Anak 2000

A woman struggling to make a better life for her family finds that her efforts have caused a problem between her and her children in this downbeat family drama. Josie is a mother of three children (Carla, Michael, and Daday) from the Philippines who takes a job in Hong Kong as a nanny for a wealthy couple for several years. She knows she can make more money in Hong Kong than she could at home, but also has qualms about how her absence will affect her children, especially when her husband died not long after she left.

When Josie returns home, she has gifts for everyone and savings from her salary, which she plans to use to start a business. Her children, however, don’t welcome their mother with open arms. The younger kids, Daday and Michael, are guarded around Josie, and while they eventually mend their relationship with their mother, the oldest, Carla, does nothing to disguise her resentment for what she sees as callous abandonment of her family. Carla openly challenges Josie’s authority, starts dating boys she knows her mother wouldn’t approve of, flaunts her burgeoning sexuality, begins using drugs.

In the end, Carla realizes what she has done and understands the reason why her mother didn’t return home at her father’s death. She forgives her and changes her ways, and promises to take care of her younger siblings when she goes back to Hong Kong.