May 16, 2024
One night, Dindo (Diego Loyzaga) was drinking alone in a bar in Chinatown. When he was about to leave, he realized he forgot to bring his wallet. His argument with the waiter was overheard by the young lady in the next table, Karla (Coleen Garcia), who offered to pay his bill. The two walked around outside to get to know each other better. Karla suggested that for this one night, they are obliged to open up to each other, and tell only the truth.
From there, the two began to share stories about themselves and their families. Dindo is a literature professor in PUP now, but he used to work as a janitor for his college tuition. Since both his parents are deceased, he was raised by his older sister (Angela Orfalas). Karla married her wealthiest suitor Andrew (Alex Medina) right out of college. With this, she was able to achieve her childhood dream of living in a big house with five bedrooms.
For the story and screenplay of this film, National Artist for Film Ricky Lee came up with a complex tale that started out as a straightforward sharing of sad stories between two strangers. However, it would eventually turn out to be a twist-filled melodrama with multiple scandalous revelations coming out at every turn right up to the end. To be honest, the nature of these shocking surprises were quite contrived, requiring suspension of disbelief.
Most of the stories exchanged were sexual in nature -- the "first time", rape and even pornography. So if Karla was played by AJ Raval or Angeli Khang, this could have easily been a Vivamax film, but with more graphic breast exposure (than what Angelica Hart did here) and much longer and acrobatic sex scenes. But since it was Coleen Garcia in the lead, her presence somehow gave this sexy project a modicum of modesty and class.
Garcia and Loyzaga try their best to keep their performances serious, even if the tales they told got really overwrought. In addition, they spent most of the the second half of the film talking wearing only a shirt and lower underwear, no pants. Yayo Aguila and Soliman Cruz got to show off their stuff in their limited screen time as Andrew's parents. Director Mac Alejandre tried to build up suspense at the ending, until it fell short with that sudden stop. 5/10.
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