Galimgim
ABSTRACT
“Galimgim” tells the story of a young couple, Gabriel and Agnes, and how their individual choices alter both their lives and relationship with each other.
In the past, Gabriel can be considered as a live-in-the-moment type of person. Though smarter than other boys his age, Gabriel shows no interest in school and tends to dismiss thoughts about serious future matters. He always asks his girlfriend, Agnes, to elope with him. Agnes, on the other hand, is a practical type of person. Working and studying hard in hopes of being able to go off somewhere better and be successful someday, Agnes always rejects Gabriel’s proposal to elope. Their lives take a huge turn one night, when Gabriel makes a choice of being part of a hold-up where he accidentally kills someone.
At present, Gabriel is a hitman who has grown more reserved and detached through the years. Nostalgic about his past, Gabriel longs and searches for Agnes, whom he hasn’t met with since that night he first killed someone.
The film functions as a way of presenting how choices made by people have effects in their life bigger and irreversible than they can immediately realize. Using flash forwards and flashbacks, this film focuses on choices and memory, showing that past choices and events can only be remembered and not changed. This film also features nostalgia as one of its main themes. With a continuous yearning for the past that can no longer be achieved, people end up settling for second best.
Santiago, C.S. (2011) Galimgim, Unpublished Undergraduate Thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication.
Subject Index: Nostalgia, Choices, Hong Kong film genre