onscreen

one of my earliest teenaged dreams was to become an actor...that all changed not too long ago when i realized i loved writing better...but since coming to manila, ive had chances to be a participant in films...here is how i felt when i first saw myself on the big screen through the movie laruang lalake...

There are a billion slices of life journeys that transverse and intersect in the highway of everyday.  Most of the time, we are too self absorbed to concern ourselves with the possibility that other lives are not as what we view them that we tend to be judgmental on the lives that we somehow feel is not at par with what we expect.

To those whose guilty pleasures count indie films as one of them, seeing the finished products plant ideas that most of the time give way to thoughts and beliefs that guide how we view the people that we see onscreen.  We delude ourselves that somehow we know how these actors are by the way we see them in the movies. 

This view will be shattered by LARUANG LALAKE!

Not so much as a conventional film where the story is propelled by conflict and the way the characters deal with the situations, Lex Bonife has again written a thought provoking work that changes that expectations of the viewers.  It is so much more an expose on what happens behind what we see. 

Sitting alone in the darkened theatre, I was taken into the set of a film within a film; there was no glamor, no dazzle, just how people as ordinary people act and react in situations that could be real or not.  There was not any pretense nor come on but it satisfies the mind.

Yes, as a gay themed film it delivers what most viewers would expect.  Yes, you see glimpses of the private appendages that might have tickled your fancy into watching but it is more than that.  I totally approved of the MTRCB approval without any cuts, because in the end it is not these very important scenes that you would remember but the thought that maybe, just maybe, these actors are real persons that have other lives besides the made up ones we often see.

Direk Jay Altarejos has done it again.  I remember a comment from a blog that this movie is Altarejos and Bonife joining the band wagon of making movies just for the sake of showing dicks and guys making out.  I invite that critic to join me in watching and after say his piece once again; if he could in all honesty.

Just like "Ang Laro sa Buhay ni Juan", this film teaches us.  Not by being literal but by sharing with us a glimpse of "their" lives; all too mortal lives that could even share our aches and our strive to share just a piece of our art even against the biggest odds - though sometimes we fail as all humans do.

Arjay Carreon and Marco Morales delivers.   And I was totally absorbed by Mark but it was the line of Richard Quan that totally got me towards the end of the film; that is genius!

Do not expect closure but expect to think about the individuals even after what you will witness.

Kudos to all those who has made this work of art possible.

And yes, seeing my face and name onscreen is totally surreal - until next time.