January 4, 2025
Miguel Vergara (Arjo Atayde) led his team of elite military command force soldiers against notorious bandits. Only Miguel survived this deadly encounter, and he witnessed his men executed by cutting off their heads, including his best friend Leon (Enchong Dee). Provoked into action by his explosive fury, Miguel single-handedly killed all the bandits there. However, he subsequently suffered from a debilitating PTSD that cost him his job.
He took on a job as a security guard of a huge abandoned warehouse. On his first night on the job, he caught siblings Weng (Julia Montes) and Bogs (Kokoy De Santos) enter his area of responsibility. They had witnessed the rub-out of a gang of drug pushers by a group of crooked anti-narcotics task force led by Romero (Sid Lucero). The cops were under pressure from the big boss mayor herself to catch these loose ends and eliminate them ASAP.
Despite his fair mestizo looks, Arjo Atayde preferred to be involved in action-drama projects than rom-coms. Since he gained mainstream recognition playing Police Capt. Joaquin Tuazon, the first main antagonist of Cardo Dalisay on "Ang Probinsyano" (2015), Atayde never shirked from playing roles of damaged men, like Benjo Malaya from "Bagman" (2019) or Anton dela Rosa on "The Cattleya Killer" (2023). And now, Miguel Vergara joins that list.
Atayde's security guard Miguel had a flat monotone voice of deep timbre when he talked, and a flat monotone affect on his face whatever was happening around him. These details Atayde gave Miguel made him look and feel more imposing than his relatively slim build may suggest. Atayde's slight physique was in stark contrast with Sid Lucero's formidable heft in their final showdown fight, but by then we already know and accept that Miguel was invincible.
Julia Montes's Weng had already quit being a drug runner for Banjo (Jeffrey Tam), but because of Bogs' foolishness, she was forced to step back in. You just have to be amazed at the fortitude of Weng's constitution at the way she can recover so fully after being repeatedly stomped on her belly and having her head repeatedly banged against a metal surface. The loud sound made by every blow on Weng's body can cause viewers double up in pain.
The direction and execution of the action scenes reminded me of Somes' previous "We Will Not Die Tonight" (2018), where the main story also just happened in the course of one long night. Somes' production design still consisted of empty warehouses with a lot of plastic sheets hanging around, but this one had a flame thrower and a rotatory saw table in there. Again, Jaymie Dumancas' clean flawless editing deserves award citation.
I watched the R-18 cut, so there was certainly a lot of bloody graphic violence. When bandits cut the necks, they don't just slash it once and it's over. Their knives must've all been dull that day, so we had to watch them sawing back and forth, as the blades were ripping skin and muscle open. Queasy folks will need to watch through their fingers to get through this and other similarly brutish scenes involving cutting heads off. I wonder how much of these scenes were cut to tame it down to R-16. 6/10
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