soberano, through a nostalgic montage that brings the Philippines of the 1990s vividly to life.
With each treasured memory finding its place on their growing charm bracelets, audiences are taken through a colourful portrait of what it means to grow up in a Filipino community. One of the film’s early sequences offers perhaps the clearest example.
Jo arrives at a party by tricycle and walks into a scene filled with mountains of pika-pika and kakanin. Videoke is in full swing, with songs including Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”, and Starships’ “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now”. The full crowd brings to mind the familiar Filipino phrase, “Dala ang buong barangay” (Bring the whole neighbourhood).
She encounters tinikling, lechon and the all-too-familiar image of Jesus found in many Filipino homes. A tita (auntie) then directs her towards Raissa using the unmistakable Filipino habit of lip-pointing (or “nguso”).
There are no need to explain these details to Filipino audiences because they are so familiar. That instant recognition is also what makes many of these moments funny.
If Jo and Raissa’s Philippines creates a sense of familiarity, Nakali opens a window to the colourful world of Philippine mythology, a part of Filipino culture that has, unfortunately, become increasingly distant from everyday life.
The film fills its fantastical world with creatures familiar to many Filipino children through bedtime stories, school lessons, family folklore and the occasional cautionary tale from a lola (grandmother). There are manananggals, tiyanaks, kapres, duwendes, sirenas and other creatures drawn from the rich mythology woven into Filipino culture.
For all their familiarity, these creatures are no longer as deeply embedded in everyday Filipino life as they once were. Some Filipinos may recognise a manananggal or kapre immediately, while others may know them only by name. A batibat, for instance, may be less immediately recognisable to many Filipinos today.
Rooted in Ilocano folklore, the batibat is traditionally described as a tree-dwelling spirit said to follow its tree when the wood is used to build a house. It is said to prey on those who sleep near its post, pressing down on the sleeper’s chest and causing nightmares or the frightening sensation of being unable to move.
Forgotten Island gives this relatively obscure figure a far more prominent role, making it central to the film’s premise. Batiba embodies the Memory Batibat, a fictional interpretation of the creature who holds the key to Jo and Raissa’s missing memories.
After the two friends find themselves in Nakali with no recollection of how they arrived there, their journey to recover those memories eventually leads them to Batiba. However, in exchange for restoring what they have forgotten, they must each surrender memories they have of one another.
Liza Soberano voices Raissa, the young woman preparing to leave the Philippines for the United States, while H.E.R. voices her best friend Jo. Dave Franco voices Raww, a lovable were-aspin who joins them on their adventure. Manny Jacinto voices the tiyanak Bungi, while Jo Koy voices the kapre Datu. Jenny Slate voices Batiba, and Ronny Chieng voices the duwende King Truffle Wuffle. Then there is Dolly de Leon as Lola Fatima and Lea Salonga as the manananggal Manang.
The ensemble gives Nakali plenty of personality while also strengthening the film’s connection to Filipino audiences. Jo Koy brings his comedic sensibility to Datu, while Dave Franco gives Raww an awkward charm that suits his role as comic relief. The Filipino performers, in particular, provide the film with a sense of cultural continuity.
Forgotten Island brings this world back into view, reminding audiences of tales that Filipinos have slowly begun to forget. It does not treat these creatures as decorative additions to a fantasy adventure. Instead, it places them at the heart of the story. They are part of the stories through which generations of Filipinos have made sense of the world around them. Philippine mythology has always been colourful, unusual, sometimes frightening and often wonderfully imaginative.
Their presence connects the mythology on screen with Filipino audiences who grew up hearing versions of these stories themselves, and will just as much delight audiences who are completely unfamiliar with these tales. It is a fitting cast for a film that spends much of its time reminding us that some of the stories we thought we had outgrown are still worth remembering.
Forbidden Island is out in the US now, and is out in the UK on the 16th of October.
