September 20, 2023
UHAW
Director: Bobby Bonifacio, Jr.
Writer: Bobby Bonifacio, Jr.
Rejoice (Ataska) was a lounge singer in a bar, where she performed her original songs. She was married to tattoo artist Marcus (Itan Rosales), who owned the Gemini Link tattoo parlor. One day, after a steamy session of lovemaking, Marcus suddenly collapsed with a severe headache and fell into a coma. When Rejoice checked his mobile phone, she discovered that Marcus had another woman in his life -- Astrid (Angeli Khang).
Bonifacio was able to craft a serious, well-written Vivamax-style love story of devotion and sacrifice. The star of this feature is Ataska, not only in drama acting, as well as in singing, guitar, and songwriting. Her emotional songs gave the film its beating heart. Fans of Rosales need not worry that his Marcus being comatose practically the whole film. He still had a lot of action going on in flashback scenes. Despite being top-billed in the poster, Khang generously lent her star power in a significant supporting role. 6/10
Director: Roman Perez Jr.
Writer: Ronald Perez Jr.
Marites (Shiena Yu) introduced a "paluwagan" system to the women of a remote mountain village. They all invest P20 a day for a week, and one brought home the pot of P1000 on Saturday. For a twist, the woman with P1000 could choose to buy the carnal services of the hunk Hector (Victor Relosa) for 2 nights and a day. This week, it was turn of Julia (Micaella Raz), who was unsatisfied by her husband Itong (Chad Solano).
The plot was quite complex for Vivamax standards, even needing a helicopter wreck in one scene. Director Perez and his DP Albert Banzon was able to bring out the lushness of the green mountain forest setting, with some impressive-looking overhead drone shots. The atmospheric musical score by Dek Margaja for the sex scenes was very lush as well. On the debit side, the acting of the female ensemble was garish, and Relosa's wig was ugly. 5/10
Director: Dustin Celestino
Head Writer: Maya Diaz
Writer: Steve Sanchez, Matt Teves
Lively Dahlia (Dyessa Garcia) and stuck-up Jules (Cess Garcia) were best of friends. When a liberated foreign student Nessa (Dani Yoshida) transferred to their class, she quickly became close with Dahlia, much to Jules's annoyance. Professor Mr. Lopez (Chester Grecia) was the object of schoolgirl fantasies. One day, when Nessa was asked by Mr. Lopez to stay behind to discuss her failing marks, a nasty rumor about them began to spread around the school.
Cess Garcia did quite well in her recent films "Kapalit" and "Linya," and she does fairly well here as well, but as the mousy Jules, the make-up crew made her look plain and sullen. Chester Grecia gave his best to play a dignified English-speaking professor and somehow pulls it off. The story about how malicious rumors spread was a serious one, but unfortunately, Celestino had a quota of sex scenes to fulfill, and rushed the ending. 5/10
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