The island is called Isla Puerta, according to the narrator of the movie, because is it shaped like a vulva. “Putahe” was released on May 13, 2022, by Vivamax and I’ve seen it yesterday. To catch its trailer, click this.
The Pandan Island in the municipality of Sablayan in Occidental Mindoro Province is an island of 28 hectares, almost round in shape and almost flat which are far from the attributes of a normal vulva. A coral island with its shores is rocky with sharp coral rocks alternated with one lovely white sand beach of several hundreds of meters long. A larger part of the island is forested and a lot of trees grow there. A truly ideal location for a movie. The movie was taken only for a total of ten days. A quickie indeed (all pun intended!).
But way back in 1949, a post-war film called "Parola" was filmed in our province. It is a story about an innocent man who was tried for murder but while being transported by ship to prison sunk and luckily he escapes to an island inhabited by another man and his daughters and a sister who abandon city life and settles on a quiet island to ease the pain and hatred. Included in the cast are Jaime dela Rosa, Gil de Leon, among others. Film buffs of old say that Occidental Mindoro is never portrayed so blissfully perfect as this film. It was filmed on Lubang Island and directed by Jose Climaco. Watch the film's clip here.
Let us go back to Isla Puerta, I mean "Putahe".
"Putahe” was told from the perspective of Jenny (Ayanna Misola) who lived with her fisherman father Abel (Ronnie Lazaro). Jenny worked for Isla Puerta’s woman barangay captain played by Shirley Fuentes as Pompa. The 16-year-old Jenny had a boyfriend named Ephraim (Massimo Scofield). The other main dwellers of the fictitious island barangay were Kagawad Betong (Mon Confiado) and his wife Lalaine (Carlene Aguilar), the village prostitute Elise (Hershey de Leon), and soldier Capitan Cain (Jiad Arroyo), among others. Some residents of Sablayan also played as extras.
During the shooting, it was reported that the production staff almost meted with a penalty by the municipal government after receiving reports that the group fished in the area. It is prohibited to catch fish and other marine species in the waters around the Pandan since it is a protected area. The problem was immediately settled, nonetheless.
A mysterious seductive woman named Euka (Janelle Tee) arrived one day on the island and established an eatery introducing her own exotic and innovative fish dishes. Euka does not only serve food. More than her delicious delicacies, she also bigheartedly serves the so-called “luto ng diyos” of which her customers primarily want to partake. I won’t tell you how the story ended and how the characters shared the menu. Watch it at your own risk.
And the only thing that I enjoyed most in the movie is its soundtrack from the the immortal Victor Wood titled "Malupit na Pag-Ibig". Listen to it, kids. It's a hit during our days.
Also, I do not do movie reviews so I will stop here but a certain film critic named Fred at Blogger pertinently said: The title of this latest Roman Perez Jr. film is playful as it literally denotes "viand," but also naughtily suggests "prostitute." It was too bad that there was more about whoring than it was about cooking.”
In short, we just hosted a movie about whoring.
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Photo: imdb.com
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