Although the time and setting of Daluyong Studios' "All the Things I Leave You" (2025) which has the subtitle "Patawid" (which means inheritance or a legacy which is passed on from one generation to the next in Ilocano, the essence of the film is very catholic.
It might have been situated in the Ilocos Region but the meanings and contexts of the whole experience can reach and relate to other parts of Luzon or the Visayas and Mindanao regions or even in the Bicol Region, MIMAROPA and CALABARZON.
Because the movie is about love, a universal and beautiful feeling.
Although it speaks of gay love or better still, focuses on Boys Love (BL), the universality of the narrative is relevant.
It is also a show window of how local color--be it the cultural traditions or the socio-political landscapes of Ilocos or Quezon—can enhance the progress of the character development towards the social and behavioral artifices to the actual society beyond the reel world to the resolution embodied in the film as an artifact and the real milieu of the quotidian in true-to-life situations.
One of the cultural artefacts of the film is the culinary feature of empaynada (a native pie famous in the northern Philippines with meat and vegetable fillings) that could match the butse (camote pie) of CALABARZON being a delicacy in Quezon or Laguna or the binakol (native soup) prevalent in the Western Visayas.
By empaynada and other unique cultural heritage and traditions in Ilocos, the characters in Kiko (Justin Paul Basobas) and Jorge (Benedix Ramos) as gay lovers are developed to vent out the liberalism of Jorge's family towards homosexuality while juxtaposing the gender predilection of the closeness of their ancestors Lolo Tino (Grandpa) and Lolo Bong, respectively, in the 1920s migration and employment as field workers among Ilocanos in Hawaii.
At the time that the movie has exposed its characters and circumstances, the Ilocano cultural traditions like bereavement and reverence over their dearly departed, one of them week-long prayers for their souls, are translated onscreen.
"All the Things I Leave You (Patawid)" might be in the BL mode and mold but it is not exploitative of gay sex but a tender and human treatment of the LGBTQIA+.
Filmmaker Jade Castro must be commended for his adroit directorial skills to depart from the usual brazen gay-oriented audio-visual self-centeredness.
"All the Things I Leave You (Patawid)" is currently showing at SM cinemas all over the country.
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