The way trauma is processed and recalled can be a tricky thing. Some people deal with their pain through humor. Others sublimate it into art. Still others push it down and compartmentalize it and arguably don’t deal with it at all. And then there’s those who transmute who happen to them into the fantastic and otherworldly simplybecause they cannot deal with what happened to them as something that actually happened. Carl Joseph Papa’s The Missing is a poignant and powerful depiction of one man’s struggle with a painful past and the repercussions of it into his modern life.
The Missing is the story of Eric, a young man living a quiet life working as an animator. Eric is mute (a fact creatively depicted by his character having no mouth) but he is happy. He is well liked by his coworkers and secretly has a crush upon one of them, the bubbly and instantly likeable Carlo. Eric’s perfectly structured life is thrown into disarray when his mother asks him to check up on his uncle who she hasn’t heard from in days. Finding his uncle dead, Eric slowly begins to remember some terrifying events from his childhood, including a visitation from an alien that promised to one day return for him.
The first thing that stands out about this film is the animation. Switching between a straightforward and traditionally rotoscoped look for the events happening in the present and what resembles a child’s animated scribbles for Eric’s memories makes the already slightly fantastic even more so, a simple way of clearly delineating between past and present. Not only that, but it’s also saying ‘this is from a child’s point of view’ in way that’s quiet yet effective. The gradual erasure of Eric, beginning with the loss of his mouth, as his memories return, and he begins to lose parts of himself is a dark method of the concept of what abuse victims go through feeling like they’re incomplete. It’s a fantastic and beautiful depiction of something reprehensible.
The structure of this film eases the viewer into subject matter, starting out with something kind of quirky and whimsical and descending into the grim and tragic. Hints of what to come are presented through the flashbacks to Eric’s childhood, and his recall of events of the alien visiting him kind of gently prepare the audience for what really happened. It’s nothing you don’t see coming, but nonetheless it’s still tragic to comprehend, and the scenes of Eric as a child dealing with what he’s gone through are absolutely heartbreaking. It’s difficult to watch at times, I won’t lie, but if think you can endure it it’s worth it.
Carlo Aquino and Gio Gahol as Eric and Carlo respectively absolutely shine in this film. It’s not just their budding romance that is achingly adorable, but more so just the dedication they have to supporting one another. Gahol brings us a character who has his friends back no matter what, even if they don’t entirely believe that aliens are coming for him. He doesn’t care because friends stick with their friends and it’s perfect. Aquino, for his part, delivers us a perfectly imperfect depiction of an abuse survivor, an impressive feat given he doesn’t say a word through most of the film. The two of them together and the depth of their bond is what propels this film into truly great territory. The romantic aspect of their relationship and the unapologetic queerness of it is refreshing, but the unyielding camaraderie they have is just as wonderful to watch unfold.
Tragedy and trauma are devastating things, but The Missing tells us a story in which we are strong enough to confront and overcome the things that have harmed, and if we’re not strong enough to do so on our own to not be afraid to lean on those closest to us.
