I’ve only seen a handful of Filipino film in my day but only one out of those four or five was actually good and that was Graceland which we’ve reported on this site multiple times by now. I decided to watch a random film from the selection of titles at this year’s NYAFF and I ended up picking Rigodon, a drama from the Philippines that failed to deliver anything of merit to the world of cinema and is another title that was poorly selected as a cinematic export to represent the country’s filmmaking talent.
Directed by Erik Matti, Rigodon centers on a man named Riki (John James Uy), a former reality TV star who can’t seem to accept the fact that he is no longer a star and that nobody really cares about him. One day he meets Sara (Yam Concepcion) a young working woman who also happened to be a virgin. The two eventually hit it off and begin to develop a relationship. What she doesn’t know is that Erik has a wife named Regine (Max Eigenmann) and a daughter, both of whom he is having trouble supporting due to a growing collection of debts and failure to realize his career is going nowhere. The film follows the love triangle that Erik has gotten himself involved with and the repercussions of his decisions as he tries to hide his other life from each woman he now cares for.
Rigodon sets out to be a realistic and down to earth piece of filmmaking that shows the raw side of life in a love triangle. Sara is trying to find a new boyfriend that’s acceptable to both her and her father while Regine is trying to take care of her family and at the same time trying to start a cupcake business. All Riki does is pacify both and generate concerns on both ends since he isn’t able to give either 100% of his attention. Though at times the film is very successful in delivering doses of realism, especially during the sweaty sex scenes, the rest of the time just feels wasted and lacks any sort of conviction. This is because the acting was miserable as was much of the dialogue.
The only person’s acting I actually didn’t mind was Max Eigenmann, she has a couple of scenes where she becomes an emotional wreck and does a great job of expressing her failure and depression. There are other moments where she comes off just as poorly as the others but at least when it came to actually expressing sad emotions I could buy into her sorrow.
Rigodon is a frustrating movie to watch because it essentially asks us to be patient and watch how long and to what extent can Riki survive as a douche bag and a complete scumbag. It then asks us to be even more patient as we wait for his wife and the other woman to find out about each other and see how crazy they might go. As the film nears its climax and attempts to take a depressing route all you’ll want to do is check your watch to see how much time is left because you just don’t care. There is rarely an emotional connection with the audience and it’s this lack of engagement that makes Rigodon a waste of time to watch.
Rating: 91 minutes of people complaining, having sex, and trying to avoid being caught without any of the suspense (3.9/10)
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