Under Director Antoinette Jadaone’s direction, Sunshine convincingly and authentically depicts the harrowing realities for many young women—including a gymnastics athlete with a dilemma
Antoinette Jadaone’s newest feature Sunshine has the genuine potential to change Filipino hearts and minds. It’s about a gymnast with an Olympian dream who sets out to terminate her unplanned pregnancy. Having last sat in the director’s chair for Fangirl (2020), Jadaone draws an intimate portrait of the struggles of women, athletes, and female athletes with detailed care in Sunshine; it makes direct points about body autonomy, femininity, and women’s freedom and agency. Maris Racal stars as the titular character in the Toronto International Film Festival select, her latest purpose-driven role yet. Just from the trailer, MEGA Entertainment lists the five times Sunshine’s story gets real about women’s struggles in the Philippines.
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The Pressure to Excel
Sunshine is not just a gymnastics movie. It’s a parable about the twin strains of femininity and misfortune. Though gymnastics is entirely physical—a sport critical of form, shape, technique—its rigid attitudes make the athletes battle with wavering confidence and overwhelming pressure heaped upon them by coaches and parents. In the trailer, Sunshine is told, “Baka nakakampante ka na. Last chance mo na ‘to sa Olympics.”
It raises the stakes even higher for Sunshine’s national team tryouts. Qualifying is crucial for her professional career—and for someone who relies on her body for the sport, an unplanned pregnancy is a significant obstacle. Years of training, funds spent on costumes, coaches, equipment, sacrificing normal teenage experiences in exchange for more time in the gym—all that seems to go down the drain if Sunshine doesn’t qualify for the Olympics.
The Gendered Reality of Pregnancy
Maris Racal embodies the role of a woman whose life is changed forever with impressive gusto; her role tackles the evolving views on body ownership and abortion—taboo topics in a conservative world like the Philippines. In the trailer, a woman’s voice says, “Labag ‘yan sa batas. Lalong-lalo na, labag ‘yan sa batas ng Diyos.”
One crucial element of Jadaone’s work in Sunshine is interviewing poor, young mothers “who contemplated abortion but decided to continue with their pregnancy. Their chilling stories mirror a reality we don’t face. The abortion ban may be protecting the unborn, but it’s killing our women, too—both literally and figuratively,” she says.
Jadaone’s cinematic take at what teenage pregnancy looks like in a Catholic country is a story worth telling—especially in a conservative and repressive culture that so often forgets or overlooks women. Maris Racal is motivated to do the film, saying, “I feel so empowered to do this film, to send a message and to educate people on the plight of the female youth who are in the same situation as Sunshine.”
For a female athlete like Sunshine, her story is an allegory for a shared experience as to how a woman’s career in sport is stopped forever with a baby. For the baby’s father, portrayed by Elijah Canlas, his only problem is: “How are you sure that’s mine?”
They have the option to walk away while women don’t. Going through a mentally and emotionally straining road of deciding to abort or not falls on the teenage mom’s shoulders. And that’s what Sunshine tackles: “Tackling sensitive issues like abortion within the context of a third world, predominantly Catholic country was undoubtedly challenging. Our intention wasn’t to provide definitive answers but to spark thoughtful conversation and encourage audiences to ask crucial questions,” Director of Photography Pao Orendain declares.
It’s rare that the topic of abortion gets such an empathetic and holistic film treatment, just from the trailer alone: passionate, delicate, real.
The Relatable Commute Breakdown
When the trailer came out, a netizen said, “Not going to lie, sobrang hit ng scene na ‘to as a Filipino commuter trying to get it together and not cry sa jeepney.”
One of Sunshine’s greatest strengths, chronicled in its trailer alone, is that it presents the story in the most relatable way possible—even at scenes where dialogue isn’t needed. Most notable is Sunshine crying in the jeepney. Such an ordinary, everyday thing to do, but netizens empathize with the scene: “That scene where Sunshine leans her head against the jeepney window? So real. I’ve had so many nervous breakdowns at commutes, and I just had to lean back and feel the air for a bit.”
It also speaks so much about Sunshine’s character: she’s a gymnast—an athlete of steel, lighter than air. Gymnasts are strong women having endured years of physical and mental drilling. But her emotions are not presented from an athlete of extraordinary accomplishment and fortitude—it’s presented from a woman with a baby on her chest.
It’s a Filipino moment captured in a cinematic spring, and Direk Antoinette Jadaone and Maris Racal deliver it with subtlety and restraint—but still with so much impact.
The Conditions of Sport Support
Elite gymnasts appear on the mat as tiny shining birds: gems sewn into their leotards sparkling under bright stage lights, colorful ribbons circling their form as they dance, leap, and fly through the air. But the brutal beauty of gymnastics in the Philippines is this, according to Maris Racal: “I learned the weight that you carry when you are an athlete, the things that you have to give up, and the hours that you have to dedicate to training.”
Aside from that, there is a lack of support, financial fundings, and facilities to bolster Filipina athletes and their careers. For Sunshine, the Gymnastics Association of the Philippines partnered with Jadaone and the production team to ensure that the film presents the gymnasts and the sport in an accurate and authentic manner. With Carlos Yulo’s recent gold medals in the Paris Olympics 2024, Sunshine is even more significant and timely: shining light on tales of local athletes and their sacrifices to pursue their dreams.
Watch the trailer here:
