Hung

I thought of Oscar Wilde as I began to work on Sex in Philippine Cinema 2 because of what he said about second marriages, that they were the triumph of hope over experience.  And since my experience with SPC 1 had been so awfully disappointing, my fondest hope for part 2 was that it would not blow chunks.  It did not… for a while. 

On the positive side of life, SPC 2 has 11 lovely women in various sorts of scenes that someone might call sex.  We've seen all of that, and it is the good news. 

What is the bad?  Let’s count them:

1) The exquisite Jen Rosendahl gets all sorts of undressed in First Time (2003) but her leg, the bed covers and her partner’s hand manage to cover the vital parts.  This is a crime against humanity

2) Joyce Jimenez shows up again in volume 2 but her scene from Byaheng Langit (2000) was shot with a few fireflies for illumination. 

3) Maria Isabel Lopez appears in Working Girls (2010) but reveals absolutely, positively nothing.

 

4) Michelle Aldana - this woman is a goddess - starts off in her undies and then gets out of them in Segurista (1996), but camera work and deliberate movements manage to hide everything but her face.  Now, her face is well worth a long time gazing, but that is not why we watch this video, is it?  I cry foul.

5) Okay, this one is a mixed message.  Maui Taylor and Rice Peralejo are together, wet, and fully clothed in Hibla (2002), BUT they spend more than a minute kissing.  Rica starts off less than thrilled but gets into the mood as time goes along, so if you are into gals smooching, this is your cup of tea.

6) Rica Peralejo does shed her clothes in Tatarin (2003) but we are right back in a scene that is lit by the rays that manage to reach her through a tiny window.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out why folks in the Philippines sign up world-class beauties, get them to agree to do a nude scene or two and then film the whole thing with less light than reaches Pluto in any given hour.  It is to weep.

7) Rita Magdalena in Mananaya (2001) does indeed appear topless, eventually in a surprising amount of light, but boy does she look unhappy.  Not at all my own cup of tea.

8) Three of the scenes in SPC 2 are repeats of scenes from part 1.  Same movie, same actress, same scene.  You go on IMDb and you can find 635 titles tagged as “sexy pinay.”  You figure at least 3 scenes per movie have an actress in some state of undress or in otherwise appealing garb and you got yourself 1900 scenes.  1900 sexy Philippine scenes to choose from.  But the folks who cobbled together this video - same folks did #1 in the series - chose to put the same three scenes in both discs.  The horror, the horror.

9) The disc ends with a triplet of hardcore scenes by unnamed actresses with the dirty parts pixelated.  Sure. we all figured that sort of thing went on in this nation of many islands, but the video promised us something much different and much better.  I go back to the calculation that the producers of the series had 1900 scenes to choose from with well-known, lovely actresses and they wasted more than five minutes of this short disc (52 minutes) on some random hardcore bullshit.  This is nothing but laziness on their part and contempt for their audience.

So, let’s recap: in the past days we saw seven scenes that stand out as very positive - these are new scenes by great looking women - but nine reasons to feel emotions from disappointment to outrage.  

Wilde was right - I chose to spend time on SPC 2 because hope springs eternal despite the lessons that experience teaches us.  More experienced now, I would still work on the four other compilations of Sexy Philippine Cinema if I could ever find them.