Pisay is a 2007 Filipino drama film directed by Auraeus Solito, written by Henry Grajeda and starring Gammy Lopez, Annicka Dolonius, Carl John Barrameda, and Elijah Castillo. The film, set in the 1980s, is centred upon a young student, from 1982 as a freshman and ending in 1986. The background is the last years of Martial Law in the Philippines where the Marcos dictatorship was at its peak.
Synopsis
The show revolves around Rom Meneses (Gammy Lopez), a young student who enters the premier Philippine Science High School (Tagalog: Mataas na Paaralan ng Plipinas sa Agham; or commonly known as Pisay) along with seven other students during the politically volatile years of the Philippines in the '80s. The students are guided by their teacher Ms. Casas (Eugene Domingo), as they discover the world outside the four corners of the school and the chaos of the Marcos dictatorship.
Plot
The film can be split up into four interconnected stories: Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior years.
Introduction
The film starts with science quiz bee contestants fighting in the 1981 National Science Quiz Bee. The narrator talked about natural selection and how it affects them as students. Daki Lim, a contestant, was removed from the elimination round after incorrectly answering the last question that mass is the same as weight. He contests his answer to the panel of judges but was still removed from the competition.
Freshman
The film then transitions to a comic speech made by Ninoy Aquino about Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos. Rom Meneses is an alternate (a student who is not immediately accepted by the school, a wait-lister) who received a letter from PSHS that he is now allowed to apply to the school, much to the joy of his mother. Rom entered the school the next day to register as a student. He was asked by the Director about his test results and his own background; to which he answered that he was not able to finish the exam since he was late and that his mother was a market vendor and his father an OFW in Jeddah.
Rom went to his room where Ms. Casas, a teacher, was teaching about scientific hypothesis to her students. He met Wena, a fellow student and his groupmate. Ms. Casas then made her students go outside the room and talked about Quod Erat Demonstratum, to teach her students about having conviction as students of PSHS. Rom's mother congratulated him on his first day of school and celebrated her son's achievement as a student of the school.
The next day, Rom and Minggoy reported about the Solar System, and there they said that Halley's Comet would return to 1986, the same year the students would graduate. Rom and Wena started becoming close to each other even though they had separate backgrounds.
Mateo and Minggoy talked about their grades, to which Mateo did not want to talk about it. Rom tried finding his grades and initially thought that he failed since he looked at the lower ranks; however, his friend pointed out that he is rank 4 in the entire class. Rom and his friends celebrated at the school party; where he danced with Wena, causing the class to see them as a romantic couple.
Ms. Casas tried separating the two after seeing how the couple became ever closer by talking to both personally. Rom and Wena decided to break up their relationship and it only separated even further after Rom was goaded to kiss Wena, to the chagrin of Wena and the reaction of Ms. Casas. Rom chased Wena in the library and tried to explain to her about the situation that happened earlier and she explained that her life was already planned out from the very beginning. Rom went home to see his own mother crying and comforted her.
During the final exam, Wena returned the cassette tapes to Rom via Minggoy. Wena learned that she was rank 38 in her grades and Ms. Casas told her that she is a good writer. Rom was rank 2 in his grades; however, the two did not talk to each other. The two went their separate ways.
Sophomore
Mateo is ironing his clothes as he is late for class. The geometry teacher is discussing to the class about the final project that they will submit, she encourages them to discover new things for themselves. Mateo arrived late to his class and the teacher asked him if he has any math problems to discuss in class, to which he answered none. Mateo was then brought in front of the class, showing the large burn mark in his uniform in his back while he was discussing his own problem. The teacher then made him recall the Pythagorean theorem, to which he could not remember.