Quezon’s Game is a historical drama (based on a true story) which premiered in 2018. The title refers to Manuel Quezon who was President of the Philippines 1935-1944.
The purpose of this film is to remember a significant chapter of world history which is not well-known in the general public; neither in the Philippines nor in the rest of the world.
President Quezon was concerned about the situation of the Jews in Germany (since 1933) and in Austria (since 1938). For Jews in these countries, life was becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous.
Many Jews wanted to leave Germany and Austria. The Nazi government was often willing to let them go on one condition: they were not allowed to take any valuables with them. When leaving Germany or Austria, they would be poor.
Which government wanted to accept refugees who were poor and Jewish? No government! Many Jews wanted to leave Germany or Austria, but they had nowhere to go, because no other country was willing to allow them to enter. They had to stay where they were. And time was running out for them.
In this situation, President Quezon said something like this:
“Germany wants to get rid of them. But nobody wants to take them. This is not fair. Why don’t they come here?”
When he told other people about his idea, some of them would object to his idea, saying: “We don’t want Jewish refugees to come here.”
Quezon would answer them by saying something like this:
“They are not refugees! They are doctors and teachers. They are engineers and architects. We need them here. They can help us build a modern state.”
In this film, we learn how President Quezon was able to help more than 1,200 Jews escape the holocaust in Europe.
How more than 1,200 Jews were allowed to leave Germany and Austria and come to the Philippines.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Matthew E. Rosen
** Writers: Janice E. Perez and Dean Rosen
** Run time: 127 minutes
The cast includes the following:
** Raymond Bagatsing as Manuel Quezon (1878-1944) – President of the Philippines 1935-1944
** Rachel Alejandro as Aurora Quezon (1888-1949) – Quezon’s wife
** Kate Alejandrino as Baby Quezon – daughter of Mauel and Aurora
** David Bianco as Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969) – military adviser in the Philippines – supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe during World War Two – president of the US 1953-1961
** Jennifer Blair-Bianco as Mamie Eisenhower (1896-1979) – Eisenhower’s wife
** Billie Ray Gallion as Alex Frieder (1893-1968) – American businessman
** Tony Ahn as Herbert Frieder (1906-1974) – American businessman
** James Paoleli as Paul McNutt (1891-1955) – US High Commissioner in the Philippines 1937-1939
** Bernard Larritero as Narciso Ramos (1900-1986) – Filipino politician
** Natalia Moon as Vera – a singer
** Hamilot McLeodin as Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) – military advisor in the Philippines – supreme commander of the allied forces in the Far East during World War Two – supreme commander of the US forces during the Korean war 1950-1951
** Audie Gemora as Sergio Osmeña (1878-1961) – Vice-President 1935-1944 – President 1944-1946
** Paul Holme as Jonathan Cartwright – US Consul General in the Philippines (this is a fictional character)
** Jerry Domingo as Ho Feng-Shan (1901-1997) – Chinese diplomat – Consul General in Vienna 1938-1940
THE BACKGROUND
The Philippines was a Spanish colony for centuries. But in 1898, Spanish colonialism came to an end. The US entered and turned the Philippines into an American colony, even though the US is officially opposed to colonialism.
In 1935, the American colony was declared a commonwealth. This was a step towards independence. The transition period was planned to last ten years. Independence was planned for 1945. But World War Two and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in December 1941 (only ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor) made it impossible to follow the original plan.
The Japanese occupation forces were defeated in 1945. The Philippines was declared an independent country in 1946.
Quezon was president in the Philippines from 1935 to 1941. Shortly after the Japanese invasion of December 1941, he was evacuated together with Douglas MacArthur and other Americans. First to Australia and later to the US.
Quezon was president in exile from 1942 to his death in 1944. Sadly, he did not live to see the day when his country gained independence.
THE PLOT
The movie opens and closes with a scene set in the US in 1944. Quezon and his wife Aurora are watching a newsreel about the war in Europe and the discovery of German death camps.
The main story, which is placed between the prologue and the epilogue, takes place in the Philippines. It begins in 1938 and ends in 1941.
Quezon likes to drink whisky, to smoke cigars and to play poker. Actually, he should neither drink whisky nor smoke cigars, because his health is not good.
He suffers from tuberculosis. At that time, there was no effective way to help a patient who had this disease. But he does not want the disease to slow him down.
He wants to lead his country towards full independence. He cannot allow his poor health to hold him back.
He plays poker with some friends who belong to the upper levels of society in the Philippines:
** Colonel Dwight Eisenhower who will later be promoted to supreme commander of the allied forces in Europe and later become president of the US
** Paul McNutt who is the High Commissioner of the Philippines
** Alex Frieder, an American businessman who lives and works in the Philippines. The Frieder family owns a prosperous cigar manufacturing company. From their factory in Manila, they export cigars all over the world
Alex and his brother Herbert are not only Americans, they are also Jewish and they have Jewish contacts in Europe. When the main story begins, they receive a telegram with a message from a Chinese diplomat who is stationed in Vienna: Ho Feng-Shan.
The Frieder brothers are highly concerned about the situation in Germany and Austria. They bring their concern to Quezon who understands what they are talking about. He agrees with them. He says something should be done. Who will do something?
He says something like this:
“I want to do something. When every other government says no and refuses to help, I will not do the same. I will try to help as much as I can.”
He is the president, but his power is limited. The Philippines is still an American commonwealth. Not yet an independent country. The US is in charge of foreign policy, including immigration.
Quezon shares his concern with his friends at the poker table. They agree with him. They want to help, but they have the same problem as Quezon. Their power is limited by the US government in Washington, DC, specifically the State Department which is in control of immigration.
The State Department decides how many visas the Filipino government can issue. Since the State department is dominated by people who do not want to help Jews in Europe, the number of visas is kept as low as possible.
Quezon is surprised and disappointed to learn that the country which offers the strongest opposition to his rescue plan is not Nazi Germany but the United States!
Many European Jews apply for a visa to the Philippines. Soon the Frieder brothers have a list with 10,000 names. Can they get visas for all of them?
After much debate back and forth, the State Department permits Quezon and his American supporters to issue 1,000 visas.
From the previous year, they had 200 visas which had not been used. When the 200 visas are added to the 1,000 visas, the total number of visas is 1,200.
Sometimes a visa is for more than one person. Sometimes a visa can cover a whole family. This is why 1,200 visas cover more than 1,200 persons.
As for the future, the State department says that Quezon is allowed to issue 1,000 visas per year. At this rate, it will take ten years to grant visas to all the people on the list. But the Jews do not have ten years. Because of the war in Europe and because of the Japanese invasion in December 1941, the project is cancelled.
But 1,200 visas are granted and more than 1,200 persons are allowed to leave Germany and Austria and travel to the Philippines.
The plan to rescue European Jews is developed while Quezon and his friends are playing a game of poker. This is probably the reason why the director chose the title Quezon’s Game.
REVIEWS AND RATINGS
What do reviewers say about this historical drama? Here are the results of three review aggregators:
36 percent = Meta
45 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
93 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
71 percent = IMDb
There are 14 user reviews on IMDb. Most of these reviews offer ratings which are higher than the average rating. Here are some examples of user reviews and headlines:
100 = Another Filipino masterpiece
100 = An eye-opening movie experience
100 = Touching
100 = The title song brought me to tears
100 = Incredible film, based on a true story
90 = Great story line, compelling actors
90 = Historical helping hand
90 = A must watch film for Filipinos
90 = Excellent
70 = Showcases Filipino virtue of hospitality
On Amazon there are at the moment 104 global ratings and 9 global reviews. The average rating is 4.7 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
As you can see, the ratings are mixed. The critics hate this film. They offer low ratings: on Rotten Tomatoes 45 percent; on Meta 36 percent. But the audience does not agree with the critics. The audience loves this film.
On Rotten Tomatoes the audience offers 93 percent. On Amazon the rating is 94 percent. The user reviews posted on IMDb offer ratings which are higher than the average rating.
What is going on here? Why is the difference between the professional critics and the general audience so sharp?
I think the critics have two major reasons when they offer low ratings:
# 1. This movie has a low budget.
# 2. This movie has no famous movie stars from the US.
Both points are true. This movie has a low budget. This movie has no famous movie stars from the US. But is this enough to declare the movie a failure?
I do not think so. In this case, the critics are wrong. In this case, I have to side with the audience. This movie does not deserve the low ratings offered by the critics.
