Radyo: Direk Yam’s fresh filmmaking approach

After the huge box-office success of Balahibong Pusa early this year, short filmmaker-turned-cinematographer-turned-mainstream movie director Yam Laranas is back with a new film – a suspense-light comedy/satire called Radyo.

Produced by Viva Films, Radyo casts Rufa Mae Quinto as a disc jockey who hosts a very popular radio program along with her gay assistant and best friend, RJ Leyran. One of her avid listeners is Jeffrey Quizon who plays a down-on-his-luck sales demonstrator of floor mops and other household utilities in a shopping mall.

Jeffrey is in love with Katya Santos, a pretty, but snooty and hopelessly conceited co-employee – the type of girl who thinks she is God’s gift to the whole of mankind.

One day, Jeffrey calls up the radio station and requests Rufa Mae to play a song by Blakdyak – and to please dedicate it to his ladylove Katya. Rufa Mae, however, turns down this request due to lack of time and – in a mocking tone – tells Jeffrey to call up again some other day.

That must have been a really bad day for Jeffrey because – during lunch break – Katya berates him for mentioning her name during his on-the-air phone call to the radio station. Not content with giving Jeffrey a severe tongue-lashing, she also embarrasses him by pouring a glass of juice over his head in full view of all their co-workers.

The humiliating experience in the hands of the one woman he loves sets him off on a murder spree – with Katya as his first victim. He then stalks Rufa Mae and makes life a living hell for the lady disc jockey – all because of that one denied request over the radio.

Since Laranas has a solid background as a short filmmaker (and also as a prolific director of TV commercials), it doesn’t come as a surprise that all the technical aspects of Radyo are excellently handled – from sound supervision to cinematography (he photographed the film himself).

Radyo has great visuals and images that you don’t often see in most local movies. The film, in fact, looks like a series of well-crafted MTV scenes strung together.

And here in Radyo, Laranas uses a new and fresh approach to filmmaking. (It really has a young feel to it.) I’m not just sure how local movie audiences who are all so used to conventional cinema would take to this film.

Laranas also has a problem when it comes to storytelling: He doesn’t know how. And this is such a pity because he is great – almost a genius – at handling the technical aspects of a film. If only he’d learn how to tell a story on film in a more cohesive manner, then he could probably be another Mike de Leon. (Mike, incidentally, also worked as a cinematographer first – in Lino Brocka’s Maynila: Sa Mga Kuko ng Liwanag – before making his first film, Itim.) Maybe Laranas should team up with Lualhati Bautista, Jose Lacaba, Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr. and other noted screenwriters – instead of writing the script himself.

Laranas, however, has some bright and funny ideas that he incorporates into his film, Radyo. He borrows, for instances, this baby carriage scene from the gangster movie The Untouchables and the results is really hilarious. I just don’t know how the viewers would react to his Sweeney Todd ending.

Other humorous scenes that Laranas injects into Radyo work wonderfully and would surely be appreciated by the audience. But then, there are also some jokes that don’t work at all and fall flat quite miserably.

However, Laranas cannot be faulted for not doing his best. (The chase scene between Jeffrey Quizon and Rufa Mae Quinto toward the end is one of the best staged and most suspenseful I’ve seen in local movies.) He, at least, deserves an A for all the effort he puts into this highly innovative film called Radyo.

Tomcats: Fun filled

Still showing in local cinemas is the Hollywood comedy film, Tomcats.

The story of this movie begins when a group of college chums makes a bet on who among them would remain a bachelor the longest. The last one to make the trip to the altar wins the pot.

After several years, only two remain unattached: Jerry O’Connell (the fat boy in Stand By Me) and Jake Busey (son of Gary Busey, the overacting lead star of A Dangerous Life).

One day, Jerry loses $51,000 in a Las Vegas casino and the only way for him to be able to pay his creditors (who are after his life) is to win the bet he forged with his college buddies of long ago. Of course, his friend Jake Busey is still there to reckon with. He has to push him into marriage at whatever cost. His only hope is to reunite Jake with Shannon Elizabeth, Jake’s dream girl, who now works as a policewoman.

To Jerry’s relief, Shannon Elizabeth is receptive to the idea of marrying Jake – for she, too, has motives of her own. There is one hitch though that develops toward the end: Jerry himself eventually falls in love with Shannon Elizabeth.

This film takes a bit long to take off. In fact, the viewer has to wait for more than half an hour before he gets to laugh at a really amusing scene. But after this, the film is already funny all the way to the end.

What I find hilarious in this movie are the subpots. One of Jerry’s buddies – a doctor - for example, suspects that his wife is a bisexual who is having an affair with their Latina housekeeper and his nurse. Unfortunately for him, he could never catch his wife "in the act" with either of the two women. In the end, it turns out that his wife is having a menage a trois with both the nurse and the housekeeper. Then, there is this hospital scene where one of Jake Busey’s testicles is removed. After the operation, Jake asks Jerry to steal from the laboratory the excised testicle which accidentally bounces up and down the hospital corridors and into a tray of pastries – until it is eaten (YUCK!) by one of the doctors.

The jokes in Tomcats are certainly not as gross as those we’ve seen in American Pie. But at the same time, it’s not half as funny as American Pie or There’s Something About Mary.

Tomcats, however, is still a fun film that could be worth your time. It has a lot of energy that could rev up your day.