Push Admin

Movie review: Brillante Mendoza's 'Palitan' is an erotic film first

Article (news)

Fred Hawson

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="A scene from " src="http://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/news/12/12/review.jpg"/><figcaption>A scene from &#x27;Palitan&#x27;</figcaption></figure></div>Jen (Cara Gonzales) and James (Luis Hontiveros) were preparing for their wedding when they went back to Jen&#x27;s hometown in Quezon province for James to meet Jen&#x27;s father Nestor (Rollie Innocencio). At the same time, Jen will be the maid of honor at the wedding of her old friend Marie (Jela Cuenca) to her fiance Al (Rash Flores). However, as Jen and Marie spent more time together, their dormant Sapphic feelings for each other were revived. The premise of the film was actually very simple. A major part of the film felt only like filler or padding to make it feature-length. Apart from a risky quickie in a dress shop changing room at the start, the whole first hour was practically just showed Jen and James, then Marie and Al, going about their respective wedding preparations, like the wedding dress, the wedding rings, etc. It was frustrating that nothing of any true plot significance was happening.After the uneventful first hour, Mendoza immediately upped the ante of cinematic eroticism by throwing in two all-nude menage-a-quatre sequences, one right after the other. The first was when groom, his best man and his new friend all had a go with a lone prostitute at the same time in a crowded washroom at the stag party. The second featured the four main actors going at each other side by side on a rocky shelf of a running brook. Among the four main actors, it was Cara Gonzales who was given the most well-developed role as Jen, and she rose to the challenge of confidently portraying this conflicted character. Gonzales actually had easy chemistry with both lusty Luis Hontiveros and sweet Jela Cuenca. Cuenca in fact had more romantic chemistry with Gonzales than she did with Rash Flores, who looked ill-at-ease and self-conscious the whole time compared to the others. Mendoza threw shade about the local practices of matrimony. He showed how people would rather go into debt or depend on sponsors&#x27; cash gifts just to get the wedding of their dreams. Strict and religious fathers swore by benefits of a union sanctified by the Catholic Church, yet could not keep his own marriage intact, nor keep his daughter safe from abuse. This may be an erotic film first, but Mendoza was still able to get his social realism in. This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="http://said-fred.blogspot.com/2021/12/vivamax-review-of-palitan-driven-by.html">Fred Said</a>.”

'Palitan' may be an erotic film first, but Brillante Mendoza was still able to get his social realism in. 