Of the Flesh

Of the Flesh (Karnal) is a 1983 Philippine horror drama film directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya. It was adapted and written by Ricky Lee from the legal story "To Take a Life" by Teresa Añover Rodriguez and produced by Benjamin G. Yalung. Set in the 1930s, during the American colonial era, it tells the story of a newly-wed couple Narcing (Phillip Salvador) and Puring (Cecille Castillo) who arrive from Manila in the town of Mulawin, a place filled with violent and tragic pasts, a place likened to Hell by its storyteller, played by Charito Solis. Settling in Mulawin, they will witness misfortunes and violence, including rape, incest, parricide, and tyranny perpetrated by the cruel Gusting (Vic Silayan).

It was filmed in the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Rizal and the National Capital Region. Ryan Cayabyab provided the musical score for the film and Manolo Abaya, the director's husband, served as the director of photography. It is the third and last film of Marilou Diaz-Abaya's loose trilogy of feminist films, following Brutal (1980) and Moral (1982). These films depicted the feminist issues and concerns, complete with the use of backdrops and metaphors related to the Martial Law era.

The film was selected as the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 57th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film has received its overseas release in the United Kingdom on November 23, 1984, as part of the London Film Festival and in Japan on September 14, 2001, as part of the Special Feature of Marilou Diaz-Abaya at the 2001 Fukuoka International Film Festival along with the other films she had previously directed.

In 2015, the film was digitally restored and remastered in high-definition by the ABS-CBN Film Restoration under the leadership of Leonardo P. Katigbak and Central Digital Lab under Rick Hawthorne and Manet Dayrit. The restored version of Karnal was premiered on August 13, 2015, as one of the special features for the 11th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival.

Plot
A middle-aged woman, acting as the narrator, tells a long but violent and tragic story about her mother's life in a town that is only one step ahead of Hell. She also mentions the lives of the townspeople living under the rule of a tyrannical and violent landowner.

Newlyweds Narcing and Puring arrive from Manila, the capital, to live in the former's hometown, Mulawin. His father, Gusting, is taken aback by Puring's resemblance to his deceased wife Elena. The resemblance prompts Gusting to cause problems with Narcing and Puring. He makes several advances toward Puring, and failing in that motivates Narcing to be more assertive over Puring. At the same time, he reveals to the villagers his friendship with a deaf man Gorio. In the violent family conflict that ensues, Narcing kills his father.

While her husband is in jail, Puring gives birth to her child whom the town's villagers consider demonic. After burying her daughter in the burning fields, Narcing escapes from prison but is pursued by authorities. As he finds his wife at Gorio's hut, Narcing, along with Puring, escapes in order to avoid being captured by the authorities. Unfortunately for him, Narcing is captured by the authorities. His hands are tied by a rope, and he repeatedly stumbles and slides to the ground as Puring emotionally cries watching him suffer. At the jail, the jail warden opens his cell and discovers that Narcing had committed suicide by slitting his throat. The news of his death devastates Puring.

The narrator reveals her identity as the niece of Narcing and Puring. Her mother Doray is Narcing's sister. She narrates that Doray fled from the family home after being forced by his father to marry someone she did not love, to be with his true love Jose. Likewise, she was also a victim of family violence in the past. She narrates further that after the tragedy, Puring returned to Manila to work as a salesperson again. However, according to some accounts, she fared even worse because she became a prostitute to the Americans in the dark areas of the city where she forcefully spoke English to them. On the other hand, some claim she became a nun to atone for her sins. She ends by stating that these rumors will never be confirmed and her true whereabouts will remain a mystery.

