“Huling Halik” by Zig Dulay (FILM REVIEW)

Picture with the Director of "Huling Halik". Director Zig Dulay

Here’s my reaction/review to the movie:

            At first I was shock (in the first scene kasi was the sex scene of two guys, the main characters) and I thought it was disgusting because seeing two guys having sex is not really that normal. I think same sex intercourse is not normal, but then that’s them, that’s what they want and I have no right to object. Well anyway, about the story, it’s something that I can appreciate. Everyone feels love in their own special way. Gays and lesbians also have the right to love someone in the same way as boyfriends and girlfriends do although not all people can appreciate that. I think making a gay film like this one can make people understand what gay people are going through in their lives. In this movie it really shows how one gay guy feels hurt and unappreciated or what you call in the girls’ perception “jealousy” on another girl, or the feeling of less important and insecurity of themselves. It shows the deep emotions of the character and how life can be that complicated for a gay guy to live in, to love another person and to be loved by someone else other than their family. The director, Zig Dulay, said that some of the scenes are based on his experiences and that includes the sex scenes (sorry somebody in the audience ask kasi that’s how we found out) and also his friends’ experiences. The whole movie is not that “bastos” or not much nudity and that’s why audiences, especially the guys, can tolerate what they are seeing.

            In the technical side of the movie, the audio is kind of blurry and unrealistic because some of the scenes where the two main characters are talking and the camera is a bit far from the characters, the volume of their voices are higher as if they were talking inside a bathroom or some place that has an echo effect compared to the ones where the camera is close to the characters the volume is a bit toned down like they are far away from the camera.  Another thing I noticed is that all of the scenes are shot in the morning because it was a bit foggy still and the movie is like a one whole day activity.  It couldn’t be that foggy all throughout the day. The director pointed that out; he said they always run out of time. The director also said they shot the whole movie in just three days and also some of the shots are stolen like the sex scene in a public park, the scene in SM Baguio, and the scene inside the church. They used a DSLR camera so that they wouldn’t get noticed.  The subtitle is wrong! They don’t match the character’s dialogues. Zig’s reasons for that is they didn’t really follow the script because there aren’t any, he just said to the actors what they are going to do and what is the situation is all about and he let the actors improvised. Fortunately, it looks really good. Zig also tries to minimize the number of takes because they are catching up with time. I forgot to mention, it was the day of the flower festival, that’s why they are catching up with the time. They are catching up with the parade. Unfortunately, like what it turns out in the movie, they didn’t really catch the parade, they really missed it.

Overall, the movie was okay. There are a few “needs to be improved” but I say it’s good enough. I’m not really a big fan of gay films but this one is okay for me. Zig also mentioned that this film wasn’t really made for Cinemalaya. It just happened to be in the list or I don’t know if it is because of a friend or something. I don’t know, I can’t remember. All I know is what I can remember to what he said. At the end of the film and the open forum we got a chance to meet with him personally outside the cinema. Yey! It was great. He was grateful that we didn’t walkout. He saw 2 or 3 persons walked out in the middle of the movie. He was grateful that we finished it.