June 24, 2022
Photojournalist Francis Imperial (Sid Lucero) had been commissioned by Mayor Peter Balano (Julio Diaz) of Dolores, Bukidnon to do a feature on the rare Rafflesia flowers that grew deep in their forest. Local guy Roger (Vince Rillon) was tasked to accompany Francis on this arduous trek. Along the way, Francis had dreams of an alluring Diwata (Micaella Raz), an enchantress barely clad in a diaphanous white gown, seducing him, asking for help.
Francis encountered several people in the forest. There was a deranged woman Gina (Rob Guinto) roaming around. There was a hunter Albert (Jao Mapa) shooting down animals. There was a woman running a prostitution joint, Minda (Alma Moreno) frequented by illegal loggers like John (Markki Stroem), Eric (Ivan Padilla) and Greg (Greg Hawkins). There were two sisters Angela (Angeli Khang) and Karla (Katrina Dovey) trying to escape their captors.
The pro-environmental message was obvious from the get-go. The film opened with disturbing scenes of loggers cutting down young trees. There were several scenes of women being raped by multiple men, likely as a metaphor for nature being abused. The Diwata and her two giant snakes (Belle, the albino Burmese Python and Zoe the Reticulated Python) symbolized Mother Nature fighting back against those who are abusing her.
As the conflicted Francis, Sid Lucero was the best actor in the ensemble. He was certainly not shy in the skin exposure department this time around, outdoing even usual studs Rillon and Stroem. Everyone else was all kinds of over-the-top, either in one-dimensional villain (Moreno and Stroem) or victim (Guinto and Khang) mode. Rillon played yet another character where he let the hair-and-makeup guys have free rein on his new "jologs" look.
This is not a remake of Peque Gallaga's 1985 film of the same title starring Sarsi Emmanuelle and Miguel Rodriguez. This new film is director and co-writer Brillante Mendoza's attempt to deliver social commentary within the expected sex and violence formula of a typical Vivamax production. He tried to squeeze in too many characters (real and supernatural) and a random mess of story elements, ending up failing to gel logically. 4/10.
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