Working [Whores] Girls

Posted on July 26, 2006 by

17


At the moment: Happy.. yes.. HAPPY.

Just a little news before I start this post: I was appointed Features Editor in The Chronicle (Communication Arts Official Journal). I found out after I took a piss and a much-needed break from a film-showing session our Scriptwriting professor put us in. God wants me to write again. ^__^

Yes. I am going to talk about that film: Working Girls by Ishmael Bernal. I really wish I can find a site where I can direct you guys to a decent synopsis of this movie because I absolutely suck at giving story summaries.. but alas, the movie is way too old and way too Filipino for the Internet to put it up.

Working Girls is basically a story of six young women in a 1984 Filipino corporate setting. It depicts how women climb up to the top of the corporate ladder; one used her amazing skills in blackmail, one used her college degree, another used her biting personality while another one just simply slept with every new boss that comes around… you get the idea.

Some highlights:

o Gina Pareño and Tommy Abuel do it in the floor.
o Carmi Martin do it with a LOT of men but end up with Edu Manzano (lucky bitch.. >.o Maria Isabel Lopez does it with a whole lot of dirty, ugly and FAT men.
o Hilda Koronel does it with an ape-like man (read: HAIRY) who reads poetry for a living.
o Some girl who got pregnant by her boss tried getting rid of the baby by taking up aerobics classes. (LMAO)

The tongue-ing was probably the one thing I couldn’t stand about the whole ordeal. I can look at heavily graphic porn-comics. Heck, I can even watch a full-length porn movie if I want to. But come ON! It was a 1984 movie! Their idea of “arousal” is waaay far from what we have right now. Tell me dear readers, do you really tongue someone else’s ear in a bar while dancing?! And it’s not even the good kind! The man was literally jamming his pointed tongue onto the woman’s ear as if his tongue was some kind of super jackhammer!

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not judging the movie because of its numerous sex scenes… for what can really be said about a 1984 film with a lot of sex scenes? It’s perfectly understandable if the lighting isn’t perfect, the lines too cheesy or if the clothes look like potato sacks. What I’m bitching about is the nauseating.. no, excruciating pain of having to watch tongues lashing hungrily at each other. It really made me lose my mind. It would’ve been a little bit more.. uh.. appealing if the men were halfway decent but they weren’t. Believe me, they WEREN’T. I am ashamed to admit that I have been scandalized by it. Ugh. That’s really saying something because I’m not the type who’d go all squeal-y and shit at the sight of sexual intercourse.

The movie is good though. Aside from all the licking and the FK going on (by stars who are probably in their mid 40′s by now) the movie has a lot to say about women’s role in the office. Hilda Koronel’s character is very admirable. You just have to love her when she delivers lines like “Learn to fight your own battles!” or stuff like “Punyeta! Maupo ka nga and listen to me!” she was by far the strongest woman among the 6 characters. She’s just so irritatingly busy being bitchy all the time that you just can’t help loving her. The others are okay.. Maria Lopez’ character has a sad, tragic ending.. from being a Makati girl, she became an Avenida one. Another character whose name I have forgotten, ended hers with hope, Carmi Martin turns over a new leaf and bags a hot, rich boyfriend to boot.. Gina Pareño manages to squeeze a LARGE sum of money through blackmail.

I still don’t know why our prof chose that movie for us to watch. Sure it’s good but… what was the point again? Anyway, he asked us to make a draft either a prequel or a sequel of it. Now that assignment is fairly interesting. It’s probably the most interesting thing he has done since introducing himself as our Scriptwriting professor.

I’m planning to use the Maria Isabel Lopez’ “Makati gurl turned pokpok” plot and make a sequel out of it. Somehow, I just really hated to see an ending like that. I like tragic endings but that was just sad. I mean she started as a social climber, was buried 6 feet under in debt… succumbed to the dark side of flesh trade because of her needs… and—-

Oh yeah, when she did manage to fall in-love and somebody was serious enough to propose to her, it turned out that that man’s father had been one of her “clients.” Disgustingly cliche I know.. but it’s still sad. Her story ended with her getting in a car of a past “client” I don’t know about you, but I find that awfully disheartening. It’s one thing to get stuck in the muck, it’s another story altogether to never get out of it. The finality of her sorry state made me feel really bad. So yeah… here’s to a sequel!! *holds up a glass of margarita*

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