In the film Perfumed Nightmare, the director Kidlat Tahimik shows the impact of post colonization in a third world on one man’s quest for his identity. Postcolonial countries struggle with fragmentation of the country’s history and identity crisis of the populations, Kidlat shows in this film the impact of colonialism on the indigenous people and how Western culture influences them in their postcolonial period. The film shows the main character Kidlat, who has hopes of leaving his village to go to America and become an astronaut so he could become rich. Kidlat becomes over indulged by the American dream through the Voice of America, but throughout the film he struggles between his nation’s pride while still admiring the America dream of progress and change.

At the beginning of the film, there is an establishment that the bridge at the edge of the town is a metaphorical site of contest between native and imperialist culture, as everyone one has to travel across it. Kidlat narrates how the bridge serves as the crucial link between his small Philippine village and the rest of the world, as it serves as the only way in and out of his hometown. The director portrays Kidlat crossing on the bridge in a succession of three scenes, which narrate his struggle to find his identity on this site of cultural conflict. By using the jeepney, a re-built vehicle left by World  War II vehicles, as a symbol of the historical passage from the past to the present. Kidlat not only in his village but as well as in Europe these vehicles show the impact of American military technology has on his nationality.

When Kidlat gain the opportunity to leave his village to visit America with a foreigner, Kidlat was more than content to leave his village, as he even dreamed the whole village paraded and gave him a ceremony for his achievement to leave. But as he was leaving he promises the village that once he becomes rich he will give money to the village so they can have a traffic light stop for the bridge. Even though Kidlat was enthusiastic to leave, he still felt an obligation to his town. When he arrives in Paris the first he notices was 26 bridges and compares it his village by saying “Why can’t we have progress like this?” Kidlat compares everything he sees to his village’s progress, even though he was happy to be in Europe he still felt extremely attached his village making him confused of his own identity.

As much as Kidlat wanted progressiveness in his life, he expected to see the same progress in his own village. After Kidlat encounters the human cost of progress through his experiences in Europe, does he begin to question his own interest with progress and western culture. By the end of the film, he starts feeling small so infuriated with the modern world he gets on the incinerator and flies away to leave Europe, the director metaphorically shows Kidlat putting one culture above another is hard, thus he decides to start identifying himself as both cultures to find the bridge between them.