Vivamax: Review of BULA: Laundering Libido

September 2, 2022

Meldie (Ayanna Misola) worked as an employee at a busy laundry business managed by Gloria (Ana Abad Santos). Her favorite secret activity was to try on the clothes of her customers and fantasize about being in their respective occupations. She would even bring these clothes home and engage in playing dress-up sex games with her aphasic and invalid partner at home, Manny (Mon Confiado). 

One of her frequent customers was the beautiful fashion model Celine (Rob Guinto) and her dashing policeman boyfriend Jacob (Gab Lagman). They live in the same building so Meldie would frequently deliver their laundry to them in person. She observed that Celine was having an affair with her manager Gino (Alvaro Oteyza), as Jacob was pre-occupied with investigating a series of grisly murders in their neighborhood.

This is yet another Vivamax film that goes the way of sex and violence, as per their formula for success. It had just been a few weeks ago that director Bobby Bonifacio Jr. explored similar themes of mental disturbance, sexual abuse, serial murder and psychotic misandry in his film "Tahan."  There was a dash of dark comedy in this one, as Meldie acted out her weird fantasies while wearing her customers's dirty clothes to the tune of amusing songs. 

There were a number of naughty songs in the musical soundtrack, like "Kahit Gaano Kalaki" (Alynna) and "Malaking Lalaki" (Viva Hot Babes). Director Bobby Bonifacio Jr. himself composed songs like "Miss na Labandera" (Alvin Castro), "Puti at De Kolor" and "Balutin ng Pag-ibig" (Jackie Lyn Barcebal) to fit the laundry motif of his film. A big surprise was a cover version of Willy Cruz's "Pangarap na Bituin" (Ataska) played at a climactic moment. 

For some reason, Ayanna Misola had been playing mentally-disturbed, sexually aggressive characters since her first solo starrer "Kinsenas, Katapusan" and her last film, "Ang Babaeng Nawawala sa Sarili." Here in "Bula," she went further even further with the nuances of her character, as Meldie shifted from sanity to insanity ever so discreetly, which is to Misola's credit. Thankfully, there were no hysterical breakdowns that shout "crazy" here. 

Gab Lagman is a handsome debonair young actor in the mold of Diether Ocampo. He could give the other Vivamax studs a run for their money if he worked harder to improve his acting skills. Rob Guinto's classy looks and natural acting style can take her far in this industry. On the other hand, with his swarthy, bearded and badly pimple-scarred face, Gino Oteyza may not escape the stereotype of sleazy or villain roles. 5/10.