The Garden of Earthly Delights
A streetwise Manila boy dreams of gangster status while a betrayed Dutch tourist descends into the city’s predatory underworld.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- harrowing
- melancholic
- surreal
- serious film night
- international cinema night
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Ginto is determined to become a gangster rather than remain a street scavenger, making criminal ambition central to his identity.
Ginto and his friend enter a flower-filled paradise realm during drug-induced journeys that interrupt the stormy Manila slums.
Michael travels to Manila to meet an online girlfriend, then spirals into the red-light district after discovering the relationship was based on catfishing.
Ginto, Asia, and Michael occupy different positions within Manila’s slums and red-light economy, with their trajectories eventually converging.
Films like The Garden of Earthly Delights, and why
Pixote
Shares social realism, child-centered poverty, criminal aspiration, and bleak urban intensity.
City of God
Shares slum-set crime drama, youthful survival, street violence, and kinetic urban marginality.
The Florida Project
Shares compassionate social realism, childhood vulnerability, precarious family life, and bittersweet emotional complexity.
Movie Details
- Director
- Morgan Knibbe
- Release Date
- 2025-05-29
- Runtime
- 124 min
- Rating
- 8.5 / 10 (1)
Cast
- JP Rodriguez
- Benjamin Moen
- Francesca Dela Cruz
- Bunny Cadag
- Jakab Golding
- John Michael Toling
- Paula Mikaela Padon
- Ada Belamide
- Joshua Eliason
- Janina Lorelei
Common questions
- What is The Garden of Earthly Delights about?
- A streetwise Manila boy dreams of gangster status while a betrayed Dutch tourist descends into the city’s predatory underworld.
- What is The Garden of Earthly Delights like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Garden of Earthly Delights as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Garden of Earthly Delights violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in The Garden of Earthly Delights as moderate.
- Which films are like The Garden of Earthly Delights?
- Films with a similar feel include Pixote, City of God, and The Florida Project.
- How long is The Garden of Earthly Delights?
- The Garden of Earthly Delights runs 124 minutes.
