Vivamax: Review of SISID: Marine Melodrama

January 18, 2022

Marine biologist Jason Abante (Paolo Gumabao) and his wife Abby (Kylie Versoza) just celebrated their 7th wedding anniversary. The day after, they had to drive down to Pola, Oriental Mindoro, where Jason worked with the local government to protect the ocean from pollution brought about by the mining company operating there. Local boy Dennis (Vince Rillon) was assigned to be Jason's assistant on his mission.

Acclaimed film director Brillante Ma. Mendoza is known for his festival-fare indie films, like his Cannes offerings "Serbis" (2008), "Kinatay" (2009, for which he won Best Director) and "Ma Rosa" (2013, for which Jaclyn Jose won Best Actress). He just had his first commercial feature last year with the Vivamax film "Palitan", billed as a GL (girls love) film. This year, he is back with his second Vivamax project, this time billed as a BL (boys love) film.

These two guys aren't exactly boys anymore, but young men already. They were not frankly homosexual either, as both were involved with their respective female partners. Jason had his wife Abby, while Dennis had his girlfriend Tanya (Christine Bermas). Out of the blue and with no warning, secret desires were suggested by a helpful massage for an arm cramp and a playful picture-taking session with a coconut during a stopover on a deserted island. 

It was strange how Director Mendoza decided to execute the key scene of their first sexual encounter to have no build-up. At first, the two were just alone in the boat in their scuba suits minding their own business. Then suddenly, they were face to face and passionately kissing each other, all this happening without a single word being said. By the next scene, both were in their birthday suits and straddling each other, as if they've done this all their lives. 

When it came to the dramatic scenes, Gumabao and Rillon actually did creditably well with the roles they were given, their awkward sex scenes notwithstanding. However the characters of Versoza and Bermas were stuck with very common Filipino melodrama tropes -- a magnanimous wife dying of cancer, and a country lass whose secret was betrayed by a bout of morning sickness. As always, Irma Adlawan stood out as Dennis' pragmatic mother. 

With Mendoza's signature style of having his camera simply following characters with their routines, the whole first hour practically passed with hardly any progression in the story. There was a strong pro- environment message, with the graceful swimming pawikan closeup that opened the film and the town hall meeting confrontation between fisher folk and mining executives. This worthy advocacy sort of fortified the threadbare central love story. 5/10.