September 1, 2023
It was December in the year 1999, and there was concern that the world will end after New Year's Eve. Alma (Azi Acosta) was a prostitute who worked in a swanky nightclub called Brown Sugar in Manila's red light district. She had three frequent customers, namely the narcissistic sadistic Tiger Joe (Mon Confiado), the easily excited Kabayo (Josef Elizalde) and the lovestruck student Puppy Dog (Gold Aceron).
One day, she noticed a middle-aged woman following her around. When Alma confronted her, the woman introduced herself as Sheila (Jaclyn Jose), her mother who had sold her when she was still a baby. Alma did not want anything to do with Sheila, who was exhibiting symptoms of early onset Alzheimer's disease. However, when Sheila asked Alma to go with her to find her father Badong in Bataan, she agreed.
The main conceit of this Vivamax feature was the name of National Artist Ricky Lee attached to it, for story and screenplay. The story was essentially a melodrama about a mother and daughter, both of whom happened to be prostitutes. Their first meeting was hastily set up, with no apparent need of any proof or anything. Suddenly, the angle of Sheila's beginning dementia was also shoehorned in their second meeting.
The whole first act about Alma introducing her three customers and her threesome partner Chona (Aiko Garcia) were only there to fill in the Vivamax quota for sex scenes. They did not actually participate in the main story of Alma and Sheila. When they were in Bataan, there were a couple more sex scenes forced in, with the resort heir (Richard Solano) and even the caretaker (Soliman Cruz) getting some action with Alma.
We have heard these sad stories and lines about sexual abuse and parental abandonment from various films about prostitutes over the years, nothing particularly new or unique. Of course, that Jaclyn Jose was the actress playing Sheila gave the project some measure of prestige and credibility. Azi Acosta certainly held her own in her scenes with Jose, further proving that she had more to offer than her nubile wiles. 5/10.
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