Pitik-Bulag: No child's play

What will you do if you stumble upon a bag stuffed with P10-M cash that was part of the loot from a bank robbery that claimed the lives of two security guards and seriously injured one? That is the quandary the character of Marco Alcaraz faces in Gil Portes’ Pitik-Bulag.

Graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB), Pitik-Bulag casts Marco as a movie stuntman who idolizes the late Fernando Poe Jr. The trouble is, nobody produces action films anymore and he is constantly out of a job. In the course of the story, he falls in love and marries Paloma, a former movie hopeful herself, but is more practical in life: She knows her limitations and eventually quits her dreams of being a film star. She still ends up in the business of cinema somehow — manning the ticket booth in a rundown movie house downtown.

One day, on the way to borrow money from an uncle’s former stuntman friend, Marco sees a bag full of cash fall off from a speeding vehicle that turns out to be one of the getaway cars used by a gang of bank robbers led by Victor Neri. What does he do with the money?

Anyone who ends up with a windfall would surely have a life-changing experience — whether you win the lotto, rob a bank or inherit millions from a rich relative. Life surely changes for the film’s lead character and what happens to him and his wife is worth following all the way to the end.

For marketing purposes, Pitik-Bulag is being sold as a sex film (which is how it appears to me and I understand this strategy completely given the fact that it is so difficult to lure viewers to watch films in movie theaters in these hard times). Surely, it has the requisite sex scenes — complete with every male’s ultimate sexual fantasy: Girl-to-girl lovemaking.

But aside from sex, Pitik-Bulag also boasts of one of the most exciting plotlines this year. Eric Ramos, the film’s scriptwriter, is very thorough with his writing and maneuvers the story in such a way that it doesn’t insult the intelligence of the viewer (a rarity in local films, especially in mainstream cinema). This is one script that doesn’t have loose ends and you know that the writer did his homework and research before and maybe even while typing away before his computer as he creates one riveting subplot after the other. Do they surrender the money to the police? The writer has a sound answer to that. Do they keep it for themselves? Even that — Eric manages to provide a moral option.

What is most admirable about Pitik-Bulag is the way the lead parts (and even the secondary for that matter) are presented by Ramos and Portes. No black-and-white and cardboard characters, please. Despite their obvious lack of education and the fact that they are plain, ordinary citizens from the lower side of society the roles played by Marco and Paloma are thinking people. Paloma’s character may not be the scholarly type, but she is street-smart, reasonable and wise and there are a lot of people from her class like her, except that we underestimate them.

We also throw in our empathy to the two lead figures in the film because they are not necessarily bad people. They have the usual emotions you and I have and react to situations in the same manner we would in this world. They may be given to lust, anger and greed, but they are basically kind and considerate to their fellow human beings — in fact, even to their pet dog, Panday (so-named because Marco is an FPJ fan, remember?). What a relief that there are no stereotypes here — thanks to the innovative and inspired direction and writing.

I also give credit to Gil Portes not only for his meticulous handling of the material, but also with the way he motivates his cast members. Marco is very credible as the hopeless dreamer, who despite his physical size is practically helpless as he fights his way through life. For his age, his character is still naïve and always reacts according to plain human instinct — in the simple manner he knows as dictated by his surroundings and environment. He is not bright — that’s for sure. But he is not totally dumb either because there is really no one like that — save for Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.

Newcomer Paloma also excels in her role as the sensible wife and fleshes out her part like a veteran. An FHM inside page beauty, she is mestiza and I was told that she beat Mercedes Cabral of Serbis fame when they both auditioned for the role because her fair skin contrasts well with that of Marco’s moreno complexion. Whatever the reason was for her selection, she is a good choice — the perfect one — especially since she delivers an outstanding acting job here in Pitik-Bulag.

That Victor Neri gives an impressive performance in the film doesn’t come as a surprise. Even when he was still new in showbiz, he had always been the promising one. As the ruthless bank rob leader in this film, he still shines in spite of the fact that we haven’t seen much of him lately on screen.

The other characters in the film are also very believable in their respective roles: Comedienne Rubi Rubi as the meddling neighborhood store owner, Cecil Paz as the dyke assistant to Victor, Michael Tan (a former That’s Entertainment talent — not the StarStruck winner) as the police investigator and Malou Crisologo in one sequence as the widow of one of the guards killed in the bank robbery.

Pitik-Bulag, the way I remember it, is a children’s game in the Philippines. Although I no longer recall how it is played, I am aware that it had always been part of every Filipino child’s play — from the olden times if I am not mistaken.

In contrast, Pitik-Bulag — the movie — offers fresh and novel concepts in storytelling on film. For Portes and Ramos, creating Pitik-Bulag for the big screen is not a silly game, but a new and serious approach to what intelligent filmmaking should be.