Watched the Philippines' restored version of _Markova; Comfort Gay_(1:36:28) (2001), a remarkable movie for its statements on gay identity and social oppression, except that it was not written by a gay writer and directed by a gay director. The movie begins with the misleading promise that this is a delightful Dolphy comedy, then takes the audience into the dark labyrinth of World War II and the nonchalant attitude of society in general toward gays in the present day.
What might have set the proper tone for this production was actual footage of Walter Dempster, Jr. today, or a montage of photos of him from his past and his present. Instead, Dolphy is left alone to do his thing, and we obtain no real insight into the biopic's protagonist. To make things worse, Dolphy's improvisations and quips fall flat in this particular movie, mainly because they don't seem to belong to the overall mood of the movie.
The screenplay and direction seem to have served as the inspiration for Thailand's 2003 _Beautiful Boxer_, shot two years later; both movies, however, are theatrical rather than cinematic, visually crude, and ill-assembled, as though their creators were developing isolated ideas and then stringing them together to comprise a finished product.
Even Loren Legarda received minimal direction in this production. She seemed to have been left pretty much to herself, and her sequences give the impression that everything was shot over a maximum of two days. She probably should have been included in scenes where Markova walks into her own flashbacks, rather than be a mere sounding board for verbal exposition. On top of everything, there is no continuity between the three characters--young Markova, adult Markova, and old Markova-- so that the movie becomes a sketchy hodgepodge of the lives of three separate gay persons rather than only one.
Having said all of that, the performers who did real, serious homework were Eric Quizon and Jeffrey Quizon. The latter skillfully avoided the caricature trap his father fell into, underplaying his role effectively, while the former underwent a stunning transformation as impressive as Faye Dunaway's depiction of Joan Crawford in the 1981 _Mommie Dearest_.
Still a movie worth watching, since there won't be another like it in a long time.
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