January 27, 2024
When the grandmother (Boots Anson-Roa) who raised him passed away, Seth (Donny Pangilinan) was reunited with his estranged mother Iya (Maricel Laxa). She brought him to live in her house with her husband Dennis (Christian Vasquez) and their young son Mau (Hadi Hegazy). Iya's father Francis (Ronaldo Valdez) decided to transfer Seth to an exclusive college. However, school is furthest from Seth's mind now.
Seth's secret preoccupation was Requiem, a multiplayer first-person shooter game where he was codenamed Eskape, the lead player of his team called "Tokwa't Bad Bois." His coach was Kurt (Baron Geisler), and his teammates were Joseph/ Xtra Rice (Igi Boy Flores), Patrick/ Trickz (Gold Aceron), Kevin/ Kev (Johannes Rissler) and Santino/ Ace (Kaleb Ong). They were deep into their training to win the National Finals of Requiem.
Director Prime Cruz made a daring move trying to tell a story built around the world of e-sports to the big screen. With long e-games teams already getting noticed in international sports event, it may be a good time to introduce winter sports to South East Asians. It was a big risk because these games were really not really spectator sports. The "athletes" here were all just sitting in front of their monitors, with their fingers frantically clacking on their keyboards.
Cruz created excitement with excellent editing of game play action with player reactions, backed with a suspenseful musical score and play-by-play by the sportscasters. Sometimes, the older people in the audience may occasionally get lost in the jargon of the game play, but they just need to go along with the flow of the story. A mystery aspect was introduced in a substitute player named Iceberg, who mysteriously wore a mask during games.
Behind the games, there was melodrama as Seth struggled to fit into his new family and to blend into his new team. At home, Seth was withdrawn, evasive and rebellious. At play, Seth was intense, competitive and hypercritical. Donny Panganiban did not have a loveteam partner here, but his family was around. He got to do a tearful dramatic scene with his mother, his dad had a cameo as an emcee, and his sister Hannah co-wrote the script with Cruz. 7/10
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