Vivamax: Review of AFAM: Misogynistic Madness

May 6, 2023

Hazel Grace Cunanan (Jela Cuenca) and Daisy Mae Labra (Robb Guinto) were the very best of friends. They worked on the staff of Bukang Liwayway resort under their strict boss (Giselle Sanchez). Hazel's policeman boyfriend Rex (Roi Alonte) called off their relationship because he could not handle a long-distance relationship. Daisy discovered that her co-worker boyfriend Nonoy (PJ Rosario) was sleeping around with guests.

The next day, their old friend Melba (Katya Santos) became a special guest of their resort, She snagged a rich Italian husband and now went by the exotic name of Madame Mirabella Vaghina. Inspired that Melba was able to get out of her poverty by marrying a foreigner, Hazel and Daisy both started relationships with American guys they met online. Hazel met a guy named JJ, while Daisy met a guy named Jamey. 

The main story about Filipino women hooking up with foreign men in order to get a brighter future for themselves could have gone a whole lot of different ways. However, writer Cyril Ramos just chose to address this issue as a noisy and annoying slapstick comedy. It had vulgar, repetitive "jokes" that were all sorts of demeaning to Filipino womanhood, all done to serve up the usual Vivamax formula of sex and crime.

It would turn out that the girls were being wooed by one and the same American rascal (Nico Locco). However, instead of rejecting him right there and then, the two BFFs even decided to compete for his final approval, to the point of doing underhanded tricks to make the other look bad. At the end, the girls make their final decision about their AFAM not because they got smart, but only because they were pushed to a "no-choice" situation.  

Robb Guinto and Jela Cuenca have proved their dramatic mettle before, yet they were here mashing each other's breasts or canoodling with bland boring beaus. Katya Santos brazenly summarized her tips on how to snag an AFAM boyfriend with a vulgar acronym pertaining to a wondrous part of the female anatomy. It was ironic that Linneth Zurbano would choose to direct an insultingly misogynistic story like this as her feature-length debut. 1/10.