Live Show Review

Last Friday, Kuya Thonz and I went to UP Film Institute: cineAdarna to watch the movie Live Show. It is part of the Director's Cut Film Festival: mga eksenang dapat mong nakita...pero... It is a festival of critically-acclaimed and controversial films by the country's finest directors. A centennial project of UP College of Mass Communication.
Direk Jose Javier Reyes was there along with lead actress Ana Capri. Also, Nicanor Tiongson was there, ex-MTRCB chief.
Live Show is considered "most-controversial" in Philippine filmmaking history. This a story of poor Filipinos forced to perform sexual acts in front of paying customers.

Film background

Actually, the original title for the film is Toro. It was shown abroad and joined to different film festivals with the Toro as the title and it was replaced with Live Show when it was about to be shown here in our country. According to Armida Sigeon-Reyna, Toro must only be used to refer to male cow. In the film, the term toro refers to the act of live sexual performance. The film was directed by the award-winning director, Jose Javier Reyes. Ana Capri and Claudia Coronel are the main casts of the film. The film was produced under the Regal Film Productions.

Director's Corner

Director Jose Javier Reyes said that it was one of the satisfying movies he ever created. According to him, he went to the highest heaven and to the deepest hell just for this film. The success of the film in the different film festivals around the globe was the heaven and the controversies was the hell. The film was one of the three Filipino entries in the 50th Berlinale Film Festival and from there different invitations was started. He is very proud as a Filipino because of this film. He was overwhelmed to the acceptance given by the audience. It was hell to him because it became a national issue. During the time of the film, it became a front page of every newspaper and an issue for more than a month. He received many demoralizing acts and judgements for the whole time. But according to him, it made him a stronger person for passing all those controversies.
Moreover, the film was made and dedicated to the Filipino audience but it's them who cannot appreciate it.

Controversies

Aside from the nudity scenes, the real agenda here is a political issue. The scenes are not pornographic and only the sick people will be aroused from the show, that's according to Direk Reyes and Nic Tiongson.
The MTRCB gave the movie a R-18 rating. It was the time of Erap controversies when it was to be shown in the public so they move the showing date. They left the movie unshown until the political issues become stable when GMA succeeded the position of presidency. Also, MTRCB needs also to be re-organized under the new government. Nicholas Tiongson, Dean of UP Mass Communication that time, was appointed to be the new chief. The board review for the film was maintained a R-18 so at last it was shown in the public.
After a couple of days, Nicholas Tiongson was received a call from the Malacanang to recall the movie. He was also ordered by the late Cardinal Sin to do the same thing because according to the movie review board of the CBCP it is pornographic. It was a real pressure for the Malacanang and the church to take an action because they are bombarded with protests from different conservative groups to stop the showing of the film.
Finally, the chief of MTRCB had a fast talk with PGMA. He was personally ordered to recall the movie. He fully defended the film as a R-18 film and there's nothing wrong with it. One more thing, the board has no power to recall film that has been released already. From that, the President empowers the duty of the MTRCB. Also, from his talk with Cardinal Sin, his eminence adviced him five times to resign of he cannot recall the film. It was really hard for Nicholas Tiongson since the movie has a moral significance.
Behind this agenda, according to Nicholas he was chosen to become the MTRCB because of the advice of the Cardinal due to the fact that he was an ex-seminarian. And when an film director adviced the president that recalling the film is like killing the film industry, no comments were received from Malacanancg since then.
Eventually, the movie was recalled and Nicholas Tiongson resigned from his office. According to him, he cannot work in position where his boss cannot work with him unlike during his CCP years that he can stand any controversies because they have the same principles with his boss.
Reyes and Tiongson claim that they are the first victims of aggression of the Arroyo regime. According to Tiongson, Arroyo doesn't have her principle. She is the typical Filipino politician who stay away from pressures just to remain from here position.

My Review

It was true that only sick people will get aroused from the film. There are frontal nudities and sexual scenes from the film which you cannot even take to look at it anymore.
It was a story of a family narrated by the eldest son. Their mother is a whore and she makes a living from that to feed her three children. Eventually, the son became a bayaran and work in a club which offers a torohan-live sex. The mother also sell her daughter to become a bayaran pero nilayasan din siya after. The mother got a cancer in the ovary and the youngest son stay with their mother to take good care of her. But eventually the mother died in the end.
Ana Capri was also their as a part of the club. She work there and when she got pregnant, she gave away her child because she cannot bear him. Her world revolves around the movie in taking a chance to take his child back, from her dream as being friends only, when she was stop seeing her son. She tried to kill herself many times and she was always saved by Hilda Coronel, her friend.
Hilda was also part of the club. She does it to make a living for her family in the province and for herself also. Aside from doing the torohan, she is also a querida of a rich chinese businessman. Her ultimate dream was to go to Japan and live a good life. She was able to raised money from the chinese, but eventually her gay friend who is responsible for her application to Japan was robbed out.
They are more characters in the film who portrays the poverty . There is this gang, who recruits the youth to become part of the team nad they are persistent to get the brothers to join. Some of them get in due to easy money, and one of the died. There is also this nurse, who happened to be the love interest of the narrator, went abroad and sentenced to death because of stealing. There is also this partner who quit from torohan and eventually got a child. The guy became a hardworking construction worker but work became limited for him. The girl do some paglalako but their earnings cannot suffice the needs of their child. Eventually, they return from being bayaran and went back to torohan. There is also a scene there, an old woman exploiting a child to foreigners just to make money. Also, a man who commercializes a lamay ng patay for them gamble.
If I gave a rating for the film, it would be 9 out of 10. The cinematography is very good. The theme has a great social relevance. Story wise and script, it is very natural that it's like watching a real scene. The actors and actresses are very good, but they need to improve in their crying scenes because some are pilit. The film is not pornographic, it's a real art. An ART of a real FILM ARTIST.