paraiso_efren

SA PARAISO NI EFREN
1999 - 114 minutes - Feature, Color 35mm print
Director - Maryo J. delos Reyes

Genre/Type - Drama
Flags -Strong Sexual Content, Adult Situations, Adult Language, Not For Children, Nudity, Violence
Set in - Manila
Produced and released by - Regal Films
Release Date - January 19, 2000.

Cast

Allan Paule - Melvin
Anton Bernardo - Efren
Ana Capri - Ana
Ynez Veneracion - Magda
Marinella Moran - Rina
Simon Ibarra - Melvin's boyfriend
Allyson VII - Anthony
Anita Linda - Melvin's Mother
Poppo Lontoc - Archie
Harlene Bautista - Woman in dreams
Zoltan Amore - Man in gay house
Jackie Castillejo - Melvin's officemate

Plot Synopsis

An extraordinary film "that tackles love, sex, and emotional entanglements that interweave when an unusual four-way relationship blossoms between the mistress Ana, the narcissistic Efren, his prodigal wife, Magda and Melvin, his special friend, live together in an apartment.

Awards

Urian
Best Picture (nom)
Best Actor (nom) - Anton Bernardo

Reviews

Noel Vera, noelmoviereview

Allan Paule meets the disconcertingly handsome Efren (Antonio Bernardo) out in
a bus stop one night; it's raining, and they share a taxi together. Inside the
taxi, Paule touches Bernardo's knee, and Bernardo immediately tells him: "I'm
not gay."

Um, right. They spend the night in a motel together and--get this--do not have
sex. This, of course, establishes the pure and platonic tone of their
relationship, and the nobility of Paule's character. When Paule wakes up,
Bernardo is gone, but his wallet and the money inside are untouched (Paule's
faith in Bernardo is also untouched); later, Paule meets Bernardo again, and
Bernardo invites him to stay in an empty room in his apartment.

You think: a-ha, now for some hanky-panky! But it's not to be so; the evening
Paule arrives at said apartment, Bernardo goes into his room with his
girlfriend, Ana Capri, and makes long and noisy love to her--with Paule
following every stage of their progress through the paper-thin walls.
Afterwards, Bernardo sneaks into Paule's room, bums a light from him, and talks
to him for hours afterwards. At one point confessing to Paule that he dreams
of his mother every night, except that his mother is a different woman every
night...a Japanese...a European...Cousin It from the Addams Family....

Wow, heavy; literally sagging with Freudian symbolism. Paule, by the way, has
just been promoted from "one-night stand without sex" to "daily
confidante"--still without sex, but at least with the added privilege of
lighting Bernardo's after-sex cigarette every night.

Right. Rounding off the improbable cast of characters is Capri's younger
sister who, unbeknownst to Capri, is having stand-up sex with her boyfriend.
Then there's Ynez Veneracion, who has an unspecified relationship with Bernardo
and functions as the apartment's domestic help without pay--cleaning the floor,
dusting the shelves, washing various clothes and dishes. When she's done with
her chores, she sits next to Paule outside Bernardo and Capri's bedroom door
and listens to them have loud and moaning sex.

Meanwhile, Paule's day job consists of going to a Non-Government Organization
(NGO) office where he deals with child rape victims. The work is an outlet for
Paule's philanthropic impulses, and the fact that he handles children shows
us--underlined and highlighted, in huge capital letters and with no subtlety
whatsoever--GAY MEN ARE PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF CHILDREN.

Um, okay, all right, we already know that--it's Paule's NGO that sounds like a
real fantasy. They build legal cases against powerful congressmen (without the
help of lawyers) and even groom and care for child-rape witnesses who testify
against the legislators in court. They're a kind of super-NGO, with everyone
in the office seemingly taking super vitamin pills that keep them tirelessly
active and unyieldingly altruistic.

Things come to a pass when Paule's former boyfriend--whom Paule sent to the
U.S. on a scholarship--returns home (Paule being the kind of saint that he is,
he quickly forgives the boyfriend his leaving him for an American). Paule's
boyfriend meets Capri and sexual sparks fly; they go off and have hot, torrid
sex, but not before Capri demands that he pay her for her services (Capri, a
former prostitute, turns out to be only semi-retired). One morning, Capri
experiences morning sickness; she rushes to the toilet to vomit--and finds
herself sharing the bowl with her younger sister, who is also pregnant.

Right. Meanwhile, Paule has put the child rape witness he's so carefully
nurtured in a van, where she'll be taken to a safehouse. Not a smart move (the
NGO staff must have forgotten to take their super vitamin pills)--the moment
the van drives out in the streets, it's blocked, the witness quickly kidnapped,
and Paule shot in the arm (a harmless flesh wound in the upper arm--more sexy
than disfiguring). Paule is understandably irritable: his star witness has
been kidnapped, his flesh wound throbbing sexily--I mean, painfully. He yells
at his fellow officemates, who look at him in undisguised sympathy (no one
dares tell him "stop being a prima donna asshole and shut up").

In the meantime, Capri has admitted to Bernardo that she screws around, and
that she's just aborted what was possibly their baby--or possibly Paule's
boyfriend's. Bernardo throws a screaming fit and chases Capri out of the
house, using her lower jaw as a sounding board for his fist. Exhausted,
Bernardo goes to bed and dreams of his mother (the Cousin It lookalike)--only
his mother turns around, and it's Alan Paule (with a mop on his head for a
wig). Bernardo opens his eyes, sees Paule (who's just returned home) standing
in front of him, and...well, you know it's going to happen.

It's the ultimate gay fantasy. Paule gets to act heroic. He gets to be fucked
(finally, and after a long period of celibacy) by the man he loves--a real man,
one who likes women. He even gets to be the man's mother. Three-point shot;
game over, winner takes all. Paule is so incredibly good and virtuous and gay
he should be given both the Nobel Peace Prize and an Academy Award
simultaneously.

Right.

Maryo J. De Los Reyes' "Paraiso ni Efren" (Efren's Paradise) is a fantasy about
a kindly gay man (Allan Paule) who lives with a handsome straight stud named
Efren (Antonio Bernardo) and his hot chick of a lover. The film isn't much
more coherently told than "Ekis" (X), but the sex scenes are staged with real
heat, the premise is fairly interesting, and Ana Capri (as Efren's lover) gives
a finely textured performance.