If you haven’t seen the new Spiderman film, then what are you doing still sitting on your arse reading this? Not only is it filled with surprises like certain references to previous films in the franchise, but there was a moment of pride as a Filipino in one of the scenes. If you do not want to be spoiled, please do not continue reading.
Nothing is more exciting than to hear your mother tongue or the language you’re familiar with spoken on the big screen - for Chinese-Americans, it was Mandarin in the highly anticipated “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”. For us Filipinos, it may not be the bad-ass superhero with the superpower able to break the Dark Gate to the Dweller’s world, but it’s just our ordinary lola ( or grandmother in Tagalog).
When Andrew Garfield steps in through the scratchy gold circle of the interdimensional gateway created by the Sling Ring Ned stole from Doctor Strange, the theatre erupted in applause and gasps as the Spiderman from the other dimension revealed themself. During an effort to convince MJ and Ned (played by Zendaya and Jacob Batalon) that he’s the other-dimension Spiderman, Ned’s lola angrily stepped in and tells them to clean up the mess. “Maglinis kayo yung basura!” she’d complain, flapping her hand like the mother telling off her child.
I was shocked and ecstatic to hear my language. My sister and I were laughing and jumping on our seats with excitement, realizing we were probably the only ones happy to see the representation and understand her speaking. There was that common ground I felt, not just through Tom Holland’s portrayal of Spiderman with his realistic Gen-Z vibes of being a 21st-century high school senior in New York City, but also through this sweet old lady (who is actually played by Mary Rivera).
I typically don’t feel some kind of connections to Marvel movies, since they mostly consist of white heroes - they are slowly progressing in building diversity by featuring a Black lead in “Black Panther” and an all Asian cast in “Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings”, as well as including sign-language in the new “Eternals” movie. But I feel it’s very rare to see Filipino representation in Western media. Disney’s “Raya and the Last Dragon” was a concoction of South-East Asian cultures to create such a unique and empowering story, and perhaps this was the movie I felt most parallel with. But there is still little to no representation for the Filipino community.
I applaud the writers of “Spiderman: No Way Home” for the inclusivity, especially as Queens, New York has a very high Filipino population (roughly 64% Filipino immigrants living in Queens) with Little Manila located in Woodside. It’s great to see more and more diversity in 21st-century films, with writers making an effort to be more thoughtful and inclusive; let’s not exclude Zendaya as the extremely smart, ambitious, and loveably sarcastic MJ (I reminisced Rocky Blue from old-school classic “Shake it Up” minus the 2010s dances). In comparison to the previous Spiderman movies, it’s a nice change to see a wider variety of ethnicities, languages, and skin colors.
I’m excited for what will happen next in this storyline - Marvel movies are always so highly anticipated with their intricate and complex storylines. I hope they do feature more of lola and feature more Filipino actors.
What did you think of the new Spiderman film?