Macho Dancer

Customer Reviews:

An interesting and sexy movie.......2007-05-08

This movie does an excellent job of portraying the gay world of Manila (or at least one aspect of that world). Manila follows the general Asian pattern of male clubs which provide hosts to entertain the older males.

During most of the film, the camera is focused where it should be: the charming and sexy young dancers, and the world they live in.

If you can't actually afford the plane ticket to the Philippines, buy the DVD and let your imagination run wild!

(PS. I have heard that the Philippines have gone way downhill as a destination for gay men. Evidently entrapment abounds on every hand, or so I have heard.)

Potent combination of sex and melodrama.......2004-02-27

MACHO DANCER (Philippines 1988): Deserted by his American lover, a naive country boy (Alan Paule) seeks his fortune in Manila, where he's drawn into a world of erotic dancing, prostitution and drug running, leading to betrayal and murder.

Combining elements of melodrama and social commentary, MACHO DANCER marks a return to the subject of male prostitution which highlighted director Lino Brocka's most famous - and controversial - film, MANILA IN THE CLAWS OF NEON (1975). Ever the political activist, Brocka paints a picture of the Filippino sex industry as a dangerous arena, fuelled by drugs and police corruption, where innocents must compromise their virtue in an effort to stay alive. The densely plotted screenplay (co-written by Ricardo Lee and Amato Lacuesta) is filmed with genuine gusto, though the plot is a little too familiar for comfort (see also MIDNIGHT DANCERS and BURLESK KING, both directed by Mel Chionglo). As the gullible waif who struggles to keep his head while all around him are succumbing to the worst excesses of their unhappy lifestyle, Paule - a non-actor whose lack of charisma is painfully obvious throughout - makes no impression at all. More successful is ultra-sexy Daniel Fernando (star of Peque Gallaga's influentual erotic drama SCORPIO NIGHTS [1985]) as a veteran 'macho dancer' whose association with a crooked police officer (Johnny Vicar) results in tragedy and horror, and Jacklyn Jose (YOUR WIFE, MY WIFE) as the sterotypical 'tart with a heart' who succumbs to Paule's dubious charms (yes, another 'gay' film in which the leading man falls for his leading lady!). The running time is padded with lengthy excerpts from the various stage performances, in which naked young guys oil each other up and gyrate to synth music, and while the film's sexual content is prolonged and generous (Fernando's dance sequence with co-star William Lorenzo is worth the price of admission alone!), it's also fairly coy by western standards. Some of the dramatic sequences are allowed to overrun, and the climax is predictably ironic, but the narrative still packs something of an emotional wallop, and while production values are modest, the film is lively and competent, and the potent mixture of beefcake, sentimentality and violence is frankly irresistible.

Strand Releasing's DVD is taken from what the package describes as 'the sole surviving 35mm print of Lino Brocka's original version, uncut and uncensored'. Despite its rough edges, especially around reel changes, the presentation is acceptable. There are no extras, except trailers for other Strand releases.

NB. Anyone tempted to sample First Run Features' DVD version of MIDNIGHT DANCERS (1994) should be warned that their 'full, uncut' disc is incomplete, running 10 minutes shorter than the UK video print.

134m 53s
1.33:1 [slightly cropped from 1.37:1 theatrical ratio]
Mono 2.0
Optical mono [theatrical]
Tagalog soundtrack
Permanent English subtitles
All regions

Better than I expected.......2002-09-02

I've been wanting to get this movie since reading a rather breathless review on Planet Out a couple of years ago.

It's a better movie than I expected, but you should know it's not a gay love story. Our hero, Pol, played by Alan Paule, is determinedly hetero but turns to hustling to raise money for his impoverished family. To this end, he goes to Manila and becomes a male (macho) dancer in a sex club. You may make of that what you will, the film, is non-judgmental. Pol maintains a certain detachment from his chosen craft; the cover art for the CD is taken from the one scene in which he genuinely seems to enjoy being erotic with another guy and Pol's lovemaking scene with Bambi, a cute, sassy young female Philippino in the same situation, is the hottest scene in the movie.

There's only one character in the film who appears to have homo-erotic tendencies, Noel, played by Daniel Fernando, and he ends up tragically. His was the more interesting and attractive character to me. There's only one gay kiss that isn't just for the sake of the show at the sex club and Pol is genuinely surprised that Noel would kiss him on the lips other than when they're on stage.

There is a lot of simulated eroticism and near total male nudity, even a little total male nudity (one brief scene in which a bunch of the dancers are on stage masturbating - shot from across the room, not close up) and a lot of simulated sex acts. Pol is pretty good at undulating and gyrating in a g-string; Noel is even better.

Maybe as much as a third of the movie consists of these scenes of male dancers, serving as backdrop for a morality tale involving Pol and Noel and Noel's sister in which the heavy is the police official who "protects" this aspect of Philippino society. To the extent the film is a commentary on social conditions which give rise to all of this prostitution, it paints a much direr picture of the young Philippino girls who are drawn into this trade than of the young men. I've read the film is a searing indictment of the corruption that existed under the Marcos and Aquino regimes. I lack the knowledge of Philippino society to judge this statement, but "The Comedians" with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor was a searing indictment of life in Haiti under Papa Doc and this film has nowhere near the power of that one.

So much of the film is devoted to the scenes at the sex clubs it's difficult to believe the filmmaker was simply producing an indictment of political corruption but I'm not sure what else to make of it.

The acting is better than I expected, as is the filmmaking, but this DVD was produced from a very old and scratchy copy of the film and is the worst visually I've ever seen.

Planet Out is incapable of giving anything less than a breathless review to any film in which at least one male
character takes his shirt off but I give this film only 3 stars.

