REVIEW: 'Virgin Forest' (2022, Brillante Ma Mendoza)

Micaella Raz/Photo: VIVAMAX

As a follower of Brillante Mendoza’s work since Tirador (2007), I was a bit apprehensive when he partnered with Vivamax, a streaming platform with an abundance of sex and violence in its content.

This is the challenge for the auteur who agreed to stream his works on a platform that is a hairline away from being a porn site.

It makes me wonder, what is Mendoza’s agreement with Viva, to pitch in stories he can use as a setting for porn? Or does he have the freedom to create social commentary movies, with sex and nudity as a kind of contractual obligation?

Mendoza once said in public that Viva has given him full creative freedom, yet from press cons I have attended, he has decried his works are still subjected to censorship to some degree.

Pre-Vivamax, Mendoza’s films have been set in urban jungles. Today, it’s literal jungles and provinces.

Virgin Forest (not a remake of Peque Gallaga’s 1985 film) is based on true events. Francis (Sid Lucero) is a photojournalist commissioned by the mayor of Bukidnon (Julio Diaz) to take photos of the rafflesia flower in the thick of the forest. As Francis enters the forest, aided by an all-around guy, Roger (Vince Rillion), he discovers illegal logging, poaching and sex trafficking.

It’s a movie about exploitation and rape — violating nature and women’s bodies. Mendoza adds a touch of magic and creates diwata characters as watchers and protectors of the forest and of the women. The main diwata (Micaella Raz), in a non-speaking role, suddenly takes action when Francis enters the forest.

Vince Rillon and Rob Quinto/Photo: VIVAMAX

Mendoza has been known to discard a detailed script and allow his actors to improvise lines. This has worked effectively in most of his films, as it adds a deeper sense of realism. The flipside, however, is when you sense the actor grappling awkwardly for words, or remaining silent at times when lines are necessary.

The production feels rushed — the editing, transitions, continuity, performances, including eyes looking at the camera, and moments of unfocused lensing.

It seems like this movie was shot in two days.

But the question is, given that Vivamax is a hub for soft porn and B-movies, will Virgin Forest’s target audience be comfortable in getting their carnal fix from victims of human trafficking? Of naked women looking sad while men violate them?

The sex/rape scenes are so excessive and they all look the same that the audience is desensitized. Whatever “artistic attempt” behind it is lost. There’s an exhausting pattern in the movie that feels like copy-paste in editing: Diwata, snake, sex/rape. Repeat every 15 minutes.

But at the Virgin Forest press con, Mendoza said it wasn’t as graphic as he would have wanted, and the nudity was not enough.

I recall Steve McQueen’s critically acclaimed, powerful indie drama Shame (2011). It’s about a sex addict played by Michael Fassbender (who did full-frontal nudity). McQueen’s excessive and explicit sex scenes do not feel gratuitous, but are necessary for depicting the shameful illness that imprisons the protagonist. You cannot say the same about the crudely done Virgin Forest with its depthless commentary. It’s porn, nothing more.

There’s a silver lining, though: the ultra-talented Rillon, and the interesting exchange between Erlinda Villalobos and Angeli Khang towards the end, plus Allan Paule’s brief but intense appearance.

1.5/5 stars
Vivamax

Originally published in the Daily Tribune