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After a successful
transaction, long-time prostitute Adela (Sue Ramirez) ends her birthday in yet
another motel room. Barging in uninvited, she tries to lure Ram (RK Bagatsing)
in for another round, not knowing that he himself is a call boy new in the
flesh trade. After discovering that they belong to the same sector of society
roaming the streets of Poblacion at night, he decides to follow her around and
ask for tips on how to up his market value. Not in need of a burden, she ends
up with him anyway when he is recommended by one of her pimp friends as her
paid cuddle buddy. Soon, she lets him move in and pay rent in the condition
that their relationship will remain platonic and that he will not take
advantage of her. As his newly-found career starts to skyrocket with one
successful referral after another, she on the contrary mulls over the
possibility of retiring after almost a decade in the business.
The formula for this kind of
movies is usually the opposite, with the guy being the dominant character and
the girl being the insufferable ball of optimistic sunshine whose naivety just
chokes the hell out of you. They reverse the roles here, and in so doing,
allow Ramirez to shine and claim the movie as her own. This is not to say
that Bagatsing doesn’t offer a convincing portrayal of his role. Maybe it’s
a simple issue of uneven character exposition?
Adela drops one line that is rather striking: There is no sadder person than one who has lost all desire for anything or anyone in life. Deep. Maybe she sidelines as a philosopher during the day? It’s true, though, and it’s not rocket science to be honest. You don’t have to be in the flesh trade to enjoy this narrative. You just need to have goals, expectations, and deadlines, just like everybody else. The details thereof are nobody else’s business but yours. But we can all relate to the universal appeal of those concepts.
Cuddle Weather is not anywhere
near the vicinity of the term groundbreaking. Heck, poster aside the material
itself is not even that risqué to begin with. We’ve seen movies about prostitutes
and gigolos tackled with more grit and abject poverty porn that pander to
their respective target audiences. What I enjoyed about this film, though, is
how it plays around with its narrative’s ironies: of prostitutes literally paying
for intimacy; of prostitutes literally paying for love or affection; of
prostitutes who can’t seem to follow the rules that they have established themselves.
Let’s not forget that this is
still a romantic comedy in the first place and they just chose the prostitution
angle as a hook. As such, debates on whether this is some sort of glamorization
of the trade are rather moot. This is not even a pseudo-documentary for
consideration at festivals abroad. The movie has good mainstream crossover
appeal, though, perhaps thanks to its stars, or maybe because of the taboo theme
that it chooses to focus on.
But then again, it just so
happens that Adela and Ram are the very concept of prostitution personified.
Perhaps the message the story is really trying to convey is that we’re all
prostitutes, one way or another. I'm an employee prostituting my skills to
a company that’ll immediately replace me if I drop dead tomorrow. You’re in
a relationship prostituting your emotions in hopes that they'll eventually be
reciprocated. We’re specks of dust in this universe prostituting our
existence in pursuit of that ever unattainable purpose in life. Now, aren’t we all?
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