Panibugho

No pun intended - the movie is quite ... well most of the time it is about sisters and their inner workings ... their jealousy as the movie title also suggests ... and one major component is a stranger ... now suffice to say that there is more to him than (his often naked body) is showing off ... but let's also be clear that he only seems to highlight issues that were already there.

Also let's be clear: a lot of nudity ... and mostly male fantasies fulfilled (one way or the other) ... so you should be expecting that. But the movie also tries to shove a bit of story down our throats ... with a twist or two slapping us towards the end ... successfully or not? Well that is for you to decide.

Jealousy is another title from the Vivamax series of movies aimed at adults. Now, these movies are just pure titillation with a decent story thrown in to keep the interest, so expectations should be set as such. Although I have seen a bunch of these movies already, I actually found Jealousy to be a little more engaging than some of the others.

First of all it should be noted that the casting director struck movie gold here by hiring Angela Morena, Micaella Raz & Stephanie Raz to play the three lead sisters, since they are all sisters in real life. Name me one other movie where three actual (beautiful) sisters are willing to bounce their bare b**bs like it's a Lakers game? I'll wait... And with that unique hook in mind, Jealousy becomes much more of a movie event for every b**b loving male (and female) around the world.

The third act may drag somewhat, but I kind of feel like this movie should dethrone Die Hard for best Christmas* movie ever.

*There's no actual Christmas in this movie, unless you put tinsel on your TV whilst watching it.

Right, well given this 2023 Filipino movie's cover, I must admit that I was expecting it to be just another pointless Filipino softcore porno movie. Yet, I still opted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt and watch it, since it was listed as a drama here on IMDb.

Not even 6 minutes into the ordeal it became very clear that it was indeed just another pointless softcore porno from the Filipino cinema. Not even six minutes into the story and you have the first nude and sex scene. And yeah, that pretty much set the standard for the movie.

Sure, I guess that there is an audience out there for ridiculous movies such as these softcore porno movies that seem to be flooding the Filipino cinema. But for an audience well past the adolescent years and wanting entertainment to be more than just full frontal nudity and imitated sex scenes, then "Panibugho" does not provide proper entertainment.

I can't claim that writer Nigel Santos managed to put together anything even remotely close to a proper storyline, because this was a dumpsterfire of a movie. And director Iar Arondaing seemed to be doing this just to fulfill some fantasy of sibling sisters, I suppose.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, nor can I claim that I was impressed with what I saw. As for the performances in "Panibugho" actually being dependent on acting talent might be up for debate. At least, for the majority of the female cast, it seemed that willingness to be fully naked in front of a camera seemed to be a criteria to participate in the making of this softcore porno. And I guess that a movie such as this is something that the actors and actresses want to forget all about doing years down the lane.

Don't waste your time, money or effort on "Panibugho", well, unless Filipino softcore porno is your thing, then by all means you're in for a treat here.

My rating of "Panibugho" lands on a one out of ten stars.