Sex and the single, young dreamers

Film review: I Love Dreamguyz

MANILA, Philippines - For sure, they must be the young male versions of the Japan-bound japayukis, they who dream of a better life no matter what.

Joel Lamangan’s latest indie film — I Love Dreamguyz — explores the life of these young dreamers and how they end up compromising what’s left of their virtues — all in the name of survival.

The profiles of these ambitious young men are revealed as the film gets to the bottom of its so-called relevant social agenda.

Sherwin Ordoñez is under the care of a sado-machistic stepfather and a trip to Japan was the only way out of that battered life.

The role of Marco Morales is one perennially badgered by a family in need of daily sustenance from school needs to medical attention.

Jay L Dizon is a son of a mentally ill mother and ended up living in with his well-off girlfriend, Niña Jose. Trouble is in one outing where the Japan-bound boys were supposed to be bonding, Dizon ended up making it with the group choreographer, Marco Morales who also has a relationship with the gay manager, played to the hilt by Jao Mapa.

Miggy Valdez isn’t a newcomer to Japan but has to hide that fact as the recruiter only needs first-timers. He is married to a Filipino, had a Japanese girlfriend and the film even manages to show a sizzling ménage a trios.

As it is, the film succeeds in showing the lifestyle of these young wage-earners. Two are bisexual by urge and by choice, one has no compulsion keeping a wife and a girlfriend and willingly agreed to a threesome if only to please his partners.

All that free and wild life comes to an end when one in the group, Dizon, turned out to have a heart ailment and passes away leaving a pregnant girlfriend.

At best, screen writer Eric Ramos succeeds in showing us who these young wards are and why they live the way they do.

But the best acting comes from a brief appearance of Archie Adamos as the brutal stepfather and Suzette Ranillo as the mother. Dizon is the most promising of the young wards.

From beginning to end, there is no doubt that Lamangan meant to entertain in this film while giving us an insight into this other marginalized members of society.

This is also a fairly technically polished film. But when young boys go wrong because of ambition, the filmmaker should go beyond titillation and show us a glimpse of the soul of these young characters.

I Love Dreamguyz should be read as Field of Dreams: This Way To Perdition.

On the other hand, Lamangan should be credited for showing us that these characters exist in our society and not straight from his imagination. To paraphrase his previous indie film, these characters have no way out (Walang Kawala)in a society that equates success with material acquisitions.