Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Vivamax: Review of GANTI-GANTI: Tetrahedron of Treachery

December 5, 2023


Vicky (Angeli Khang) was an ambitious real-estate salesperson who left her beau Vincent (Chad Solano) behind in order to marry one of her wealthy customers -- businessman Arthur (Mark Anthony Fernandez). Bella got the high society lifestyle she longed for. However, Arthur turned out to be a sadistic sex pervert and maniac who raped every woman he encountered. Bella wanted out of this marriage as soon as possible. 

Georgia (Yen Durano) was the trusted personal assistant and secretary of Arthur.  She reluctantly accepted Arthur's offer for a job after her mother Sonia (Lally Buendia) was killed in a car accident. Ted (Sean de Guzman) was the only child of a poor couple who wanted him to be a soldier. However, he was kicked out of the military by a jealous senior officer, and he wound up being hired as a hitman of a mayor. 

The scriptwriter of this brazenly convoluted web of sleazy characters was no less than National Artist Ricky Lee. The first part was a common story as a disgruntled wife hiring a killer to murder her rotten husband -- hardly anything Lee could be proud of. However, from there the story would go back and forth in time to interconnect everybody with each other with everyone else's motives.  Looked like Lee had fun writing this.

However, despite the fact that he had been working with Lee for several Vivamax films, director Mac Alejandre's style of storytelling did not flow too well with this one. The requisite sex scenes were plentiful here, tiresomely gratuitous. Arthur's numerous rapes among the most disgusting Vivamax scenes ever, with that tied-up girl scene going too far. Then, there was climactic final 4-way gun-pointing confrontation and fight scene which was unintentionally funny.

It was good to see Angeli Khang expand her range, playing against her usual pathetic victim type here. Yen Durano is consistent with her acting skills which she had shown since her debut in "Litsoneras." Sean de Guzman's restrained performance kept his character interesting. Mark Anthony Fernandez furthers his typecasting in rapist roles. Chad Solano finally gets to deliver longer lines, but he had a bland, blank screen presence. 4/10.

 


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