The Skull Beneath The Erotic Skin.......2002-05-18

Like the later and much glossier MIDNIGHT DANCERS, MACHO DANCER depicts the lives of male prostitutes in Manilla; unlike MIDNIGHT DANCERS, however, it is considerably more gritty and disquieting. The story concerns Pol (Alan Paule), a young man in the Manillian provinces who has drifted into prostitution with an American G.I. in order to help support his impoverished family. When his patron finishes his tour of duty, Pol's friend Greg (Bobby Sano) urges him to try his luck in Manilla.

Once in Manilla, Pol becomes a "Macho Dancer," working as a preformer and prostitute at a police protected club in the tourist belt--and becomes friends with fellow club worker Noel (Daniel Fernando) and upscale call-girl Bambi (Jacklyn Jose.) Although we realize they are motivated by poverty and lack of other skills (time and again the characters simply state "I was hungry"), the film paints itself in extremely tantalizing, erotic colors--and much more explicitly so than MIDNIGHT DANCERS--but as the story progresses the eroticism of the film seques into an extremely dark story of the foundations of the sex-trade: youth, poverty, hunger, and a corrupt police and economic system that preys on all three. By the film's conclusion one feels extremely guilty for having, perhaps, salivated a bit over the boys and girls--for it is precisely that reaction that creates the marketplace which so brutally preys upon them.

Description

Un conocido playboy viaja en su avión, acompañado de su ayudante homosexual y sufren un accidente. Como resultado del accidente el playboy pierde la virilidad. Desesperado el hombre, descubre que ya existen un hombre y una mujer biónicos, y hasta un perro, así que haciendo uso de su fortuna, viaja a los Estados Unidos y se somete a la operación que lo convierte en el primer macho biónico. Recuperado de la cirugía, pide a su ayudante que le organice una fiesta, con las mujeres más guapas, pero el implante no da resultado. Tras el fracaso, viene la averiguación, y ahí se entera que para que el implante funcione, tiene que existir el sentimiento del amor. Comienza la búsqueda desesperada y solo una vez logra sentir amor, y es en un cabaret de mala muerte con una bailarina exótica a la que nunca volverá a ver. Decepcionado se refugia en un convento. Su ayudante para rescatarlo logra que la bailarina exótica se pasee desnuda por los jardines del convento para provocar la tan deseada reacción. A well-known playboy and his gay assistant have an airplane accident. As a result, the playboy loses his virility. Desperate, he learns that science has already produced a bionic man and woman and even a bionic dog, so, using his vast fortune, he goes to the U.S. and undergoes an operation which turns him into the world's first bionic stud. Having recovered from the surgery, he asks his assistant to organize a party with the most beautiful women, only to discover that the implant does not work. His investigation reveals that the implant will work only if and when love is involved. He begins a desperate search but has the stirrings of love only once, in a third-rate night club, while watching an exotic dancer he will likely never see again. Despondent, the playboy takes refuge in a convent. His faithful assistant manages to have the exotic dancer walk naked about the convent gardens to generate the desired reaction.

Customer Reviews:

Ridiculous "Censored" version of the movie.... AGAIN!.......2005-02-17

DONT BUY IT! I really wish someday Mexican film distributors would stop releasing censored versions of their films but sadly, I don't think they know any better. This is a SEX COMEDY yet most the good parts (if you will) are removed by censors, yet again. Why do people destroy their own films on DVD when the entire point of the format is to do the opposite!? I will never understand how this happens so often with Mexican DVDs. Don't buy this if you want to see it the way it supposed to be seen.. rent the VHS instead.

Great movie.......1999-08-01

It is a good movie very funnie, is a movie about a guy that loose his man tool on a plane accident, and then they put on a bionic new tool, it is like mexicana, but thats the good part because they have the worst special fx. that i have ever seen. is funnie if you dont have nothing to do or nothing in what to spent money buy it.

Average customer rating:

male sex work in the PI

Macho Dancer - Philippine Tagalog DVD

Manufacturer: Viva Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Foreign & International | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B000B8Q9WY

Product Description

Award-winning filmmaker Lino Brocka takes you to the seedy enclaves of th emale flesh trade. Like any young man who has been lured to the business, Pol ses his body as the only way to claw out of poverty. he is endowed with an oversized asset guaranteed to keep any male customer happy. He embarks for the city and there forms a bond with Noel who helps him land a gig as a macho dancer. Noel is on a quest to find his siter who has been missing since moving to the city. He fears that she may now be plying the sex route too. Soon. Pol discovers that Noel has other problems as well. A syndicate composed of dirty cops is hot on his tail. As Pol gets deeply entangled in Noel's affairs, he is forced to put his own life on the line. The movie halied by critics as a groundbreaking piece, demonstrates why Lino Brocka is one of the undisputed masters of the Philippine Cinema. Special features: Theatrical Trailer, Macho Dancer: A Critical Look

Customer Reviews:

male sex work in the PI.......2005-12-11

This film seeks to demystify male sex work in Southeast Asia. This was made in the 1980s, years before the liberal 1990s, quite a pioneer for its time. Coming before debates over a gay gene, this film focuses upon men who are "gay for pay." It shows that some of them keep secrets from their loved ones, but other relatives clearly know this trade is what keeps roofs over their families' heads. This film doesn't break down into white clients and yellow hustlers, the Japanese are shown as interested clients as well. Still, this film shows there are campy, gay-identified men in the Islands. For those who like masculine, homoerotic imagery, this has lots of it. I have concerns that just like Africa's "Dakan" and South America's "Don't Tell Anyone," this film seems to suggest that the love of a white or white-looking woman can cure gay desire or action among men of color. Very problematic. This film also touches upon serious issues like urban migration, poverty, and female prostitution. Students may want to view this film alongside of reading books by Altman and Manalansan.

DVD:

DVD

DVD