October 7, 2022
Pepe (Diego Loyzaga) and his gang are losing men and arms to the rival gang of Jojo (Felix Roco) who had been intruding into Pepe's territory. Because of increasing tension, both gangs were called by their big boss Lito (a miscast Bor Ocampo) to settle their issues via a rumble, with the strict rule of no weapons allowed. However, while Pepe was wrestling with Jojo's right-hand man Ray (Marco Gomez), Ray took out a knife.
The fight ended with Ray dead, and Pepe on the run from the police led by Victor (Jiad Arroyo), as well as from Jojo and his gang. Even Pepe's own gangmates led by his right-hand man Bogs (Thor Garcia) and his current girlfriend Maricar (Jela Cuenca) turned against him. With his back against the wall, Pepe had no other choice but to meet up with his ex-girlfriend Bella (Franki Russell) to ask for her help.
Diego Loyzaga was never convincing as a gang leader, looking dull and incompetent practically the whole time. In contrast, Felix Roco, who seemed to have trimmed down a lot from his past Vivamax outings, effortlessly exuded arrogance and ability. It was a wonder how Pepe could even assume leadership of a gang. However, it was no surprise why he easily lost the loyalty of his men, and his women.
Franki Russell is a fresh and pretty face, still with a conspicuous foreign accent to her Filipino. This is her feature film debut, but it was too bad that she was made to play someone who was uninteresting and boring. Russell seemed uneasy in her bed scenes, probably because she knew did not need have to go this sexy route to get her film career going. However, she does need more time with her acting coach to get her confidence level up.
Writer-director Phil Giordano is an American filmmaker whose first short film "Supot" (2016), starring John Arcilla and Mercedes Cabral, was met with critical acclaim, and led to a successful career in directing commercials in Singapore. His first Vivamax feature film was "Pusoy," which had Brillante Mendoza's name above the title. But in this new one, Giordano is completely his own to explore various camera angles to make his sex scenes more titillating.
The issue of gang wars had just recently been tackled on Vivamax in Roman Perez's "Sitio Diablo," released just barely a month ago. This one basically tread the same murky waters of dishonor among thieves. "Pabuya" is only a compact 1 hour 20 minutes long. If there were no sex scenes of which it had a lot (not only Pepe, but also Jojo, Victor and Bogs get their turns with various ladies), it could have been a short film of 30 minutes or less. 3/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment