Le masseur

I saw this earlier this week at the Toronto International Film Festival with director and lead actor present.

Despite some graininess and jerkiness, this movie -- shot originally on mini-DV then blown up to 35mm, soon had the look and feel of a feature drama.

It's a serious drama about the life of a masseur in the Philippines. Though he has a girlfriend, he is in constant contact with male clients, always trying to up-sell on 'extra services'. But this is the background as the father of the masseur passes away, and the economic and family linkages become clearer. These events then set off a rather challenging journey for the protagonist -- work, family, girlfriend, and the one/main client who seems to return for more.

Just how can one survive? This is a moving tale with a strong feel for the real life of a young masseur and the life he lives. While I don't expect this movie will make widespread distribution in North America, or even limited distribution, perhaps in the Philippines it will be watched for a seemingly very realistic look into the life and challenges of young men in the massage + extra services industry.

Magnificent movie! It's great to watch it together with your family and friends. I watched while i was holding my you know.

It's a great victory for Filipinos to have won in the Locarno film festival. Low budget digital film is the saving grace for the dying Philippine film industry. And with the surge of interest in producing this kind of films, young brilliant Filipino film makers are given a chance to shine.

Masahista is a very engaging film even if it's done with a shoestring budget. It gives you a very realistic view of the life of a young man trying to survive poverty by offering massage and sexual services.

Filmed documentary style with occasional graininess and shaky camera angles, the film never the less engages you to the life of the "masahista" (masseur) and those people around him.

I particularly like the way Brillantes weave his story. There's this scene where he moves from the the protagonist life as a masseur, doing his thing in the massage parlor then intertwining to his life as a dutiful son consoling his mother and helping in preparing his father for burial then intertwining it again to the massage scene.

Try to catch this one if ever it's shown in your area.

this movie really impressed me, there's a lot going on here. the structure is extremely cunning, the manipulation of time is not pointless as with so many contemporary art films, there is a real payoff, in fact the disruption of temporal unity is here a very subtle instrument with very definite and easily understood and appreciated reasons for the film playing out this way. there are a number of unforgettable scenes and sequences, very touching ones, very clever ones, very meaningful. the basic idea of the movie is so ... daring and deep . . . the filmmakers almost revel in the poverty of budget the image quality is tenuous at times to great effect. this is not just another lurid Filipino/gay melodrama, it's not terribly titillating for that matter. it's in a higher class than the wonderful lino brocka movies, and like him the essence here is . .. a sort of dark tenderness, a sad love. fantastic film.

The movie was interesting, the filming and such really offers great entertainment. Great for family get together movie. Totally recommend watching this. And also coco martin masarap