User Reviews

Deep in the heart of Manila, a graphic arts novelist, Mario/Galogo, begins to examine his life, which is at a crossroads. Elwood Perez has directed a film that is all at once jarring, charming, bizarre, campy, laced with shticks and conceits, full of wry humor, but fascinating and riveting. The major characters are played by newcomers and the support by non-marquee names, with Perez deigning to cast some familiar names in key roles.

Ronnie Liang is like one of those handsome 1920s Hollywood stars – beautiful, glamorous, a fine specimen women would rave about (until such actors spoke, with the coming of the "talkie" movies). Immediately bombarding us with a bizarre opening scene, Mario, a cook in a Chinese restaurant, sautées pig's brains into an omelet. His girlfriend (the only real girl in his romantic life) visits him, voices her disgust at such culinary fare, and proceeds to have hot sex with him. Although I had an inkling that Liang would bare skin, I had no idea he would be given a lot of sexy scenes! But... that is the Elwood Perez touch!

Donato (Federico Olbés) is an old-wealth art collector who has somehow squandered his fortunes but enjoys a (very tenuous) relationship with Raul, a young, handsome artist. Donato and Raul seem to be working a "con" on rich matrons, producers, promoters and gallery owners.

Raul (Vince Tañada) is handsome, ambitious, compulsive, conflicted, and, later, a forlorn has-been and a full-blown junkie. He feels his life has been dissipated, ruined, by being Donato's kept boy.

Mona (Adelle Aura) is the widow of the wealthy Conrado Soriano. And Mona is ripe for the picking as Donato/Raul/Mario work their "con" on her, jointly and separately. Mona's identity, revealed slowly by the film, is akin to Jaye Davidson's "Dil" in THE CRYING GAME (1993).

Solita (Solita del Sol) is a beautiful trans-gender (very timely of Perez to have written such a character, given the controversial Jennifer Laude murder) whom our hero meets on a train ride. Del Sol has a very surprising "exposure" scene as Mario keeps stalking her and fantasizing about marriage with "her."

OJ Mariano plays Solita's "husband."

Guillermo Gómez plays a priest who gives advice to Mario -- advice on same-sex marriage, as the naïve Mario cannot distinguish between real women and trans-gender women.

Cecile Guidote-Alvarez plays Mario's "grandmother," and their meeting scene is bizarre yet touching.

Ms Boots Anson-Roa plays, amusingly, a socialite named "Gilda" who accepts Mona Soriano into her inner circle. Her flair for comedy is a hidden gem.

Tesa Martinez and Carlos Celdran play themselves, with the bizarre touch of vampire fangs. The symbolism of vampirism and homosexuality/bisexuality (as Tesa dn Carlos threaten to consume the hapless Mario) is obvious and very ripe… quite easy to form the idea that "it" swallows you whole; the idea that it will infect you like a contagious disorder; the idea that (pardon my French) gay sex drains a man of energy.

Jessica Zafra plays herself in a very amusing cameo, dispensing advice during a book-signing at Solidaridad Bookshop, with chagrin and befuddlement, to the up-and-coming novelist Mario. Garrulous Tessa Prieto-Valdes plays herself in a ho-hum cameo. (The art event with Tessa and Ms Boots Anson-Roa is peppered with socialites' faces).

Snooky Serna, Lance Raymundo, Jon Hall, Wig Tysmans, Justin de Leon, Jordan Ladra, Cindy Liper and a host of indie talents are peppered throughout the film.

As the lives of the first girlfriend, of Mona, Solita, two brothers (who are "cousins" of Mario) intersect Mario's, Manila is presented in all its glory and, for lack of a better word, grime. Manila is all at once exciting, colorful, beauteous, dangerous, glamorous, pathetic, seedy, slick, hellish, yet a paradise for others... The very paradox of Manila underscores the dichotomy of the character that is Mario (will he tread this path? that path? will he follow in Raul's careless footsteps? will he allow Donato to run, and possibly ruin, his life?), and Elwood very interestingly contrasts Mario with Raul. Physically, both men are handsome but Liang is taller than Tañada. The latter's face is like the way my favorite author Ian Fleming described his creation, James Bond: hard, chiseled face, cruel mouth, etc. And the camera loves Ronnie! In his odd, bizarre scenes, in his steamy scenes, in his comic scenes, Ronnie Liang is made love to not just by a host of oddball characters but also by the obsessive lens.

Alas, being surrounded by theater and veteran actors, Liang's voice- over narration leaves a lot to be desired; it belies his strength as a natural singer (but poor speaker). It came across as too singsong- y, almost Forrest Gump-like. Perez must have like the mere innocence of his voice. (Fantasy: Had Perez made this in the 1970s/1980s, he would have ostensibly cast Alfie Anido, Miguel Rodríguez or even Maja Salvador's father, Ross Rival). There's still time for the hunky Liang to harness his acting chops, but he looks the part and acts the part (but work on your elocution and diction, man!).

