Joey Javier Reyes at his absurd best

Despite its slogan. If it’s from Seiko, it must be good, Seiko Films has yet to come up with a classic movie – in the same manner that Regal, for instance, has produced cinematic gems like Ishmael Bernal’s City After Dark and Pahiram ng Isang Umaga, Mike de Leon’s Sister Stella L., among many others.

It’s not that Seiko has not made any attempt to mount quality pictures. In the past, it has enlisted the services of some of the greatest directors in the land (Lino Brocka for Natutulog Pa ang Diyos and Ishmael Bernal for Gamitin Mo Ako), but somehow the works churned out by these filmmakers for the film outfit fell below expectations.

With its most recent production, Tikim, the studio was probably hoping it would finally have a prestigious project in its hands. (To make up for Talong and Kangkong – perhaps?) The film’s writer and director, after all, is no less than Jose Javier Reyes, who is known for quality work (Makati Ave., May Minamahal, Luksong Tinik, etc.)

But too bad for Seiko Films, Tikim turned out to be the worst movie of Jose Javier Reyes. Had I not known beforehand that he was the director of Tikim, I would never have guessed – no, not in a million years that he had something to do with this film.

Tikim casts Barbara Milano as the mistress of Allan Paule, an underling of a powerful gambling lord (Archie Ventosa). Barbara, however, is not exactly faithful to Allan Paule. She also sees on the side the hustler Rodel Velayo, who is trying to make his fortune in the city along with his pure-hearted cousin, Leonardo Litton.

When Allan Paule is killed, a list containing the names of the people involved in the gambling operations – plus a relatively large amount of money – falls into Barbara Milano’s hands. It is at this point of the movie that she, along with Velayo and Litton, begins a life on the run –relentlessly pursued by the gambling lord’s henchman.

Jose Javier Reyes fails in this movie because the setting of Tikim (shot mostly in the city’s congested alleys) is not his milieu. In fact, this was also my quarrel with him in Live Show which is set in a squatters area. (Reyes is at his best when doing films about the middle class).

But while Live Show is still relatively well made (never mind the fact that its topic is as stale as last week’s bread), Tikim is really bad – as in B-A-D!

Its script, for one, has a lot of loopholes in it –and this is rather unusual for a Jose Javier Reyes screenplay.

The flow of the story also has a lot of absurdities in it. I find it ludicrous, for example, that the goons would get all the information they need in tracking down Barbara Milano and company through one short session with a housemaid who will probably put to shame all the operators manning 114 or the PLDT directory.

Reyes’ handling of this film is so sloppy, he and his assistant director are even unable to exercise crowd control in those scenes in Divisoria.

Neither does Reyes bother to guide his actors in this movie – and this is so unlike him. Wasn’t it only last years when he performed a great miracle in Bukas na Lang Kita Mamahalin by making a fine actor out of Diether Ocampo whose acting used to be so hopelessly wooden?

In Tikim, Barbara Milano and Rodel Velayo go through their scenes like they’re auditioning for a passion play being staged in some remote barrio. (In some scenes, Barbara is aided greatly by Seiko’s resident dubber – the same voice used by Rosanna Roces and Klaudia Koronel in their early films).

In the whole film, it is only Leonardo Litton who manages to deliver a good performance and this is because, well, he really is a good actor. Actually, that was quite a feat on the part of Litton because Tikim’s material is really embarrassingly inferior.

The film is so bad that it makes Seiko’s 1999 production of Anakan Mo Ako a classic.