Bunso (The Youngest) Movie Review

Bunso is a documentary film about three boys struggling to survive in an overpopulated jail somewhere in Cebu. The film showed three different stories of minor offenders named Tony short for Anthony, Diosel, and Bunso. This is a very heartbreaking film that can make you see the reality.

When I was still eleven, I wake up and eat my breakfast prepared by my mother after that I play and sleep and play again. I complain because my clothes aren’t new I always demand for a new clothes to wear.

When I’m sick, mom will give everything that can make me feel better, she will rush me to the clinic with her worried face. I felt bad, really bad I don’t have the right to complain because I am living the life that those kids are dreaming of. Anthony, a thirteen year old boy who has to find his own food for him and his siblings. No one will bother to give him money or food so he decided to just steal money/ jewerleys from the rich people.

Bunso, the neglected child that begs for the love of his family. Of all the three children, I feel worst for Bunso because his mother looks like she doesn’t even love him. His mother always promise to set him free from the jail but she never really cared to get him. At the young age he has to suffer all the hard things just to survive he should be studying for his future but he is at the jail living with the criminals unsure if he will be able to eat tomorrow.

I can feel the pain, need, and anger of Bunso with his mother. He is in pain because he is living a hard life in the jail and is longing for his mother’s love and angry because of the way his mother have treated him. He is very angry and in pain that he said “You call yourself a mother?” I also remember he said that on his past birthday he didn’t even get a single penny from his mother. I am very sad because this hardship shouldn’t be experienced by a minor child I mean no one should experience this kind of suffering.

For me the main problem of the film is their parents. If you can’t even provide your children’s needs then you don’t deserve one! One prisoner said “Why do you have to born if you’ll just live like this and grow up criminals?” I strongly agree from what he said. Second one is education if only their parents have an education background they wouldn’t have to face hardships like this because they can have a decent job and provide their children’s needs.

Children doesn’t fit in the prison. They shouldn’t be there living in a filthy room with over 157 prisoners. They are not safe there. Different viruses are in the air and they can be sick anytime. There are no proper medicine to relieve their pain like Diosel gas shouldn’t be used as a medicine for a stomach ache. When it’s raining they can’t sleep because the roof isn’t good. They drink water that’s not even clean. Food supply isn’t sufficient for them and they have to share it with their group.

I realized that my life is very good and learned that I should be happy and contented because there are other people that can smile when they are living a miserable life. I shouldn’t be irritated to street children because they have different stories and hardships. And also I felt sad that the two children was born and died poor. They didn’t get a chance to enjoy their lives because they died at a young age. This is the bitter and sad reality that we are facing in the Philippines I just hope that God would lead them and doesn’t let them do immoral things.