ESOTERIKA: MANILA examines Metro Manila campily (for it is a campy place), and what makes it tick. The dichotomy between Mario and Raul seem to underscore the theory that it's really just one person -- Elwood himself, who based this on his actual personal experiences, especially when he was penning the 1989 film BAGWIS. Leave it to the naughty minds to imagine what really happened in Elwood's youth, but Perez is one filmmaker who can shoot sexy scenes without resorting to tackiness, vulgarity or gratuitousness. We should really thank Perez for making such a brazen film, for tackling such a brazen subject matter (and there really are very few non-indie movies that tackle LGBT themes). I heartily applaud Perez for his latest oeuvre, a film so brazen, bizarre, charming, campy, garrulous and definitely entertaining!

Elwood's follow-up project, Esoterika: Maynila, the opening film of this year's Cinema One Originals starring Ronnie Liang and Vince Tañada, is bizarre of the seductive, intoxicating kind. A high wire act, Esoterika challenges us to look at movies not in the manner we are used to because it was what was traditional, what our minds – used to lying prostrate within comfort zones – could follow and easily grasp.

It offers us a walk towards discovering the endless possibilities of the film medium through a procession of startling, striking, sometimes haunting images. The second in a trilogy about the creative process, Esoterika: Maynila is a beguiling statement from a filmmaker whose worth and reputation time and finer tastes had redeemed and re-evaluated.

Physically perfect for the part of the fellow who becomes a successful komiks author, Ronnie Liang renders the dichotomous nature of his role with luminosity and a striking sense of fully understanding the trickiness of the character. Only the perceptive will realize that the role of Mario, the once-upon-a-time cook who comes to mingle with the colorful, if strange, denizens of Manila is not without guile. Among the motley cast of eccentric characters is the opera upstart Raul, played with ferocity by Vince Tanada. Donato, Raul's gay, nouveau poor benefactor, is inhabited by Federico Olbes who looks and speaks every inch like a man of fine, polished tastes. Carlos Celdran is remarkable as the ultimate sophisticate who, for amusement, wears fangs and role-plays the metaphorical city vampire. In the context of current Philippine realities - the news-breaking Laude case, Vice Ganda as the reigning screen superstar, My Husband's Lover as a top TV series – Esoterika: Maynila plays like a plea for better understanding of homosexuality and its various permutations. But that would be a shallow summation of Esoterika for it offers much more than what it immediately conveys. Notable industry denizens have sung early praise. Young filmmaker Raya Martin calls it "a hedonistic adventure in the roller-coaster that is our society. Esoterika: Maynila is the poignant journal of a master in Philippine Cinema" while topnotch playwright Nicolas B. Pichay is obviously smitten: "In Esoretika: Maynila, Elwood Perez continues the cinematic tradition of paying homage to a city. Part diary, part fantasy, the movie evokes campy- kitschy-surreal Manila. Briny and existential, this movie shares a cinematic place alongside Bernal's Manila By Night and Brocka's Maynila Sa Mga Kuko Ng Liwanag." Raymond Lee, producer of recent gems such as Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Endo, and Zombadings considers Elwood's latest opus a cause for celebration. "It invites you to throw caution to the wind, walk with it, and never look down." The November premiere of Esoterika was Lee's second viewing of it. "It was my second time watching it and while the demerits were more glaring, the movie's charm was even harder to resist. Amazingly, some of the demerits add to the charm! Maybe someday I'll see the movie again and realize it blindsided me with its seductively aimless ramblings, quixotic yet amorphous morality, and even its endearingly lame humor. But for now, I'm quite taken with it." A-list director Joyce Bernal is also reportedly an instant fan of Esoterika. The buzz surrounding the movie also prompted Elwood's erstwhile long-time producer Lily Monteverde to give him a call. But what's even more worth noting about Perez's resurgence is that it proves once more that he is a genius at timing. He came back at the right moment when it's a great time to be making and watching local movies and treading uncharted territory.

As he was wont in the past, something he has confided to me in one of our late-night talks, Elwood Perez just as quickly left the theater as the opening credits of Esoterika were being flashed on the big screen. There was the picture, a product of endless nights of revising and the sheer joy of working up magic from a germ of an idea, and the public's verdict on it was, as he told me in a personal message, "depended on one's perspective."

It's either you dislike it or praise it to high heavens, one hallmark of a work of art that cannot and will not be ignored.

However, I maintain that Esoterika: Maynila's main allure is the fact that it has that polarizing quality and that it is, at its very heart, irreverent. It doesn't beg for an ordinary viewer's love because that is tantamount to asking him to watch Fellini and understand the famed Italian master's hypnotic yet hard-to-decipher film language. Esoterika challenges people who've been seeing movies all their lives and profess such devotion to cinema to test further how they see movies and the many possibilities that can be explored.

In the present scheme of things, with independently produced fare and even mainstream films seemingly focused on trying to nab attention and a share of the spotlight, making movies has been reduced somehow into an undertaking marked by pomp and pageantry over and above the urgency, the emotions, the stories. In a dear friend's own words, it took a seasoned helmer like Elwood Perez to show us again how magic is expertly done.

He has more than made a new masterpiece. Elwood Perez has rewritten his own history.