Written by Victor Niccolo Marquez

Released in 1999, that year’s Metro Manila Film Festival’s Best Picture winner. Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s Muro Ami grossed over P10 million on opening day. Right at the turn of the century, it cemented itself as one of the most iconic Filipino films of the decade.

Nearly 27 years after its release, the cast and crew were able to reunite once more through the film’s long-awaited restoration, spearheaded by GMA Pictures. The film’s leads: Cesar Montano, Jhong Hilaro, Pen Medina, and Amy Austria, along with Central Digital Lab’s Manet Dayrit and screenwriter Ricky Lee, were present last May 19, at SM Cinemas in an advanced special screening of Muro Ami, reintroduced to a new generation of moviegoers in restored and remastered form.

The film serves as a spiritual successor to Oca, directed by the late Lino Brocka as part of the 1990 UNICEF anthology film, How are the Kids? The short film approached a more realist approach, focusing on the children whose lives were shaped and destroyed by the harsh realities of the practice. This became the foundation for Ricky Lee’s screenplay, immersing himself alongside Brocka for more than two months with the fishermen of Cebu and Bohol, better understanding the communities affected by the practice.

Muro Ami examines the dangerous practice through the eyes of Fredo (Cesar Montano)), a brutal “maestro” who employs children as divers. Among the men aboard the ship, he trusts only two people, his father (Pen Medina), and Botong (Jhong Hilaro). Together, they sail just before Christmas, in hopes of bringing a lively noche buena to their families.

The 2026 restoration brought out the film’s atmosphere in ways that amplified its horrors. The natural blues of the sea, the colourful coral reefs that are slowly crushed, the rust and decay of the fated MV Aurora, the claustrophobic and horrid conditions endured by the children exploited in the practice of muro-ami, it slowly and brutally brings out the smell of seawater, the cramped, sweaty sleeping quarters, and the sickening scent of buckets and buckets of frozen fish.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

The men on the ship are driven by trauma, ego, survival, and impossible dreams. Fredo, regarded by the crew as an almost immortal, messiah-like figure, hides a mortal wound, one that physically and psychologically weakens him, yet also drives him to further fight the tide. He aspires to have a new ship of his own, a new start in a world where illegal fishing still traps communities in cycles of desperation, far away from the ship that he’s named his deceased wife after.

Botong, meanwhile, longs for a life beyond the waters of Bohol. He dreams of escaping to the “golden sands” of Saudi, seeking stability and dignity away from the stench of fish and the sea. Yet his future is restricted by Fredo’s ambitions, both a companion and a prisoner to his dreams.

The stakes of their travel, during Christmas, intensifies the desperation, as every dive becomes a gamble between life and death. They live and die by saltwater.

Muro Ami makes best of the complex portrayal of human nature, particularly between Fredo and Botong. Neither character is fully heroic nor evil, both are gray representations of how marginalized people are shaped, pushed by systemic poverty. One driven to escape the horrific trauma, one pushed too far 

However, in contrast to its predecessor Oca, Muro Ami focuses more on the masters of the ship, although considerable screen time was allotted to the exploited young divers, the film’s advocacy sometimes feels unresolved, as the children’s fate never fully solidifies. Yet perhaps this is intentional, as it is not far-fetched to think that the practice still remains today, that even though muro-ami was outlawed in 1986, the systems that force impoverished communities toward increasingly desperate measures remain deeply entrenched in society.

The remastered release was able to reach its audience, as both representatives of 24 Frames – CIIT Film Organization, Nico and Aldrine, were first time watchers of Muro Ami. It is a must-watch for the new generation of students and filmmakers, as it not only showcased innovation through storytelling and its underwater cinematography, but also for its commitment to community immersion, and the power of cinema to tell the stories of the marginalized.