It is the third film presented here by director Auraeus Solito and is completely different from his previous films. It starts with a long "chatty" scene, as if it were supposed to be a theater performance, the individual scenes are quite long, and I must admit that the booing, humiliation, machismo and sexism from the military environment never smelled good to me, because I hate it when "someone" has it in their hands too much, or if I should be commanded (not only in the army, but also in my job) by an even bigger idiot than I am.

Of course, the film raises questions and we have to answer them ourselves. The actors are "effortless" and I evaluate overall from the perspective of an East Asian viewer, because of course this movie has its own Pinoy perspective and dimension. Of the director's three films, I rate this one in third place.

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An absolutely exceptional film by Philippine standards (highly rated on ČSFD, MDL and IMDb) collected so many awards, victories for the creator and actors at film festivals and nominations (56 in total) that it is perhaps impossible to count in America (Santa Monica, Montreal, Park City and Toronto), Asia (Tokyo, Singapore, the awards of the Philippine Film Academy and three other Philippine organizations) and Europe (Turin, Berlin, Rotterdam, Warsaw, Tallinn and Amsterdam) and is atypical worldwide mainly because of the main story of a young man, indeed almost still a childhood gay. Reality shines through, from the beginning of the film in a documentary style (how the poorest sections of the population live by necessity in the suburbs of Manila), later added the component of a young policeman, with whom he and Maximo fall in love, and criminal plots and, above all, excellent acting performances by almost all of them, led by a not even fourteen-year-old ( at the time of filming) by Nathan Lopez.
This reality was evident in Maxim's family, where the brothers and father were played by typically well-chosen actors and the Manila policeman Victor followed closely behind them. The fact that gays sometimes twist more and put flowers in their hair is typical for East and South Asia and the whole of Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand), in some countries gays unfortunately have no other option but to play "at woman" (as a tolerated third gender) rather than being despised.
So if I take away the Pinoy mannerisms, the technical shortcomings (sometimes the camera and the tinny, rather strong music component - for that I deducted two points for the music and processing), then for me satisfaction and I agree with the absolute superiority of all reviewers on all world servers, who rate the film very positively. Actually, if the processing was perfect in the "American" way, it wouldn't be the right Pinoy movie for me. Here on GT, in my opinion, the director's best film, closely followed by Boy (I) and then Esprit De Corps.

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It's a very different movie.
He is completely different than most.
It is Thai, where the Thai branch of Buddhism predominates.
It is necessary to look at him from this point of view and not to evaluate only through the eyes of a Central European viewer. Why is the scene like that, why are the actors playing it like that, why is the film pensive, poignant almost from the beginning.
The content of the film is very well described on ČSFD, be sure to read it before watching the film.

When the viewer is able to put all this together, he cannot make a bad assessment. It is a film about images, about feelings, about LIFE. It is a film whose message will remain forever in my soul...

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