Midnight Dancers

 (Filipino)

By EMANUEL LEVY

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A Tangent Films production. Executive producer, Richard Wong Tang. Directed by Mel Chionglo. Screenplay, Ricardo Lee.
 

Macho dancers and call boys, prostitutes and pimps, flamboyant queens and closeted homosexuals populate Mel Chionglo's "Midnight Dancers," a compassionate portrait of Manila's gay subculture and its relation to mainstream society. Tale's specific setting and handsome lead characters will obviously make it a likable experience for gay viewers, though depiction of broader family issues might extend pic's appeal beyond its primary target audience.

Story centers on three brothers from Cebu as they function in Manila's gay world as "macho dancers" or "sibak" (gay slang for male prostitutes). The youngest and most naive brother, Sonny, provides the film's emotional focus and point of view. Manila's gay world is presented from his perspective, as he slowly assimilates into its culture to the point of taking a transvestite lover.

The oldest sibling, Joel, who's only 23 but has been working for seven years, attempts to balance his relationships with a wife and a gay lover. Tougher brother Dennis represents yet a different type, favoring the edgy excitement of the streets over intimate family life.

Chionglo's liberal, almost too-good-to-be-true philosophy is informed by the notion that love can not be constricted by gender or sexual orientation.

Writer Ricardo Lee and director Chionglo stress Manila's depressed economy, showing how a lean job market often necessitates male prostitution. To illustrate their thesis, the filmmakers opt for a docudrama style, one that observes all members of the family, male and female, as they go about their daily existence.

Nonetheless, in the last reel, melodramatic events come fast and furious -- police arrests, brutal killings, scandalous adultery, family feuds, emotional reconciliations -- and subsequently pic loses its balanced tone and, to some extent, its humor.

Another major problem is helmer's inability to decide how much sexual titillation and voyeurism the story should encourage.

The actors who play the three brothers are newcomers, but they all acquit themselves with natural, relaxed performances. Though the shows' choreography is unimpressive, the camera seems to caress the handsome boys and their almost nude bodies. Pic's erotic charge is undeniably its major selling point, particularly for the audiences for which it was made.

Camera (color), George Tutanes; editor , Jess Navarro; music, Nonong Buenoamino; production design, Edgar Martin Littaua; sound, Ramon Reyes. Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival, Sept. 13, 1994. Running time: 100 MIN.
 

With: Alex Del Rosario, Grandong Cervantes, Lawrence David, Luis Cortez, Richard Cassity, Danny Ramos, Perla Bautista.