Circles (2004) + Bathhouse (2005/Water Bearer)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: D/C-     Features: C+/C

 

 

Cris Pablo is the Phillipines’ premiere directing Gay activist and is creating a series of features on video that are somewhere between civil rights examinations and narrative works.  Water Bearer has decided to release two of them separately, but on the same street date.  Circles (2004) is about a young Gay man thinking of regrets as he may be killed during a sudden robbery, while Bathhouse (2005) goes into a place gay men congregate as an alternate to not having enough rights in their own country.

 

Circles is the better of the two by simply having a narrative that offers enough self-reflectiveness to work and be worth a look.  Though not always successful, it is a good idea sometimes realized.  Bathhouse feels more like a secret public service announcement that has valid, important points, but attempts a narrative that is too watered down to work or make more valid points.  It is less memorable.  Though there is nudity, neither are as graphic as expected and maybe if it had been racier, this might have made more sense in places.  However, both capture the state of Gay life in their home country and that is enough to make them human rights documents.

 

The letterboxed 1.78 X 1 image on both are soft, lack depth, lack definition and can be very inconsistent.  Shaky camerawork gets tiresome quickly and it is easy to get impatient while watching.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 sound on both have their limits and issues, are stereo at best and the location recordings show flaws.  Only Bathhouse has an extra in a trailer, deleted scene and brief-but-informative featurette on Homosexuality In The Phillipines.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo