Tribeca XXII Review: In KAYA, A Martial Artist Takes On All Comers In Her Fight For Acceptance
Kaya enjoyed its world premiere for the 22nd edition of Tribeca Film Festival and will screen twice more next week through June 13.
Martial arts fans the world over are no strangers to Arnis. We’ve all seen increments of Filipino Martial Arts in fight choreography of the past half-century or so across rows of films, but seldom have any of us seen it in raw, exorbitant form in the way that styles outside of kung fu like Silat and Kenpo are observed in films like Merantau and The Perfect Weapon, respectively.
To this end, and at least until now, the most vivid presentation of FMA that I’ve seen in an action drama narrative is a project I got to screen last year called Prevail by Ryan Dalan, so to see another filmmaker take the reins and give FMA the spotlight it deserves is a real treat. That’s where Kaya comes in, as actress and director Isabel Lamers takes her inaugural seat in the director’s chair, working both sides of the lens for a palatable and scenic fight drama about a young Filipina woman grappling with racial bias and identity as she hustles her way through FMA team tryouts.
At about eleven minutes of runtime, Kaya offers a brisk, ample snapshot of the struggle faced by lead character Nia (Lamers), between trying to appeal to an unrelenting coach, and coping with how she’s received from her peers and even her own family as a mixed-ethnicity Filipina woman who can speak Tagalog, much to everyone else’s chagrin. These developments also include an insightful look into the often uneasy relationship Nia has with her mother, Maria (Gaye Angeles Piccio), who, more or less, seems more concerned with Nia’s appearance and lack of traditional gendernormative cultivation, and the appeal of her white skin which is seen as “sexy” by her siblings.
Judging by the dialogue and even the tagline which reads the film is “based on many true moments,” and as someone who comes from a mixed background myself and who’s faced racial biases on many occasions from boyhood, there are levels to Kaya that I can certainly relate to. Lamers paints a vivid, often brutal picture of life as a person trying to pursue their passions in spaces where acceptance is hardly a caveat. There are some glimmers for our lead pugilist though, in a friendship Nia spawns with Malic (EJ Lipana), a fellow queer athlete with his own share of day-to-day struggles, who decided to help train Nia and give her a leg up before the final day of tryouts.
I especially enjoyed the training moments between Nia and Malic. A lot of the shots are brief but there’s plenty to take in between both characters in a space that provides some much needed respite from the drama. Sealing the deal, of course, are the two centerpiece fight scenes placing Lamers front and center. Industry stuntwoman Lauren Mary Kim crafted the fight action for this project which also features actress and fellow stuntwoman Kayley Carrigan in the role of the antagonistic no-nonsense team coach, Angel.
Lamers has been acting longer than probably a lot of us know or even realize, so to see a project like Kaya in which a lead actress brings her best and most like this is a sight to see, and not for nothing either. It’s a satiating and potent concept we see in Kaya, one that’s highly doable as a longer narrative work that centers Asian and Wasian lived experiences, and etches in another notch on the belt of wins in challenging the status quo. The addition of Filipino Martial Arts as a modifier for character development as well as entertaining feat sets the stage for a momentous appetizer for action fans craving something even bigger, and maybe greater.
Native New Yorker. Been writing for a long time now, and I enjoy what I do. Be nice to me!
