User Reviews

The bright opening innocent sequences of cell phone "selfie" recordings, playful and lighthearted, introduce us to a very handsome young man and a buddy, but as time passes we see they are not alone, and they are soon to lose any semblance of innocence. The story follows two stars of the cast of one of Manila's macho dancer male erotic reviews. There is a gritty urgent realism to this film, enhanced by the extensive use of handheld cellphone video, about these two young performers whose lives take a dark turn even more disturbing than the exploitative world in which they coolly make their livings. The film pays more than token reference to the endemic corruption of the Philippines juxtaposing in one scene the desperate, passionate desire to love and be loved while, in the background on stage, one performer dramatizes the extrajudicial murder of his brethren at the hands of the dictatorial regime of the current president. This was like watching a beautiful flower trying to bloom in the harshest of deserts. These are young men who sincerely pray to Jesus to give them the strength to perform a nearly naked runway bathing suit competition, ironically, blissfully unaware of the contradictions in their lives. What begins in light and mirth drags into a darkly lit film of terror and despair, climaxing in perhaps one of the most grisly and stunning murder scenes ever filmed. This is not a film for the fainthearted.