Deo J. Fajardo, Jr.'s East of Paradise - Marooned in Many Levels

Here's a piece previously scheduled for a December 3 (2012) posting. Though the narrative is not particularly designed like a Pink flick, the story actually focuses on its male protagonist. Like many B-flicks of this generation, the female character takes a backseat while subtle emphasis is given to the appendage-gifted male star. But then this is a Deo Fajardo, Jr. movie whose characteristic hybrid of pseudo-action/drama and sex clash like water and oil.

STORY

On his way to meet his girl friend Amy in Cebu, Edgar (Ian Ileto), an air force officer, survives a plane crash that maroons him on an uninhabited island. Days later, he finds Lara (Sofia Lee) unconscious in a hidden cove. When she regains consciousness, they both realize that they only have each other to survive this ordeal. They subsist by fishing from the bounty of the sea and gradually learn about each other. Edgar's girl friend doesn't approve of his precarious employment and wants him to leave his job. This puts strain to their sketchy relationship. Lara, on the other hand, dances in a bar and sees this mishap as a way to redemption - out of the seedy grind of her job.

Edgar and Lara soon develop feelings for each other. But while Edgar is desperate for rescue, Lara prefers to stay. Edgar's concerns are valid: "Paano kung may emergency? Paano kung mabuntis ka't manganak?" Meanwhile, Lara is enraptured by their misfortune and is becoming increasingly apprehensive of the probity of their relationship. Would it survive once back in the civilized world? More importantly, has Lara been trashing Edgar's SOS signs? This frustrates Edgar no end. Will they ever get rescued?

Director Deo J. Fajardo, Jr.'s foray into "Blue Lagoon" territory straddles between mediocre drama and soft porn. His narrative candor is bogged down by his inability to go beyond the film's premise, i.e. two strangers marooned on an island. In fact, the tension of the plot is hobbled by a flimsy narrative burden. There's really nothing to do in the island but fish, make dubious rafts, go skinny dipping and shag the living daylights away. That's all they do; talk nonsense then go at it like rabbits.


There is, of course, the exploratory artifice to introduce dilemmas concerning their lives back in the dry lands, but they seem terribly unimportant, an excuse to smokescreen the immediate and more salient goal of disrobing the film's protagonists. Sofia Lee ("Batang Ifugao", "Pagnanasa", "Big Night", "Ken at Abel") is tentative and more perfunctory than earnest. She doesn't imbue sympathy to her tepid character even when she cries buckets so you're left staring at her unaffected. Ian Ileto does better. He looks like a screen hero and carries himself with confidence. This is evident even in the way he delivers his lines. It's too bad we haven't seen much from him since (this film was in the can since 2010 and has found a venue only in 2012). Ileto, it seems, is busier these days as cinematographer ("Hawla", "Butas 2", "Ang Jowa", and recently in Cudail's "Scorpion Lovers") and film editor ("Students Project", "Sulot", "Hawla", "Ang Jowa").

This is not a Pink Film by presentation and thematic design. It's a straight film, but Deo Fajardo (who rose to fame for "discovering" Robin Padilla) has always been known for his subtle homoerotic streaks even in pseudo-action/drama flicks like "Casa" with Asia Agcaoili and Paolo Paraiso, "Bangkero" with Michael Rivero; and let's not forget titles like "Hatulan si Baby Ama", "Miss na Miss Kita" (Ang Utol Kong Hoodlum 2) and "Anak ni Baby Ama". His cinematic vision is nothing to crow about. Remember the confused "Students Project" (2011)?

Edgar rescues and finds Lara.

NUDITY

In terms of nudity, there's plenty to go around here. Sofia Lee displays her gargantuan mammary in several scenes. Where frontal scenes are concerned, it's Ian Ileto who accommodates with his err... "considerable" endowments: in love scenes with his leading lady and in underwater scenes (shot in Bolinao, Pangasinan). In fact, these scenes recall Brooke Shields and Christopher Atkins' underwater frolic in the Randal Kleiser flick. So Ileto exposes his "slithering snake" flopping away in wondrous splendor. He isn't shy and it's understandable why. J

"Nasaan ako? Bakit ako nandito?" asks a disoriented Lara.

ABRUPT ENDING

The film culminates in anti-climactic fashion, ultimately losing steam as it wallows in narrative apathy. If getting shipwrecked provided Lara's redemption, ending this story was the film's ultimate accretion. Thank heavens for that. Otherwise, we're further subjected to aimless cinematic ramblings. Ending it abruptly prevented people from further embarrassment.

Spear fishing, anyone?

Raft construction turns intimate.

Underwater frolic.

Lara worries about "getting rescued". Go figure.

Ian Ileto: actor, cinematographer, film editor

Sofia Lee

Sofia Lee

Sofia Lee gets photo op with Dennis Trillo.