Cast

 * Charito Solis as the storyteller
 * Phillip Salvador as Narcing
 * Vic Silayan as Gusting
 * Cecille Castillo as Puring
 * Joel Torre as Goryo
 * Grace Amilbangsa as Doray
 * Crispin Medina as Menardo
 * Joonee Gamboa as Pekto
 * Rolando Tinio as Bino
 * Ella Luansing as Suling
 * Vangie Labalan as Rosing
 * Gil de Leon as Padre Julian
 * Rustica Carpio as Talia

Pre-production
The production of Karnal began when director Marilou Diaz-Abaya received a mysterious telephone call from someone going by the name "M-7", asking her if she agreed to do another film project. Since the person from the call was mysterious, the publicist informed the director that the caller was none other than film producer Benjamin G. Yalung, and "M-7" is his alias. Soon after, Marilou Diaz-Abaya, accompanied by her husband Manolo Abaya, met Ben Yalung and his friend, actress Cecille Castillo, who had previously starred in Lino Brocka's Cain at Abel (1982) at a dinner in a restaurant. In the middle of their meeting, the producer handed a magazine clipping to the director. The clipping was a legal story by Teresita Añover-Rodriguez, To Take A Life, which was published through Mr. & Ms. Magazine and tells the story of a woman who killed her father-in-law after being abusive to her and raping her. Yalung told Diaz-Abaya that Cecille Castillo had to be one of the starring cast. Because of the story, director Diaz-Abaya was struck by Castillo's period-style looks, believing that she was perfect for the film.

Ricky Lee, the director's screenwriting collaborator in Brutal and Moral, began to create a screenplay after he was informed of Cecille Castillo's perfect period-era looks and used the legal story of Añover-Rodriguez as its basis. The director felt that the story would be set earlier in the 1930s in which she believed that the morals and attitudes of the said era began to transition from the old conservative of the Spanish era to liberalism due to the influence of the American colonial rule.

Filming and production design
Fiel Zabat, the film's production designer, first studied the old paintings that were still hung at the house of Diaz-Abaya's parents to get the period-era feeling. She also studied the paintings of Fernando Amorsolo and read the reference materials related to the said painter. For the film's shooting, Marilou Diaz-Abaya and Fiel Zabat began searching towns in Central Luzon that would serve as a potential filming place for the film. As a result, they chose the town of Gapan in Nueva Ecija and its surrounding towns as the decided shooting site for the film. Luckily for the film's staff and crew, the old stone house the director fell in love with was owned by the production designer's distant aunt who welcomed the director and the others as a family. As a result, the house became one of the filming sites. Several of the old and genuine period-era costumes used for the film were borrowed from Zabat's grandmothers.

Restoration
The film's restoration was handled by the ABS-CBN Film Restoration and Central Digital Lab in Makati. According to ABS-CBN Film Archives head Leo P. Katigbak, the restoration of Karnal was discontinued when technicians spotted some defects in its acquired copy. Prior to the film's restoration, the majority of its rights are owned by ABS-CBN and they have to acquire the remaining rights to continue the restoration. The film was eventually restored in 2015 using a print generated from the original negatives and it is the first film of Diaz-Abaya to be digitally restored.

The film's restored version was premiered on August 13, 2015, at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theatre) of the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The premiere was attended by the film's stars Phillip Salvador, Vangie Labalan, and Cecille Castillo; the director's two sons, musician Marc and cinematographer David Abaya; the film's cinematographer and the director's husband Manolo Abaya, and the writer Ricky Lee. Directors Antoinette Jadaone and Dan Villegas also attended the film's premiere.

Television release
The film's restored version was premiered on November 5, 2017, as a feature presentation for ABS-CBN's Sunday late-night presentation program, Sunday's Best. The televised showing was rated SPG (Strong Parental Guidance) with warnings of themes, violence, and sex by the MTRCB and attained a nationwide share rating of 0.9%, winning against GMA Network's telecast of Diyos at Bayan, which attained a 0.5% rating, according to AGB Nielsen's Nationwide Urban Television Audience Measurement (NUTAM) ratings.

Critical reception
Jay Cruz, writing for SINEGANG.ph, gave the film four-and-a-half out of five stars, with praise directed to its cast, screenplay, cinematography, music, and editing. He described the film as "a final piece in the trilogy that succeeds in displaying its beauty while showing the cracks on the wall". Panos Kotzathanasis of Asian Movie Pulse wrote that the film "may be a bit overdramatic on occasion but both the comments and the rather intriguing story are exquisite in their conception and implementation, in another great work by the late Abaya".