Vivamax: Review of TAYA: Gambling on a Girl

August 28, 2021

Sixto Corpuz (Sean De Guzman) could not seem to graduate from his journalism course. In his search for interesting ideas for his thesis film, he stumbled into the world of online “ending” gaming where women were offered as prizes alongside other items. Betting on his favorite number 69, he won on his first try. For his prize, he was sent a woman named Nanette (AJ Raval) for a night of wild, peanut butter-flavored sex. When she accepted to meet him outside the game context, Sixto promised to take her away from the syndicate that held her captive.

Writer-director Roman Perez, Jr. created a novel seedy scenario of online decadence as a backdrop for his erotic drama. "Ending" was an illegal form of street gambling where people bet on a winning number based on the combination of the last two digits of the final scores of the televised PBA basketball game that night. With the PBA not as popular as before, word about "ending" had also declined, until recently when Facebook pages promoting an online form of "ending" began to proliferate about five years ago. 

Perez embellished these online "ending" games to create a more sinister world around which his story would revolve. In his version, winners did not only bet on cash and gadgets, but also more dangerous items such as guns, drugs or women. The syndicate depicted in the film had recruiters in the field like the mohawked loudmouth Lepot (Pio Balbuena), who answered to a Team Leader (Joel Garcia), who ultimately reported to their big boss Boss Paps (Soliman Cruz), who just had to speak with a thick Chinese accent.

Sean de Guzman made his debut only this year as the star of Joel Lamangan's "Anak ng Macho Dancer." In the following months, he had been in a series of sexy dramas all featuring him in various states of undress. In his last film "Nerisa", he was paired with nymphet du jour AJ Raval, who herself had been in a series of sexy films herself since she debuted in Darryl Yap's "Porn Star" early this year. Both of them showed marked improvement in their onscreen acting skills here in "Taya," but there is still room for more subtlety and nuance.

Raul Morit played Sixto's uncle Abner, owner of the 69 Video-Photo Repair Shop, where Sixto lived in Manila. Mon Confiado played Sixto's thesis adviser Mr. Agulto, who was also under fire from the long-haired Dean (Raffy Tejada) for being unproductive lately. The other daring new actresses de Guzman got to cavort with here included Jela Cuenca (as Winona, the elusive girl of his x-rated dreams) and Angeli Khang (as Nieves, his long-time admirer who suddenly made her move in the last 20 minutes of the film). 

The cinematography had a hint of a bluish filter to enhance the sordid atmosphere of the whole film. The pulsating hiphop musical soundtrack and the dimly-lit bedrooms fit right in to complete the sleazy mood. One may say that the ending was inevitable, as with all previous films about the idealistic young man who wanted to rescue his girl out of her hell (shades of Lino Brocka's "Maynila sa Kuko ng Liwanag"). However, the concluding sequence conceived by Perez juxtaposing trippy fantasy and brutal reality gave the film a strong final impact. 6/10.