Paul Singh Cudail's Scorpion Lovers - Deception in Elementary Exposition

Romy (Karl Matthew Garcia), a call center agent, lives with lover Angelo (Dice Vergara), a student whom he financially supports. In a two-story apartment, they play out their seemingly harmonious lives. But Romy is on the verge of resigning from his job, looking forward to a well deserved summer holiday in Dumaguete with Angelo. What he doesn’t know is that Angelo failed his classes (he keeps putting off showing his class cards). What’s worse, their congenial relationship is a one-way affair; and Angelo’s itching to get rid of his doting benefactor. Meanwhile, a new boarder moves into a room downstairs. Vince (Glenn de Luna), the new guy, is imprudent, something that Angelo despises. the new housemate is a former macho dancer now being kept by a lascivious housewife (Jessica Ruiz) whose husband works overseas as a seaman.     

While Romy is away, Vince catches the disagreeable Angelo pleasuring himself while holding Vince’s missing underwear. This gives Vince the opportunity to seduce Angelo who, with nary a second thought, gives in – and even offers compensation for the former gay bar habitué. “Magkano ba’ng bayad nila sa yo? Siguro naman, kaya din kitang bayaran.” he asks.

Before long, Vince and Angelo become regular bedmates. One day, Romy comes home unexpectedly earlier than usual and he finds his housemates tintinnabulating their bells. What’s a guy to do? Should he accept the gun that his friend Joaquin (Ian Ileto) is offering? Guess.


Director Paul Singh Cudail’s “Scorpion Lovers” is 2013’s first local film released in commercial outlets. And I shiver at the thought of what this hints. Are we going to be inundated with more neuron-challenged male-oriented eroticas? The story, if you haven’t noticed, has been told several times in the past. While deception has many faces, “Scorpion Lovers” is particularly derivative and not well conceptualized. Like most of Cudail’s works, the story is laced with a hundred-and-one loopholes. Romy pays for his lover’s education yet he’s resigning from his job? How is he going to pay for Angelo’s tuition? Sure, they were planning for a summer holiday. But most working men take a leave of absence when taking a vacation; they don’t quit work.

Angelo never showed his new housemate Vince an iota of hospitality – or even attraction for that matter. He despised the guy, yet when he found Vince’s soiled underwear, he scampers to his room so he could “play” with it. This hardly makes sense. Even a sexual deviation like paraphilia has to follow certain rational strains.   

At the film’s second half, the narrative aimlessly rambles; the story gets desperate for a plot device to further move the story that seems to have stagnated. So Cudail presents us with his “deux ex machina” of sorts to address his storytelling dilemma. Enter Ian Ileto, the film’s editor and cinematographer, who cameos as Joaquin, Romy’s friend. His mere presence provides a foreboding that you could smell a mile away. Quite predictably, Cudail, who by then has painted himself into a corner, has found his narrative salvation. Is this brilliance? You could only wish. Similar minded Pink Flick directors like Edz Espiritu, Jigz Recto and Darry dela Cruz always end their stories tragically to provide an undeserved drama. Why not kill off a character? Better yet, why not kill everyone? Let's conclude the whole she-bang with a blood bath for inspiration, debah?

Cudail has been taking down notes from Blush because, for the first time in his mediocre directorial career, he didn’t offer a single shower/bathing scene, thinking perhaps that the absence of which could improve his storytelling acumen. It is wishful thinking, of course. But it is nevertheless refreshing not being able to watch anyone soap away their grime. Make no mistake, it’s still exploitative. A lot of wrinkly derriere (check out the opening scene) is still being flashed around. 

Glenn de Luna gets it on with boyish Dice Vergara.

Dice Vergara is as doltish as Karl Matthew Garcia who, with his tall and lanky frame, tries hard, if a bit too awkwardly. Garcia, who we last saw wave his “light saber” in Crisaldo Pablo’s inane, “Bagito”, must be raring to move away from Pablo’s shadow. Glenn de Luna’s performance is likewise hobbled by caricature. If there’s anyone who registers better than the main characters, it’s the hunky Ian Ileto who earlier topbilled a “Blue Lagoon” yarn for Deo Fajardo’s “East of Paradise”. Unfortunately, Ileto appears in only 3 sequences or so.

Why “Scorpion Lovers”? The title is an afterthought, to be honest. It turns out that both Angelo and Vince were born under one astrological sign - Scorpio. Naw, they didn't turn into predatory eight-legged arthropods with claws and venomous stingers. Cudail would have you believe otherwise, but mark my words. Nothing is vaguely profound in this film. It’s superficial, it’s crass and it’s cheap.

Ian Ileto pawns his gun to Karl Matthew Garcia. Not that gun!