Genre’s Not Dead

Love and hate are as intimately intertwined as Rhian and Aljur here.

My Kontrabida Girl
Director: Jade Castro
Cast: Rhian Ramos, Aljur Abrenica, Bea Binene, Jake Vargas, Bella Flores, Enzo Pineda, Chariz Solomon, Kevin Santos, Sef Cadayona, Ken Chan, Bela Padilla, Gwen Zamora
2012 

Do not be fooled by its deceptively accessible surface, enhanced by the parade of delicious biceps thanks to Aljur Abrenica, Enzo Pineda et. al. You may think you’re just watching another run-of-the-mill boy-meets-girl story (well, to some extent that’s what it is) but who would’ve thought that GMA Films would come up with a romantic comedy that’s not plain fluff? 

Un-cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Pamela didn't get the memo regarding harvest attire.

Kangkong
Director: Mauro Gia Samonte
Cast: Brigitte de Joya, Rodel Velayo, Odette Khan, Emmanuel Borlaza
2000

There are so many wild contradictions in Mauro Gia Samonte’s mind-boggling Kangkong that frankly, I don’t know where to begin. The film, to describe it in simple terms, is a very strange hybrid of soft porn and religious cinema. And not just the common kind of porn with a religious fetish—it’s actually a serious attempt to describe the difficulties of becoming a priest. So serious in fact that despite its genre and pito-pito aesthetics, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, in its 2001 review of the film, called it “a good story… well worth one’s time and money.”

The first twenty minutes of the film is pure Seiko material—and incredibly funny, I must admit. Pamela (Brigitte de Joya) is a balikbayan lass with a penchant for skimpy clothes. Her fleshy limbs and conyotic twang, paired with a naïveté for rural ways, makes her a prime target for rude sex-starved tricycle drivers. She is saved from harassment by Carlos (Rodel Velayo), a handsome tricycle driver who turns out to be a rich lola’s boy on his way to entering the seminary. Thus begins Pamela’s desire for Carlos—and the temptations which threaten the boy’s divine calling.