Vivamax: Review of BALIK-TAYA: Betting on a Breast Birthmark

April 9, 2023

Pip (Kiko Estrada) went to Bangkok, Thailand to work. Unfortunately, he was scammed and found himself jobless. What's worse, he was held up by crooks, beaten up and left for dead on the street. A fellow OFW Jessy (Azi Acosta) helped Pip back on his feet, nursed his wounds. She showed him the sights and helped him get a job as a janitor at the muay thai gym out of town. One day, Jessy just disappeared. 

Much of the promotion about this film was about its exotic Thai location shoot. However, it would turn out that the Thailand part of this film only lasted about the first 30 minutes, sort of like an extended prologue. The rest of the film would be set back in Caloocan City where Pip would move in with his uncle Tito Gani (Lou Veloso). It was Gani who would introduce Pip to the world of online gambling, where Pip would resume his search for Jessy.

"Taya" by writer-director Roman Perez Jr. was one of the better Vivamax films back in 2021 (My Review). There, lead character Sixto wanted to save online gambling model Nanette from the underground organization abusing her. In this new variation of the story, the story gets a little more complicated. Pip wanted to save girlfriend Jessy from an online gambling operation, but found Kate (Angeli Khang) and underground fighting instead. 

Angeli Khang was only a new starlet in the original "Taya" movie, and had since rose through the ranks to become a bonafide Vivamax star herself. The role of Kate actually seemed too small for a star of Khang's lead star stature.  Another aspiring nymphet from "Taya" was Jela Cuenca. She is back to play Kate's tough manager who spoke with a contrived Chinese accent (similar to Soliman Cruz's boss character in "Taya"). 

Azi Acosta and Kiko Estrada did chemistry with each other as the star-crossed lovers Jessy and Pip and the Thai locations were indeed exotic. However, it did not really need to be shot in Thailand at all, and a random province would have sufficed. Ultimately, the only tiny detail that connected the Thailand and the Philippine parts of the story was a birthmark Jessy and Kate both had on their left breast. Now go figure that one out. 4/10.