What is so good about it? Why does the audience like it? I think there are two reasons to offer a positive rating:
# 1. It is based on a true story which deserves to be told.
# 2. It is often highly emotional.
Having said that, I must add that it is not perfect. I have to mention three flaws:
The first flaw. In the beginning of the movie, there is a brief scene where the Chinese diplomat Ho Feng-Shan appears. The scene is quite dramatic but not really connected with the main story.
Who is the Chinese diplomat? There is no information. What is the secret message which he delivers to someone in Vienna? We are not told. And after this brief scene Feng-Shan never appears again.
He is seen once in Vienna. His name is mentioned once by the Frieder brothers in the Philippines and then he disappears. If we want to find out who he is, we will have to use Google!
The second flaw. In one scene, set in 1939, we are told that president Roosevelt wants to run for a third term in 1940, even if it means that he will have to change the constitution. A similar statement is made by someone else in another scene.
This statement is not true. It is based on a misunderstanding. The original US constitution does not set any limit on how many terms a US president can serve. There is a tradition which goes back to George Washington. The tradition says a president cannot serve more than two terms, because this is what Washington did. But a tradition is not a law.
Roosevelt was elected in 1932 and won a second term in 1936. He won a third term in 1940 and a fourth term in 1944. Since he died in 1945, he was not able to finish the fourth term. He was succeeded by his vice-president Truman who won the election of 1948.
Roosevelt and Truman were both Democrats. Between them, they served five terms, a period of 20 years. The Republicans were deeply frustrated by this. They could not accept to be excluded from the highest office for so many years. They wanted to make sure that something like this could never happen again.
When the war was over, they began a campaign for an amendment to the constitution. The proposal sets a limit of two terms for a president. The campaign was successful. The proposal was adopted by Congress in 1947 and ratified by the necessary number of states in 1951.
But when Roosevelt was alive, there was no twenty-second amendment to the constitution. He could run for office as long as he was alive. There was no need to change the constitution. Besides, the president cannot change the constitution on his own.
It seems the script writers heard or read something about term limits for presidents, but they did not know the whole story and they never bothered to use Google to discover the truth about this issue.
The third flaw. The actor who plays Quezon is too young.
Quezon was born in 1878. In 1938 he was 60 years old. Raymond Bagatsing who plays Quezon was born in 1967. In 2017, when the movie was filmed, he was 50 years old. In other words: he is ten years younger than the man he is supposed to portray.
Look at pictures of the real Quezon from the 1930s or 1940s. Compare with the actor. It is obvious that the actor in the movie is much younger than Quezon was during the years 1938-1941.
CONCLUSION
There are some flaws in this movie, but I will regard them as minor. They will not affect my general view of the movie.
I understand the numerous positive reviews posted by the general audience. The verdict of the critics is too harsh.
I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars (100 percent)
PS # 1. An Open Door: Jewish Rescue in the Philippines is a documentary film which premiered in 2013. Details:
** Writer and director: Noel Izon
** Narrator: Live Schreiber
** Run time: 56 minutes
PS # 2. America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference is a documentary film which premiered on US television (PBS) in 1994. It is an episode of the long-running program American Experience. Details:
** Writer and director: Martin Ostrow.
** Narrator: Hal Linden
** Run time: 90 minutes
PS # 3. The following articles are available online:
** Wayne Chang, “Ho Feng-Shan: The ‘Chinese Schindler’ who saved thousands of Jews,” CNN World, 24 July 2015
** David B. Gordon, “A tale of two diplomats: Ho Feng-Shan, Sugihara Chiune, and Jewish efforts to flee Nazi Europe,” Education about Asia, vol. 20 no. 2 (2015)
** Yvette Alt Miller, “Holocaust rescue in the Philippines,” Aish, 26 January 2020
** Rich Tenorio, “Little known Philippines WWII rescue of Jews was capped by US interference,” The Times of Israel, 20 February 2020
PS # 4. Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness is a documentary film which premiered in the year 2000. In 2005 it was shown on US television (PBS).
This film is a biopic of the Japanese diplomat Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara who has been described as the Japanese Schindler.
REFERENCE
Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror by Frank Ephraim (2003)
*****
Raymond Bagatsing
who plays Manuel Quezon in the movie
*****
Manuel Quezon
(1878-1944)
President of the Philippines 1935-1944
*****
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