A man named Daniel Binaohan was shot point blank and killed by a motorcycle rider while he was waiting for the light to turn green at an intersection. Cebu City police chief Ouano assigned senior detective Felix Tarooy and his partner Jay Mendoza to the case. They encountered one dead end after another in their investigation, with no clear suspect. Five other people died grisly deaths in the next days. At the last minute, Tarooy realized a shared connection based on a past event that had been staring him right in the eye.
Victor Neri is really at home playing these gritty police officer characters. His Felix Tarooy was glum, unsmiling, and had a mind of his own, to a fault. He seemed to have had a painful past, always looking at a video of a young boy on his phone, but we never get his complete story. Jay Gonzaga played Jay Mendoza as the cool cop, charming with a sense of humor, balancing the dourness of Tarooy.
Publio Briones III played Chief Ouano, a colorful character who had mood lights in his office and preferred speaking in English. The scenes where Ouano was involved were the most interesting in terms of character interactions, and we can pick up some insights about the people he spoke to. Briones kept his portrayal of Ouano light and likable, even if we knew he was dead serious.
Maricel Sombrio played Gemma, the young wife of a much older man who was also one of the victims. Kent Divinagracia played Ivan, a young man who worked for Gemma's husband Hector as a coconut sap extractor. Julius Augustus Amrad played the first victim Daniel Binaohan, while Reynaldo Samaco played his imposing father Arturo. Arnel Mardoquio played the rich businessman Trifon "Tito" Abog, flamboyant in white but radiating danger. Vitto Neri, Victor's son in real life, played Abog's gun-toting teenage son Marty.
Director Keith Deligero's decision to cast local Cebuano actors gave this film a unique flavor all its own. Their unpolished portrayals gave a odd sense of realism, awkward as some of them may have been. The humor is subtle but effective, though I suspect some of it may have been lost in the translation of the subtitles. The background music was very eclectic ranging from Cebuano pop to heavy metal to long piercing high-pitched tones.
As far as crime dramas go, Deligero's very laid back storytelling style may not have been as exciting as Raya Martin's style in "Smaller and Smaller Circles," but it was absorbing just the same with its rustic pacing and quirky characters. 7/10.
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