February 16, 2024
Bank employee Luis "Carps" Carpio (Enrique Gil) had always been straight-as-an-arrow, always doing things by the book. He had been seeing his girlfriend Cathy (Ashley Rivera) for five years now, but their dates had been very routine, nothing exciting or fun. Much to her dismay, Carps never even made any sexual advance on her all those years. When Carps proposed marriage one night, he was shell-shocked when she turned him down.
The distraught Carps suddenly decided to treat his two best friends, the jobless July (Red Ollero) and the metrosexual Macky (Nikko Natividad), to an all-expenses-paid trip to Bangkok. However, when Thai people saw Carps, they seemed to be in awe of him. It turned out that he looked exactly like Big Bird, a very popular porn star in Thailand known for his gigantic manhood, who had suddenly mysteriously dropped out of the scene.
Director Victor Villanueva is still best known for the irreverent family road-trip movie "Patay na si Jesus" (2016), his feature directorial debut. Since then, silly over-the-top comedy had been his specialty, the latest one being "Kidnap for Romance" (2023). This newest project of his is certainly his silliest and most over-the-top of them all, and most challenging as he had to deal with foreign locations, language, and Thai actors in major roles.
The screenplay was written by two writers with contrasting output in the past, you can probably guess who wrote which parts of the movie. Lilit Reyes, known for "Water Lemon" (2015) and "Changing Partners" (2017), could be responsible for the more serious parts. His co-writer Joma Labayen, who had been Villanueva's writer twice before for "Kusina Kings" (2018) and "Boy Bastos" (2022), likely wrote the raunchy parts.
Being a sex comedy set in Bangkok, it was inevitable that Carps and company had a wild time in a nightclub in the notorious red-light district. After watching the infamous sexy stage show featuring the prodigious "Banana Lady," the boys were taken to their private rooms. Here, Villanueva did self-imposed censorship with amusing effect, interrupting the visuals of their sexy time with public service announcements, as the moaning went on in the background.
This film (rated R-16 by MTRCB) was meant to shock audiences to laughter, so the sexually-explicit language and suggestive motions were left intact (the actual organs were mercifully pixelated). The scene when July, in an effort to attract attention of fellow Filipinos, was shouting "T**i!" aloud in public may seem contrived. However, when tuktuk driver / tour guide Prajak (Pepe Herrera) appeared to respond to that call, that moment was truly hilarious.
The biggest selling point of this new film is its unlikely star -- Enrique Gil -- in his first film post Liza Soberano. Gil pulled up all the stops here, playing dual characters in a genre way out of his romantic lead comfort zone. His Carps was the butt of naughty jokes at the expense of his "shortcomings," while his doppelganger Big Bird was a riot with his legendary shlong and Italian (?) accent. Gil threw practically all caution to the wind and clearly had fun playing both of them. 7/10
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