Raine J.

11/2019 Being a Filipino, and that this film has absolutely no subtitles whatsoever, I had to be content with the actual Tagalog dialogues and the few words I understand through context and the similarities of the language to the Filipino dialect -- Tagalog, which is heavily influenced due to Spanish colonialism. SPOILER ALERT!! The app the mother uses is absolute garbage. The actual things Ate Luz is saying is not being translated correctly thus the misunderstanding of the mother, though during the first time she uses the app, the last 'translation' with the mother being an animal who was so stupid she can't even speak Filipino, was a bad app translation but was the first time it was close enough to what was actually being said. During that scene, I can honestly say that I think 'Mama Luz' has no intention of doing anything bad but it all escalated due to the mother being paranoid and misunderstanding how caring the nanny has become and so, that's when 'Mama Luz' and Martin have that understanding that the mother is a 'masamang babae' or a bad woman. It's probably also because I think Martin has started comparing 'Mama Luz' and her mother in the ways they've been raising him. And then Luz's son came into the home as well and it started getting worse. I think the foreshadowing in the movie were the words between Luz and Martin "Masamang babae, walang kaluluwa." which meant 'Bad woman, she has no soul'. Also, that part where Luz's son says 'Bakit siya laging dramatika?' translated as "Why's she always dramatic?" and Luz replies with "Kase babaeng walang kaluluwa, diablo ang nasa isip" meaning "A woman with no soul has only the devil in her mind". I think that combined with how Martin was treated before Luz came into the picture, with how Luz and his son is being treated as well as the fact that the mother was pregnant. The consensus was that was not a good place to raise a baby. So they took it. The end. That was my understanding without subtitles by the way. EDIT(7/13/2020): I found subtitles. I take it back, LUZ DEFINITELY KNOWS AND DID IT. Aiyah. She's a mambabarang. Sort of a witch, who deals with herbs and chants and insects. And maybe she definitely came to help Martin in order to have him be her helper. Just like her son probably is. There's a lot of stuff in this movie which is hard to understand without knowing Filipino culture, or rather cultures of a similar kind. Wow, she even had Martin practice cutting open stomachs of pregnant puppies or even animals just so they can take her baby. And hmmm.. eating of the placenta even. So there's a filipino mythological creature, the tiktik or aswang who likes to eat the babies in the womb or some say the placenta of the mothers in order to lengthen one's life or something like that. Kinda interesting to see Luz could be both an aswang and a mambabarang. There's also that scene of her feeding Martin her breastmilk. Like can she even have that at her age? It could literally and symbolically be akin to her weaning him, for him to be feel closer and be more accepting. This is actually an interesting film in the sense that even in modernity, there can still be wisps and events drawn from the good old times when technology wasn't even thought of yet and folklore and hearsays and legends were happening. In this case, sort of like witchcraft and folk medicine.