The Missing – Review | Fantasia (4/5)

THE MISSING (2023) is a Filipino Animation Sci-Fi Thriller Drama genre hybrid (org. title: Iti mapukpukaw). Heartbreak, fear, and hope in one. It is amazing! Screening at Fantasia 2024. Read our full The Missing movie review here!

THE MISSING (2023) is a Filipino Animation movie screening at Fantasia 2024. It’s a movie about an animator who has used his creativity to deal with past trauma.

Also, he is mute and shown without his mouth. This shouldn’t lead to any more questions as it’s symbolic and not that he literally has no mouth. However, it is very efficient. So is the runtime of 90 minutes, which feels spot-on.

Continue reading our The Missing movie review below.

A mouthless man

As mentioned initially, the main character Eric (Carlo Aquino) is mute but leads a fairly typical life as an animator. Despite having no mouth, he is holding a well-paying job and seems well-liked by colleagues and by his boss.

Also, he has feelings for his co-worker Carlo (Gio Gahol), who seems very interested in him as well. To Carlo, it doesn’t matter that Eric has no mouth (again, this is symbolic of him being mute) and he communicates with him anyway.

Things go from looking up for Eric to taking a deep dive into trauma, when his mother, Rosalinda (Dolly De Leon), asks him to check up on his missing uncle. He does and finds the uncle dead, which unlocks painful memories.

Digital Rotoscope Animation

In The Missing, Eric starts out having no mouth, but more parts of his body will go missing as he is confronted with the childhood memory that robbed him of his voice; An alien abducted him and now returns to finish the “transference of power”.

This is both scary and heartbreaking, as it becomes increasingly clear just what happened. We see Eric’s memories of the alien abduction, but the real events creep in via audio and other details.

Things you can show in a creative way through animation, but it’s still brutal and heartbreaking. Using digital rotoscope animation/rotoscoping (creating animated sequences by tracing over live-action footage frame by frame) makes it hyper-realistic while still being animated.

This is a queer and surrealist hybrid of romance, drama, thriller, and sci-fi but also simply a story of dealing with your past to embrace your future.

Watch The Missing when you get the chance

The Missing comes from writer-director Carl Joseph Papa, and this is his third feature-length animated film. His first animated feature film was Manang Biring (2015) which I definitely need to search out now.

This new Filipino Sci-Fi Thriller Drama genre hybrid (org. title: Iti mapukpukaw) was even better than I ever imagined. While it is rather heavy on symbolism, it’s in an animated way that also explains everything before it’s over.

It’s been screening at various film festivals worldwide with success. In fact, it was even the Official submission of the Philippines for the “Best International Feature Film” category of the 96th Academy Awards in 2024.

The Missing (org. title: Iti mapukpukaw) is reviewed as part of our Fantasia 2024 coverage.

Details

Director: Carl Joseph Papa
Writer: Carl Joseph Papa
Stars: Carlo Aquino, Gio Gahol, Dolly De Leon, Christela Marquez