Sunday Beauty Queen: Movie Review

"Sunday Beauty Queen" was a great documentary providing us glimpses into the lives of several OFWs in Hong Kong. It's not as direct to the point, deep, or without fault but it sets out and accomplishes the basics. The documentary will be an emotional and moving experience no doubt.

On Sundays, Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) in Hong Kong have their day-offs. Occasionally, these OFWs hold local beauty pageants. We join several OFWs as they prepare to take part and become beauty queens in their community. Along the way, the film also reveals intimate details on their lives living as helpers in another country while being away from their loved ones and struggling to fight a situations and policies that are against their welfare.

Given its several OFWs as key touch points, it was understandable why "Sunday Beauty Queen" felt like it was barely scratching the surface at times. With its slim running time of around 90 minutes, the film had to balance several topics per OFW mainly revolving around the back stories of each helper, their struggles with a flawed policy system in Hong Kong, the game of luck they play with employers, and ultimately missing out on quality time their loved ones back in the Philippines. We wished the film could have been longer just to give it more time to expound on these topics further. Luckily, "Sunday Beauty Queen" had enough of these moments to make it emotional and moving and really connecting with the struggles of these helpers so even with its issues, the documentary succeeds to get its major points across. Unfortunately, with its title revolving around the beauty pageants being held every Sunday, the film never really explains or realizes the event's significance for these helpers other than maybe as their escapism or hobby to keep their minds off their real problems. Our point, the documentary could have been as effective without the heavy spin on beauty pageants.

Rating: 4 reels





Why you should watch it:
- gets all the basics to be effective and moving

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- felt like it needed a longer running time to really develop its characters' stories