August 4, 2022
Newly-certified security officer Rick Bravo (Ahron Villena) drove to Pangasinan with his younger brother Johnnyboy (Joshua de Guzman) to visit their grandparents Lake Berto (Lou Veloso) and Bae Hilda (Dexter Doria). I this was also the first time he would be seeing his cousin Tom Vince Cruz (Alfred Montero), with whom he has been estranged for five years after Tom's parents died in a car accident.
Tom is now a history professor assisting Dean Pikoy Martinez (Archie Adamos) in his intensive research about the whereabouts of the legendary Yamashita Gold. One day, the Dean was accosted by goons led by a Japanese gangster Niigata (Yoshihiko Hara), forcing him to reveal where the missing maps to the treasure were. Soon, even Niigita also sought out Tom for further info, and Rick got involved in the resulting ruckus.
It was apparent that the vision of director Danni Ugali for this film was very ambitious. It was an action-adventure film involving two young men hunting for so-called "living maps" for a fabled trove of treasure, with a ruthless samurai-wielding bad guy hot on their heels. It was just very unfortunate that it was painfully obvious that his limited budget could not finance this vision as fully as he would have liked it to be.
Because of this, he could not get bigger name stars as his leads. Ahron Villena did have a good screen presence and more prior acting experience to be an adequate lead here. However, his co-lead Alfred Montero still had awkward facial expressions, body language and delivery of lines which require more workshops to refine. Joshua de Guzman fared better, being more natural in his portrayal of Johnnyboy.
Christa Jocson was supposed to have a substantial role as grad student Ayami however her role was not written very well. Hers was a character with multiple layers who deserved more respect, and could have been developed better perhaps even with her own back story. Instead, everything about Ayami was rushed and unintentionally comical, which was very unfortunate - - a waste of an interesting character.
I liked the use of archival footage to tell Ugali's version of the history of Yamashita's gold, the stories sound more authentic presented this way. The involvement of Cordillera tribal women in the tale was very good, but could've been executed better. Too bad the climactic scene in the cave was so rushed, what should have been a moment of wondrous awe just wound up an anemic misfire instead. 4/10
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