Amarelo Manga

The experience was hampered by the quality of the pirated work, with low quality audio and image, but enough to taste a beautiful work, the Brazilianness and its ills, sensual nudity, well-developed script, a simple story, almost caricatured, but broken, representative and cotiana, highlighting the performances, big names in cinema, delivering extraordinary staging, it couldn't be different from that... Beautiful movie from Cinema de Retake... THE COVER, vagina, it took me a while to realize.

I do not recommend this film and as another reviewer has stated, it is not a good representation of the country or even the city of Recife, Brazil. It is needlessly depressing. If you can take the movie as a criticism of life itself, it could have more meaning. The stereotypes and innuendos depicted about Brazilian life are not characteristic of the subject. The spiritual journey of the main character is depicted as a positive one, but it suggests that the only escape available for her is to have a solitary life.

To comment on the moribund nature of society? If that's what you're into then watch the evening news and save two hours of your life. It is rare that I watch a movie and feel that it fails to portray any kind of worthwhile social commentary--especially when the movie, from the beginning, seems determined to try to do so. Amarelo Manga becomes an unintentional parody of sweeping social commentary and fades, instead, into fascination with the sexually deviant. I give it three stars because Matheus Nachtergaele gives a memorable performance as a gay hotel tramp who is always trying to involve himself in others' affairs (and get them involved in his). His performance notwithstanding, this movie is not worth the time.

In a poor neighborhood in Recife, the lives of exotic and bizarre characters entwine in a bar and in a very low-budget hotel. The queer Dunga (Matheus Nachtergaele) works in the hotel and has a crush on the butcher Wellington (Chico Diaz) that is married with the religious Kika (Dira Paes) and has an affair with his mistress Dayse (Magdale Alves). The sick necrophiliac Isaac (Jonas Bloch) owns a yellow Mercedes Benz and wants to have sex with Lígia (Leona Cavalli) that owns of Bar Avenida.

"Amarelo Manga" is practically the debut of director Cláudio Assis, at least this movie made him famous in Brazil, but actually is a boring exploitation of sex and low level situations. The nudity and sex scenes are absolutely unnecessary and have only the intention of shocking the audiences and most of them are free, like for example, the scenes of the asthmatic fat woman in the hotel; of the sex scene between Kika and Isaac with the hair brush; or Lígia taking her clothes off after closing her bar. I do not like this Brazilian director but many professional critics love him. The cast has great performances but the story is terrible. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Amarelo Manga" ("Mango Yellow")

This film is a raw and realistic portrait of humble people of Recife, their fight for survival and loving desire. Fotography is impressive, cause almost every scene the color of its title is present.