Silip: Daughters of Eve – Mondo Macabro (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: Philippines, 1986
Director: Elwood Perez
Writer: Ricardo Lee
Cast: Maria Isabel Lopez, Sarsi Emmanuelle, Mark Joseph, Myra Manibog, Pia Zabale

Release Date: August 10th, 2021
Approximate Running Time: 125 Minutes 47 seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVCC
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Stereo Tagalog, DTS-HD Stereo English
Subtitles: English
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $29.95

"In the tradition of Japanese “Pink” cinema comes this shocking, violent and sex-filled movie that caused a sensation when it was screened at the Chicago Film Festival. The film stars former Miss Philippines, the stunning Maria Isabel Lopez, in her most revealing role ever. It’s an eye-opening example of raw and savage film making from one of its country’s most innovative directors." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5

Here’s the information provided about this release's transfer, "Digitally restored from film negative; fully uncut."

Silip: Daughters of Eve comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 46.1 GB

Feature: 35.6 GB

The source used for this transfer looks great. Colors and flesh tones look correct, and image clarity and black levels look strong throughout.

Audio: 4.25/5 (DTS-HD Stereo Tagalog), 4/5 (DTS-HD Stereo English)

This release comes with two audio options, a DTS-HD stereo mix in Tagalog and a DTS-HD stereo mix in English. Both audio mixes are in great shape, dialog comes through clearly and everything sounds balanced. Range wise the Tagalog language track sounds fuller than the English language track. Included with this release are removable English subtitles for the Tagalog language track.

Extras:

Extras for this release include a Mondo Macabro preview reel, an archival interview with art director Alfredo Santos (8 minutes 2 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an archival interview with actress Maria Isabel Lopez (14 minutes 4 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles), an interview with actress Sarsi Emmanuelle titled Memories of a Survivor (46 minutes 5 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Tagalog with removable English subtitles), an archival interview with director Elwood Perez (18 minutes 46 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo English, no subtitles) and an audio commentary with Andrew Leavold, director The Search for Weng Weng.

Summary:

Silip: Daughters of Eve is not your typical sexploitation film. Though there’s copious amounts of naked flesh in Silip: Daughters of Eve. The opening moments of Silip: Daughters of Eve is a gruesome sequence where a buffalo that's slaughtered by a hunter named Simon. It should-be noted that this killing was for survival (food supply) and the killing plays a role in the story at hand. Also, what makes this scene so disturbing is the hunters primal intensity.

Besides the onscreen slaughtering of a buffalo, Silip: Daughters of Eve does not shy away from other in-your-face content. All the men characters dominate the women and those who are not submissive get taken by force. Needless to say, most of the sex scenes are not erotic.

Themes explored in Silip: Daughters of Eve include adultery, deceit, desire, envy, jealousy, obsession and superstition. With the Simon character being the focal point of most of these themes. All of the women in the village lust after Simon who uses his prowess as the village's alpha male. With his actions ultimately leading to a mob rule situation where innocent people get condemned without a trial.  

Silip: Daughters of Eve’s most powerful moment is the scene where Tonya, the protagonist, gives herself body and soul over to Simon. At two hours plus, Silip: Daughters of Eve’s running time does make for a long journey that has a few lulls along the way. Fortunately, these moments are few and the positives far outweigh any of the negatives. Ultimately, Silip: Daughters of Eve is an extraordinary cinema experience that perfectly captures carnal lust.

Silip: Daughters of Eve makes its way to Blu-ray via an exceptional release from Mondo Macabro that comes with a solid audio/video presentation, the wealth of insightful extra content from their 2007 DVD release and a pair of new extras, highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer