Vivamax: Review of KARINYO BRUTAL: Mired in the Mundane

January 12, 2024

Ariel (Armani Hector) just arrived in Manila after graduating from college in Davao. He had applied to work in Singapore, and needed to get his papers ready. While waiting, he stayed in the house of his cousin Quito (Ghion Espinosa), who had the luxury of a maid named Marissa (April Anne Aguila Dolot). Quito's foul-mouthed girlfriend Lilibeth (Maebelle "Manang" Medina) was a frequent visitor and bedmate. 

Across the street, Ariel noted a pretty girl entering her house carrying her groceries. Quito told him that she was Christine (Apple Dy), but warned Ariel to keep away from her because she was the kept woman of a powerful man, Edmund (Benz Sangalang). Christine endured the brutish, sexual abuse of Edmund because she depended on him for money to support her sickly family. Of course, Ariel did not heed.

This Vivamax film bore the pedigree of being written and directed by acclaimed director Jose Javier Reyes. However, there was nothing new or remarkable about this story at all. Surely there had been plenty of films about the allure of a mistress of dangerous man, and here was yet another one. Reyes did not add anything different to the usual story, except for the gratuitous sex scenes. If that ending was supposed to be a twist, we already saw it much earlier on.

Apple Dy was one of the breakout Vivamax starlets of 2023, playing a lead role in all her films -- "Punit na Langit," "Patikim-tikim," "Tuhog". In her previous films, Dy had proven that she can act, on top of baring skin. However, in this new one, the role was so ordinary and shallow, she looked bored and was just phoning it in. She knew she could not add anything more to it, and it did not look like she was trying to.

Benz Sangalang's Edmund may act like a ruthless brute, but he did not look like one. The costume department just allowed him to wear regular nondescript polo-shirts which made him look very ordinary, merely like a PA of a rich man.  In his first lead role, fair and clean-cut Armani Hector did not look like a typical Vivamax bad boy.  He did represent another category of Vivamax audience, proving that the wholesome-looking boy-next-door can also have something boiling inside them. 2/10.