Bona

Details

This special limited edition spot gloss slipcover (designed by Tony Stella) is limited to 2,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Note: this release is available to be purchased on its own, or bundled with the paperback book Martial Law Melodrama: Lino Brocka’s Cinema Politics by José B. Capino (book details can be seen below). This Limited Edition Slipcover + Book bundle is limited to 100 units.

Named after Yasujiro Ozu’s custom-made, tatami-level, crab-like tripod, Kani is a new home video label dedicated to leveling the gaze and furthering the understanding of Asian cinema in North America. Focused on genre-defying films, Kani aims to expand the canon, bolster up-and-coming filmmakers and reintroduce repertory classics in context. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

Bona (Nora Aunor), a middle-class girl from the Philippines, is obsessed with Gardo (Philip Salvador), a bit actor in low-budget films. When she decides to drop out of school to follow the object of her infatuation, her furious father casts her out and Bona moves in with the actor in the Manila slums. At first delighted to play house, the young woman soon finds herself not the wife, but rather the maid — at the mercy of Gardo’s every whim and desire, yet intent on enduring his unending parade of conquests, in the hopes of finally being seen.

Produced by its iconic superstar Nora Aunor as a subversion of her own fame at the time, and brought to life through Lino Brocka’s (Cain and Abel) trademark blend of high stakes melodrama and keenly observed social realism, Bona is a masterpiece of Filipino cinema. It unfolds as a troubling character study at the intersection of fandom, sexuality and martyrdom, in a country where fanaticism, both political, pop cultural and religious, remain driving societal forces. After premiering at the 1981 Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival and long thought lost thereafter, Bona makes its triumphant return in a new 4K restoration.

directed by: Lino Brocka
starring: Nora Aunor, Philip Salvador, Marissa Delgado, Raquel Monteza, Nanding Josef
1980 / 86 min / 1.37:1 / Tagalog DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• 2-disc Set: 4K Ultra HD / Region A Blu-ray
• Dual disc set including one 4K UHD disc with the feature in HDR Dolby Vision and one 1080p Blu-ray disc with feature and extras
• New interview with assistant director Jeric Soriano (2025)
• New interview with actor Nanding Josef (2024)
• Q&A with Allan Brocka at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures (2024)
• Bonus short film: Superfan (Clodualdo "Doy" Del Mundo Jr., 2009)
• New trailer (2024)
• English, French subtitles

Martial Law Melodrama: Lino Brocka’s Cinema Politics - Paperback Book

By José B. Capino

Lino Brocka (1939–1991) was one of Asia and the Global South’s most celebrated filmmakers. A versatile talent, he was at once a bankable director of genre movies, an internationally acclaimed auteur of social films, a pioneer of queer cinema, and an outspoken critic of Ferdinand Marcos’s autocratic regime. José B. Capino examines the figuration of politics in the Filipino director’s movies, illuminating their historical contexts, allegorical tropes, and social critiques. Combining eye-opening archival research with fresh interpretations of over fifteen of Brocka’s major and minor works, Martial Law Melodrama does more than reveal the breadth of his political vision. It also offers a timely lesson about popular cinema’s vital role in the struggle for democracy.

294 pages
6" x 9"