August 9, 2023
Maria Isabel Pilar "Ace" Asuncion (Pat Tingjuy) was a boyish teenager who loved to play basketball. Her dad just passed away and her mom's job brought them to a new neighborhood. So in her junior year, Ace had to transfer into a new school called San Lorenzo, a Catholic all-girls school without a basketball team. Instead, tall and athletic Ace was immediately recruited by the volleyball Coach Jules (Agot Isidro), who trained the school varsity team called the Angels.
Ace had a crush on the star player of the Angels, the pretty but intense Jana Ramos (Aya Fernandez). Her mother, a star volleyball player in her youth, had passed away, and her father pressured Jana to get recruited by a prestigious college volleyball team. Jana was very serious about winning games so she was very annoyed when Ace was suddenly included in the varsity team even if she did not know even the basics of volleyball.
Of all the films that I had watched in this year's Cinemalaya festival, this was one with the most audience impact. This was so far the only one where the audience, particularly the Gen Z and Gen A girls, were actually shrieking with delight at each and every scene as romance developed between Ace and Jana -- from Ace's furtive glances from afar at first, to the bed arrangement at the training camp, to the prom night invitation and dance, and more.
This film also took time to mention problems experienced by female athletes in high school, like playing during her period, shaving armpits, or wearing short shorts. However, it spent significant time recounting Ace's unfortunate experience with the predatory physical therapist of the team, Coach Kel (Mikoy Morales). The girls in the audience audibly expressed their disgust over this disturbing scene with loud gasps and murmurs.
There were also scenes of commentary about the attitude of the Catholic Church about the issues where Ace were involved. During prom night, the nun at the entrance raised a problem about the outfit that Ace wore to the event. While discussing the issue of sexual harassment on campus, the oily father rector (Joel Saracho) cared more about the effect of the scandal on the school, and even cited the Bible. Again, the girls loudly expressed their disdain.
This film was co-written and directed by Samantha Lee, whose filmography mainly dealt with lesbian relationships among young ladies, like "Baka Bukas" (2017) and "Billie and Emma" (2018). This is the feature film debut for both Fernandez and Tingjuy, and they did a very good job portraying their respective characters. The two had good chemistry, and that was heard in the enthusiastic reaction of the audience rooting them on. 7/10.
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