Viva Viva Escolta

Divorced salaryman Yoji has just buried his mother in Tokyo. With few meaningful relationships left, he comes to grips with the realization that he has nothing to live for. A chance encounter with Minerva, a Filipina migrant worker who appears to sense his sadness, urges him to see his situation in a new way. A former nightclub entertainer, Minerva now works as a caregiver to provide for her only child in the Philippines. When Yoji discovers the decomposing corpse of his neighbor, an old man whose name he does not know, the death is ruled a kodokushi, or the lonely death. Unwilling to meet the same fate, Yoji throws caution to the wind to follow Minerva to Manila, the capital city of the Philippines.

After a long absence, a young woman returns to the home of her grandmother near the dying Pasig River. Across the generations, they discover common depths of loss and loneliness that, while shared, continue to flow as dark undercurrents in their lives. This numbing realization provides no comfort, and salt water bleeds into the black water of the Pasig.

Since the pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, Metro Manila has been subjected to intermittent lockdowns with demeaning punishments. Despite the danger, Sandra, a single middle-aged reporter living there, continues to search for stories, even after waking up with symptoms one day. As a public service, she turns the camera on herself for the first time in her career, documenting her condition and recording the sights and sounds of the afflicted city on her way to the hospital. Unfortunately, every place she reaches has a long queue. With her remaining strength, she brings herself to Quiapo Church, the site frequented by many pilgrims in dire situations.

Weaving recollections and letters from various migrant workers around the story of a Philippine man searching for his missing wife in a Middle Eastern city. Christopher Gozum creates an intimate, evocative and hypnotic mixture of documentary, poetry and fiction.

Kodokushi or the lonely death has become common in Japan. The director confronts the silence on the subject through encounters with a man who cleans the apartments of those who die alone, a photographer who documents the aftermath of kodokushi, an elderly woman fiercely protective of her independence even in old age, and an artist who sings to pierce the stillness around her. By examining the quiet and lonely death, this film becomes a meditation on life itself.