Macho dancer movie capital of the world
Francis Pasion says, I need a synopsis of Jay, 1400 characters max, including spaces. Voila! The instant synopsis generator.
“Jay, a schoolteacher, is brutally murdered in an apparent sex-crime. Even before his family hears about it, a TV producer—also named Jay—and his camera crew are inside their house to document their shock and grief. The TV producer convinces the family to let him shoot the dead man’s wake and funeral for a “reality show”. This will help them to ferret out the truth about the crime, find the killer, and bring him to justice, he says. However, it soon becomes clear that this concept of “truth” owes much to the entertainment value of the material being shot, and the expectations of the television audience. The “Jay” who emerges from the TV producer’s interviews with the dead man’s mother, sister, ex-lover, friends, and co-workers is less a portrait of the victim than a collection of cliches and stereotypes gleaned from their collective memory of Filipino movie melodramas. Skillfully orchestrating this “reality show” is the dead man’s namesake—a “journalist” who knows that the “truth” is whatever works on camera.”
Jay will compete at this year’s Venice filmfest, along with Lav Diaz’s latest opus. Very apt, since Tuhog was in Venice in 2001, and Jay is of the Tuhog-Bing Lao School.
May I say how refreshing it is to have a Pinoy filmfest entry that does not involve macho dancers (male exotic dancers in gay bars). Like it or not, that’s our “niche” in world cinema. Fact: It’s macho dancer movies that get picked up for international distribution. The first such movie to be shown worldwide: Lino Brocka’s Macho Dancer. International filmfests apparently regard them as our contribution to cinema. Besides Rob Schneider, our cultural ambassador.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
July 30th, 2008 at 16:10
poverty, prostitutes, macho dancers.
July 30th, 2008 at 16:13
That’s Philippine Realism for you…..More lesbian love this time around please…How about a love story about a stripper (dancer yet again!?) and a closet lesbian cop and the complications, that would be cool (or has that been made? I stand corrected if that is so…)… ;)
July 30th, 2008 at 16:34
Too bad ABC 5 is completely overhauling their programming. They were the only free TV station showing Pinoy movies by independent film-makers.
July 30th, 2008 at 23:57
This can’t be?! Something tells me you excluded some pertinent cinematic details from your synopsis. Isn’t Jay or Jay actually gay or used to be gay? Or didnt his wife/sister/cousin/maid get raped and he had to avenge her by waylaying the entire gang of sexual miscreants, single-handedly with nary a hair on his head ruffled? Or wasnt same wife/sister/cousin/maid forced into the low-life hustling on the streets of Ermita/Quezon Ave after her lavandera mother finally succumbed to her illness in a final spasm of blood-expectoration on the street leaving her in the hands of a do-nothing gin-swilling (step) father? I’m not watching this movie until I see the full synopsis.
July 31st, 2008 at 00:14
I’ve managed to steer clear of “those kinds of films” whenever the Seattle International Film Fest happens (regardless of country of origin), just because it is basically a repeat of a working formula with diminishing results at each iteration…either that or the concept and execution brims with too much cheese and/or melodrama.
I’m glad SIFF has managed to also pick up other Pinoy films they’ve screened in public like Kubrador, Foster Child, and Tirador in recent years.
July 31st, 2008 at 02:43
Didn’t get to see “Jay”. But based on this review it did seem like a “Tuhog” rehash. Hope to see it soon, though. If it’s better than “Tuhog” then it must be really good. Hopefully, they didn’t play too much into poverty or rape the way “Tuhog” did. =)
August 1st, 2008 at 10:00
It’s always gay people in those fancy schmancy awards-night-socially-relevant-commentary-on-the-human-condition type of movies… If not, then somebody’s gonna get raped or shot in a war somehow. I’ve developed a bit of an allergy to those things, probably due to teachers forcing me to watch them to make us more “socially aware” and junk.
I don’t think I could suggest a clear solution, but I have a feeling we’d do way way better material if we have a more robust animation industry.