Batang West Side

New restoration!

Investigating the murder of the young Hanzel, Jersey City police detective Juan Mijares plumbs the depths of the Filipino youth gangs who trade in shabu (crystal meth). Talking to Hanzel’s mother, remarried to an American; his grandfather, an ex-soldier; and his American-born girlfriend, bigger questions emerge: what dark history has pushed so many Filipinos to migrate to this wintry land? Lav Diaz’s sole film shot in the U.S. does not shy away from the power of cumulative answers, revealed intricately over the course of an epic runtime and the Dostoyevskian hallmarks of the Filipino master.