'Firefly' is a movie journey full of longing

Fireflies were common in my urban childhood in the 1970s, sparks of delight on dark nights after rainy days. Today they’re one of the planet’s endangered creatures, threatened by habitat loss and all kinds of pollution, including the bright lights that shoo fireflies away in search of elusive darkness, that old friend of their bioluminescence.

To be enchanted by fireflies these days you need to travel to faraway, pristine places.

That is what the child Tonton does in the new movie “Firefly,” a charming fable that makes you recall the last time you felt loss, nostalgia, and longing.

After a family tragedy, Tonton goes on a quest to the distant Ticao Island where, according to a bedtime story his mother (played by the sweetly mature Alessandra de Rossi) told him, fireflies abound in a magical cave. Along the way, he picks up a motley crew of adult companions, strangers grappling with loss and a quest for redemption.

In the first half of the film, Tonton’s idyllic life with mom is set in a Manila slum, its congestion serving later as a foil for the wide spaces of his countryside journey.

But in the deft hands of director Zig Dulay and cinematographer Neil Daza, Manila’s underbelly can also harbor the wonder of a shanty with an ocean view. One is reminded that no matter how much of an open wound this mega city is, the sea is always near enough to be a balm.

The film opens in familiar gritty alleyways, but soon shifts to what one realizes is an extended, affectionate shout-out to our much lamented urban habitat. A sweeping aerial shot reveals the startling grandness of the Metropolitan Theater. A lingering panorama of a humble family hearth against a luminous Manila Bay at dusk exudes the tenderness of the mother-and-son bonding inside.

Maybe Manila is not hopeless after all. This exquisitely produced film makes one imagine that a child’s wishes can come true, redemption is possible in all its forms, and fireflies can appear again not just in fables but in our lives.

(“Firefly” features an all-star cast that includes Dingdong Dantes as the adult Tonton, Epi Quizon as the grizzled traveling companion with a secret, and Cherry Pie Picache as Tonton’s protective tita. It was produced by GMA Public Affairs and GMA Pictures.) —JCB/VBL/KG, GMA Integrated News