MAHAHISTA (THE MASSEUR)
Philippines, 2005, 80 minutes, Colour.
Coco Martin, Alan Paule.
Directed by Brillante Mendoza.
One of the great mysteries of the Philippines (and of its film industry) is how much it is preoccupied with sex and sexuality. Is it something in the long history of the people of this country? Is it the hispanic heritage? What has it to do with the Catholicism of the country? For a people who are, on the surface, religious and publicly cautious (even a touch puritanical) about sex, why is it so prevalent a theme? And, not just sex, but prostitution both heterosexual and homosexual?
There are no answers in this brief film, just some more illustrations, though the director has given some thought to the structure of his screenplay. As in a number of films, going back to the country's most noted director, Lino Brocka and his Macho Dancer, Masahista focuses on a young man, Iliac, who works in a gay brothel, this time a massage parlour. There are some explicit sequences and we learn more about procedures in the parlour than we probably need to know.
Where the film is different and broadens its horizons is in paralleling Iliac's work with the preparations for his father's funeral (dressing and undressing, rituals pertaining to bodies, the living and the dead). The scenes are intercut, spelling out the comparisons and contrasts and Iliac's behaviour with his client and with his family, two different worlds. In highlighting the poverty and parlour money going to support families, there are a few religious images - but no priest attending the funeral.
One of many films about the sordid Philippine gay world of the suburbs, but suggesting some social themes for pondering.
1. The Philippine film industry? Preoccupations with sexuality, heterosexual and homosexual, religion, society, poverty? As dramatised and illustrated in this film?
2. The video production, the quality of the filming? The locations in the village, home, the funeral parlour, the exteriors for the funeral? The boys playing basketball outside the massage parlour? The interiors of the home, the interiors of the parlour? The realism of both locations? Musical score?
3. The structure of the film: Iliac and his life as a masseur, the clients, the management of the parlour, the other men in the parlour, the procedures, the attention to detail? The intercutting of the death of his father, his having received the message but not going home until the morning? The rituals of preparing his father for his funeral? The morning, the assembly at the home? The funeral itself? The effect of the intercutting and the paralleling of details with the funeral and the service of the client?
4. Iliac, his age, place in the family, brother, sister? His love for his mother? The father being an alcoholic, dying, cirrhosis? The effect of his father’s death, his not going immediately? His presence, supporting the brother and sister? His supporting his mother? The family and the visitors? In the funeral parlour, undressing the corpse, dressing it in its proper clothes? The preparation of the body lying in state, the transfer to the home, making his brother go downstairs, the visitors and the discussions? The going to the funeral, at the graveside? The contrast with his being very forward at work, the clients, his being chosen, the procedures of the massage, the discussions with the client, revelation of himself, playing to the client’s needs, the sexual encounter? The aftermath? His leaving with his girlfriend?
5. The presentation of the client, his background, writing the novels, talking about perverted friends, his own going to the massage parlour, the massage itself, the concern about money, the sexual behaviour? Reneging on the payment? The possibility of his asking for Iliac again?
6. The staff, playing up to the clients, the hard sell? The men having to call the clients “sir”? The personalities of the men there, playing pool, basketball, going about their work, unselfconscious? The treatment of the sex scenes – how prurient, explicit, sufficient to indicate the life in the parlour?
7. The portrait of the family, the mother, the legal wife, the husband having abandoned the family, his drinking? The comments by the relations, the friends? The detail of the funeral parlour, the funeral itself? The crucifix and religious symbols? The absence of the priest and prayer?
8. The comment on Philippine society, poverty, the prostitution of children for the support of their families? Family bonds? The place of the police – serving for the funeral?
9. The future of young men like Iliac, the work, its consequences, dangers? His relationship with the girl, her being a prostitute and loud and forward? With his family?
10. Hope and hopelessness in Philippine cinema?
