Tuesday, August 7, 2012

G.A. Villafuerte's Kapa - Grappling in the Dark

Glenn and Ronald (Miguel
Alcantara and Marco Ronquillo)
are best friends. While both seem to harbor feelings for each other, Glenn
conceals his affection for his visually impaired friend, fearing he might lose
him if he told him of his feelings. So Glenn offers Ronald occasional glimpses
of happiness by setting up dates with different men, like the mild mannered
Gary (Karl Matthew Garcia).
Meanwhile, Glenn indulges in coupling with several men: the impulsive Drolan (Whacky Seon) and the amorous Ceejay (Kristian Marquez) with whom Glenn seems
to find a more stable relationship.

Ronald, on the other hand, keeps pining for Glenn who jumps from one
concupiscent bed to another. Blinded by an accident, Ronald is affectionately kept
company by his brother Russel (Darwin
Taylo) and his Lola Rosa (Rosemarie
Ibarrita). Russel has issues of his own. He’s conflicted by the attention
showered on him by Jethro (Alvin Duckert)
who doesn’t hide his attraction to the wistful Russel. But something bothers
Russel about Jethro which the latter solves by cleaning up his gothic image.

One day, Glenn takes Ronald out for another “blind” date set up by Ceejay. Ronald is left under the care of good
looking Aljer (Xyrus Arruejo) who
turns out to be the date from hell. Aljer in fact wants money and when Ronald
refuses, he pummels the blind man until he’s black and blue. All hell breaks loose,
of course, and Glenn gets blamed for putting Ronald’s life in peril. Glenn, meanwhile,
breaks up with Ceejay for setting up the date with the devil. What becomes of
Glenn and Ronald’s friendship? Will Darwin even find happiness in Jethro’s warm
embrace? More importantly, will the ubiquitous loafer Sarah (Adriana Gomez) ever find another
micromini to wear? Heavens, what dilemma!

Glenn and Ronald are best friends.

Russel and Jethro are also attracted with each other.

Director GA Villafuerte
concocts a world that barely mirrors any hint of reality. Every darn character
is a homosexual. Everyone sleeps around, even the blind! Villafuerte seems to
be wallowing in his detached world of despicable characters. This director’s
means of building up characters usually end up with several rigodon of bodies
humping away without much passion. To be honest, it is not easy to follow any of
his characters because they are defined merely by their propensity to sleep
around with other ill-defined characters. This is what makes films like this
hard to document. The characters are interchangeable. In fact there's nothing much in
character development except that they are all horny as hell.

The performances here leave much to be desired. Miguel Alcantara
depicts his role with cardboard characterization and his depiction of a garish
gay man is nothing short of cringe-worthy. Marco Ronquillo, in his cinematic
debut, appears stiff, making viable excuse out of his blind character. In fact,
you don’t find any expression on his face, except the element of being
completely emotionally dispossessed. More importantly, isn’t Ronquillo, who’s
too droll to be a cinema hunk, too old to be a movie newbie?

While we like Alvin Duckert and find him “artistahin”, he has been compromised by his over enthusiasm (“Lihim ng mga Nympha”, “Butas 2”). Darwin
Taylo, on the other hand, has to lighten up. He is too serious for his own
sake. This is the wrong vehicle for the introspective tack. Far from it,
actually. Karl Matthew Garcia shows promise although this may appear to be so
because he wasn’t really given much to munch. Xyrus Arruejo looks good on screen.
He was substantially sinister in his scenes. My two cents worth believes that
Villafuerte, like the exploitative film maker that he is, is priming Arruejo for
“bigger” things. In fact, something
must be in the works to get Arruejo out
of his briefs in Villafuerte’s next films. Well, there’s “Hardinero” awaiting commercial release.
Wanna bet? J

Now let’s get to the sex scenes. Most of them occur within a song (one
full musical strain is played) and they are shown rubbing against each other’s
naked bodies before eventually expiring into droll resolution. I have in fact
never seen such apathetic sexual coupling.

The script is a messy excuse of a cinematic drivel. We find Russel
apologizing every time he meets Jethro and we wonder why. He avoids Jethro like
the plague but when the latter cleans up himself, Russel suddenly accommodates
Jethro. Such is love, debah? Pag di na mukhang nangangamoy,
tanggapin na. Haha. In another scene, Russel refuses to hold Jethro’s hand,
but gamely makes out – in public! So much for discretion.

When Ronald is left
alone with the impatient Aljer, the latter turns off the lights. Did he forget
that he was with a blind man? When Ronald refused to touch him, he went
berserk: “Hindi ako nagpunta dito para
babuyin!” But was he harassed? In fact he wanted to be taken advantage of. After
recuperating from the mauling incident, we’re suddenly ushered in a scene that
has Ronald removing eye bandage. Are we missing a narrative strain? When did he
get the eye operation? Ophthalmological surgeons and corneal specialists never
do their post-operative follow ups in a patient’s home! They require the use of
slit lamps and indirect ophthalmoscopy for this! Moreover, corneal transplants for both eyes are never done in a single schedule! Villafuerte’s laziness and cluelessness
really show in these simple scenes.

“Kapa” is further hobbled by
an uneven sound and the film maker’s utter neglect to room tone, thus in several scenes, you could hardly hear any part
of the conversation – like when Russel met Jethro at a restaurant beside a
Tagaytay road. Now tell me, how does one expect a legible story to unravel when they aren't even intelligible? Villafuerte doesn’t care. All he’s after are the
intermittent peekaboos of his actors’
peckers. Yet his film’s posters call this “a
new masterpiece”! Please excuse me while I vomit.

The nerve, really!

Miguel Alcantara and Marco Ronquillo

Darwin Taylo and Kristian Marquez

Alvin Duckert: As enthusiastic in his performance as he is flashing his Eurasian jewels.

Whacky Seon: He seconds the motion re: flashing his Asian jewels. :)

Kart Matthew Garcia

Xyrus Arruejo plays the homophobe Aljer. Watch him flash HIS family jewels in his next GA Villafuerte film. :)

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