Manay Po

Isn't it ironic that two of the arguably most ultra-conservative, staunchly Catholic countries in the world can be so seemingly tolerant of homosexuality in comparison to everyone else? Right now, shockingly it's legal to get hitched to that meltingly hot Spaniard in the streets of Barcelona with ushers and bridesmaids while aspiring studlets in Manila are busy locking lips on searing celluloid at the cinemas. Now, whoever said that the Catholic Church wasn't progressive? :)

Since I am having some difficulty getting a Spanish husband smuggled in through the suspicious folks at immigration, I've decided to try my luck with the Filipino hunks instead. Surely Manay Po! isn't going to win the prestigious Oscar but then, that isn't what it sets out to do. It's here to entertain ( with a passing moral advocacy about acceptance of homosexuality ) and it surely does that with the improbable tale of a doting mother Luz Catacutan with her three gay sons.

Count that! Three! Surely the statisticians out there are having a coronary since the likelihood of all three brothers turning out gay ( and unbelievably enviably, uniformly gorgeous dammit! ) is impossibly slim.

Simple enough plot with the eldest, Oscar, being a painfully closeted gay man hiding behind his beard while his erstwhile lover / best friend pines endlessly. Played by a marvellously husky, rugged Polo Ravales ( who strains against the tight tees he wears to perfection ) any presumably wooden acting can certainly be excused. Anyway, Oscar is supposed to be a conservative, macho tight-ass after all. Yum. Anyway I was too busy ogling his nips.


See why I got distracted?
Orson is the out-and-proud, super-camp flamboyant middle child who swishes around the campus with his fabulous galpals while his seemingly straight best friend starts to grow uneasy with their friendship and finds an ultra-bitchy girlfriend to erase all nagging doubts about his own sexual orientation.

Won't even mention the youngest kid brother Orwell - who takes the role of the confused budding homo-adolescent who's just coming to terms with his sexuality - since that would make me a crazed pedophile but let me tell ya, I certainly wouldn't object to watching the three handsome brothers slick it up in a small glass-enclosed shower with some steam, soap and shampoo. Especially if their husky boy-toy of a stepfather Gerry ( played by a suitably fit, body-baring Christian Vazquez ) joins in the sweaty incestuous fun. Does that make me a lecherous perv - or an aspiring Bel Ami director to be?

Ending was unbelievably saccharine-sweet with pretty little pink bows tying up all the loose ends perfectly - and certainly a disappointment to all bitter cynics who expect gay Brokebacks to end up in tear-jerking tragedy. I, for one, am glad to wallow in a gay fairytale ending for once.

Somehow I have this sudden inexplicable urge to rush out and purchase a plane ticket to Manila. Not sure what they are feeding the boys there but .... hot damn.