100

Philippines, 2008, 105 minutes, Colour.
Mylene Dizon, Eugene Domingo.
Directed by Chris Martinez.

100 is a film about a middle-aged woman who discovers she has a terminal illness and is preparing to die. She gets post-it stickers and makes a list of one hundred things she wants to do before she dies. Initially, she is fairly self-centred, wanting to compensate for the things that she had missed out on in terms of material goods. When she is challenged by her mother who discovers the illness, she has something of a change of heart and goes to more outreach kinds of things. Ultimately, having searched for a man that she loved in the past, broken off her present relationship with a married man, shares a great deal with her closest friend, she finally prepares to die and receives the anointing and last communion from her friend whom she now realises is a priest. Her last anointing was the ninety-ninth thing to do. One hundredth is her death.

The film is very western in its look and style. It portrays the middle class, even wealthy Filipinos, not the people who live ordinary lives in the cities and countryside. To that extent, it has a touch of the soap opera.

However, the film is ultimately quite moving, Mylene Dizon is very good as the dying woman. The film is framed by sequences of the woman walking in remote areas, cliffs and sea – which, ultimately, are seen to be Heaven.

There was a similar theme in the Hollywood film, A Little Bit of Heaven, starring Kate Hudson and Gael Garcia Bernal.


1. The title, things to do before death? The progressive change in Joyce? Her achievement? The last ticket?

2. The Filipino setting, characters, issues?

3. The glossy production style, western?

4. The affluent society, workplaces, home, clothes, trips abroad, food?

5. The first half and the introduction to Joyce, her work, finishing it, at home, her close friendship with Ruby? Sharing with her? Confiding in her and not the others? Her illness? The doctors? Age, experience, the affair, the breaking of the affair?

6. The opening, the walk by the lake, Joyce alone – the end, her achievement, walking and the images of Heaven?

7. The list, the dramatic way of dealing with her dying, the apartment and fixing it, possessions, packing, giving things away, going into the streets to the poor, experiencing her senses, the scene in the rain, her hair, nails, kiss of the stranger? The holiday to Hong Kong?

8. Ruby as a friend, listening, sharing, the sense of fun, her relationship with her husband?

9. The search for Emil, the friend from the past, Joyce’s love for him, finding him, talking, his detached attitude?

10. Joyce’s mother, hearing the news, weeping, taking to her bed, the fuss, the hospital, lying down?

11. Her mother taking charge, Joyce’s reaction, wanting independence, the mother and fixing up the house, the coffee...? Joyce and her binge with the food?

12. The visit to the shrine, prayer, the church and her father’s death, Joyce’s sceptical attitude, her attitude towards God? Her mother’s way of coping?

13. Going to the doctors, her mother wanting second opinions? Confirmation of the diagnosis?

14. Joyce, alone, her seeing Rod again, everybody weeping?

15. The final things, the sense of closure, her mother’s presence, the surprise of Emil being the priest, coming to anoint her? His prayer, staying with her?

16. Joyce, taking down the last piece of paper? Watching the celebration? All the people who cared for her?

17. The final sequence, Heaven, death, achievement?