20+ Good Tagalog Movies & Shows to Watch

Fallout

Upon first watch, it’s easy to relegate Fallout to the heap of video game adaptations that are all show and…

Expats

With immigration being a vastly different experience across race, gender, and origin country, it can be easy to dismiss Amazon…

Replacing Chef Chico

Dir. Dan Villegas

Viewers are familiar with cuisines around the world such as the food from France, Italy and Japan, but now it’s…

Triangle Of Sadness

Dir. Ruben Östlund

Among the sea of class satires released in the last year, Triangle of Sadness is one of the better ones.…

Tár

Dir. Todd Field

Filled with dense conversations about classical music and cryptic suggestions of a guilty conscience, Tár makes for a challenging watch…

Trese

Seamlessly blending supernatural folklore and crime noir, the Filipino anime-influenced adaptation of Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldisimo’s award-winning graphic novels…

Cleaners

Dir. Glenn Barit

In Letterboxd, Cleaners was once the highest rated film of 2021, and was once in the list of the top…

Aswang

Dir. Alyx Ayn Arumpac

As courageous now as it was when it was first released domestically in the Philippines, Aswang stands as an essential…

The Kingmaker

Dir. Lauren Greenfield

There is no shortage of resources—be it books, films, articles, or interviews—about the atrocities Ferdinand Marcos unleashed on the Philippines.…

Hello, Love, Goodbye

Dir. Cathy Garcia-Molina & Cathy Garcia-Sampana

Joy is a dutiful, overseas Filipino worker supporting her entire family back home. Ethan is a well-off bartender who has,…

Iti Mapukpukaw

Dir. Carl Joseph E. Papa

As one of the few animated Filipino films ever made, there’s a question as to why The Missing should use…

Motherland

Dir. Ramona S. Diaz

The Fabella Hospital in the Philippines is clearly overburdened and understaffed, and though it offers some of the lowest pregnancy…

Insiang

Dir. Lino Brocka

Insiang is not an easy film to watch. It’s hard to look at, not because the sprawling slums of Manila…

Miss Granny

Dir. Dong-hyuk Hwang & Hwang Dong-hyuk

The fantasy of being able to have the body you once had is impossible in real life, but we can…

Days of Being Wild

Dir. Kar-Wai Wong & Wong Kar-wai

Forlorn longing envelops Days of Being Wild, where the act of dreaming is as valuable as its actual fulfillment. “You’ll…

Manila in the Claws of Light

Dir. Lino Brocka

Filmed in 1970s Manila, at the height of dictatorship in the Philippines, Manila in the Claws of Night is above…

Ilo Ilo

Dir. Anthony Chen

At the height of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, a small Singaporean family scrambles to keep their middle-class status afloat.…

Scarecrow

Dir. Zig Madamba Dulay

Made with the modesty and authenticity of modern indie cinema from the Philippine regions, Scarecrow (or in the Ilocano language,…

The Woman Who Left

Dir. Lav Diaz

Based on the short story “God Sees the Truth, But Waits” by Leo Tolstoy, The Woman Who Left is a…

Sunday Beauty Queen

Dir. Baby Ruth Villarama

Sunday Beauty Queen starts with a basic but startling fact: there are about 190,000 Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong.…

Lola Igna

Dir. Eduardo Roy Jr.

Unlike in many films about old people on the doorstep of death, the titular grandmother in this movie is excited…

The Bacchus Lady

Dir. E J-yong & Je-yong Lee

Before her triumphant Oscar win for her role in Minari, Youn Yuh-jung starred in The Bacchus Lady as So-young, an…