Brass tacks. The scenes.

THE TORO SCENES: Unfortunately, there is no exposure of the private parts, i.e., the male sex organ and the female sex organ. A lot of breast exposure (about two minutes combined) and butt exposure and the actors doing the motions of the toro performance. What you see in the trailer, that's it, plus breast exposure and butt exposure. The whole time, Klaudia Koronel hides her private part with her leg, or with the body of her toro performer, in those times that she hides behind her partner, her legs are spread apart and around him. (maybe that's what they find objectionable, or the motions). There's a 4-second scene shot from the ceilling, 20-meter distance, of Klaudia Koronel's naked behind and under her is the male partner, then her body moves clockwise. There's a shot of her suspending herself on her partner with her legs, breast exposure; there's a shot of the toro performers' butts, on their knees; another one on all fours; camera shots taken from behind. That's it for two minutes. There's a lot of breast exposure and butt exposure and motions.

OTHER SCENES WITH NUDITY: 1. Shower scene: there's a 7-second shot of Ana Capri, frontal nudity from behind glass made semi-opaque with water and steam coming from the shower and three men at her, and she's emoting anguish, etc..Tapos!The rest of the shower scene is a close-up of her face emoting like she feels dirty. 2. There's a 5-second long shot (10 meter distance) of Hazel Espinosa, frontal nudity, as she walks, emoting shame, to her husband who is her toro partner, then she lies down and the shot is from her side, and they perform toro and she emotes numbness like she's not in her body. 3. There's a 6-second shot of Klaudia Koronel, nude in bed with her lover but she covers parts below her waist with her leg, breast exposure, the camera is on the side of the leg covering her.

That's all folks.

Throughout this movie, there is not a single kissing scene. not a single scene of kissing, caressing, brushing of arms, looking at each other. Go figure out why. The Nizoral commercial (have you seen that) is more erotic, why does that get away on television?

THE LANGUAGE. The p.i. words abound. For the character played by Klaudia Koronel and the male toro performers, and the pimps, the p.i. word and it's variations is said about every 7th word; the tagalog word of vagina is used about five times or seven times and the male equivalent about twice. i think the filmmaker is trying to shock middle-class sensibilities with the language by bringing home the point that there's a seedy world out there that you don't go to. (Should this be criminalized?)

STORY AND SUBPLOTS: Mother who has cancer, a prostituted woman in her younger days, she pimped her own daughter when the child was 13 and now daughter hates her and wished she were dead. The other siblings (son and two daughters, characters played by Ana Capri and Hazel Espinosa) are all toro performers; they are all supporting their dying mother; only the youngest, a boy, is spared because his brother is protective of him. SUBPLOTS: Ana Capri has a child that she had given away, now 7 years old, and throughout the film, all she wants is to be able to hug the child, and the child pushes her away and spits on her face and the adoptive mother drives her away like a criminal. She has several suicide attempts. Her friend, Klaudia Koronel is sending three relatives to school, and is saving up to go to Japan, and when she did, her gay agent who received the money from her was mugged, almost to death. Ana Capri's brother is the narrator of the story. He is a toro performer. He is very articulate, emotionally perceptive, and insightful; I guess you need that for a narrator. He would rather be parted from the youngest sibling to whom he is closest by sending him to live with their aunt rather than risk the boy becoming like him. (this is the only part that evoked any emotion from me, sorry guys. the story and the scenes didn't evoke any emotions from me, Ana Capri's acting is deliberate, Klaudia Koronel is a natural, she does the funny scenes. the male actors are so simple that they are able to drive home the emotional point before you realize it. Anyway. ) The character played by Hazel Espinosa is married to her former toro partner, they have a child, the husband loses the job as construction work, the child gets sick, they need money to save the child; after trying everything and not being able to get a job, they prostitute themselves again; until the husband decides that they should go back to their old job of toro instead of selling their bodies to different men.
Should this movie, and should this story and subplots be criminalized?

STYLE: Melodrama

What is pornography?
I guess you'll never be able to decide because you'll never see this material.

Only Malacañang and the MTRCB Board can see it, and movies like this one. Sila pwede nilang panoorin, tayo hindi, kasi they are the guardians of our morality, they have to protect us from Satan. Anyway, may tax cuts naman. That's the rule now, okay?

By: M.

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