BLISS RATING: ★★★★+
“When you truly love someone, age doesn’t matter. Whether it is 2 years or 30 years, love is love.” – Recite
This is a very unusual and short BL series that I truly enjoyed. But horribly titled. It sounds so perverse to me, which of course is just the opposite. It is NOT your typical BL series involving college guys with adjustment disorders.
It is a story about a middle-aged man named Mark (Victor Sy), who is successful in an IT company who has devoted his entire life to working. He is somewhat lonely and turns towards massages to obtain the human touch that he craves. So, he calls Kiko (Rex Lantano), who advertises as a massage therapist. But Kiko makes it clear that he only gives massages and no ‘extra’ services. Kiko is stunningly handsome with a boy-next-door look who is down on his luck and at this point in his life a very marginalized individual with a dubious career path. Yet, he is charming, friendly and has an outgoing personality but never overpowering. At times, he seems innocent or even naïve. Mark, on-the-other-hand, is an incredibly in-shape man with a bit of a strong personality and an assertive person who is obviously very successful. He is smitten by Kiko immediately and to some degree so is Kiko.
Over time, the massages become more intense but never sexual. However, it is obvious that the two are falling in love with each other. Kiko resumes his friendship with his former girlfriend after an absence. She tells him that she has suspected and then realized that he was gay. He is now finally able to admit that to her and himself as well. So here is someone struggling with trying to accept his gayness, getting money from marginal and questionable methods that are not socially acceptable, and still trying to maintain a sense of dignity about himself. As Mark becomes more enamored with Kiko, he offers him a job as Personal Assistant so he could quit doing massages.
By this point Kiko is also into Mark and is thrilled to be working for him and helping him in his new business venture. Unfortunately, Kiko in trying to help Mark, calls another massage customer of his named Roy (Michael Cayetano). He excitedly tells him what Mark can do as a designer. While Roy feigns interest, he gets Kiko drunk and proceeds to rape Kiko. Mark finds out about the hook-up (not the rape though) and is furious so much so that he goes into a jealous rage and attacks Kiko. Kiko is devastated by this rejection as apparently all Mark sees is that side of Kiko that is unworthy and nothing else.
This was such an excellent portrayal of what happens all too often when a good deed does get punished. For someone so marginalized, trying to prove his worth to someone he loves and then gets rejected for the thing he was trying to do had to be devastating and gut-wrenching. But they each realized that they love one other and are wanting to be together. But since neither had been tested for HIV, Mark suggested they do so before the relationship develops into a sexual one. Tragically, Kiko is positive and his whole world comes crashing down on him. In a particularly poignant scene with Mark talking to his priest friend for advice, he tells Mark that now more than ever Kiko needs a friend and him being scared is not at the same level as the fear and terror Kiko is going through. The last scene is of Mark and Kiko celebrating their five-year anniversary together attesting to the commitment each of them had to the other.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. the series? All of them are so good in this series but I have to give this distinction to Rex Lantano as Kiko. He is a remarkable actor. Never overdramatic and always somehow maintained a sense and feeling about hopefulness in him. It is extraordinary to watch. He is a sad, marginalized individual who maintains his integrity and worth throughout and will not let anyone take that away from him. Just as he thinks he has turned the corner, he is hit with his HIV status. While profoundly disconsolate, he is determined to not let that define him. He portrays Kiko with such dignity and a certain sense of grace that you cannot help to want nothing but the best in him. When Mark says that it is easy to fall in love with him, no truer words were ever spoken. He had this sense about him that he is a good decent, honest, hard-working person who is down on is luck but that will not define him. His quiet demeanor and profound inner strength showed through, and you felt it. Honestly, he is also one of the handsomest BL actors from the Philippines I have seen. He is stunningly photogenic. Kudos for having it all!
While there is a happy ending to this, there are some very serious adversities. There is no denying that Kiko was raped and perhaps got HIV from that rape. Unfortunately, this happens in the gay community more than is ever reported. Mainly due to the persons perceived status in life. After all, he is ‘just’ a masseuse, asking for it. As with Kiko we want to pretend that it is not what it obviously is. But it is rape. There is such a stigma about reporting gay rape as nothing more than it is expected in our community.
The other almost unbearable situation is when Mark got so angry with Kinko that he held him down and physically choked him. Yet, somehow, we are expected to ‘forgive’ that as something unique that happened in a fit of rage over Mark thinking he was with another man. I get the anger and the feeling of helplessness that someone you like might have had sex with someone else, but nothing but nothing justifies that type of physical response. Kiko chooses to ignore it and subsequently accepts it. I would not have. No matter how deep the love is; that behavior is unacceptable. I do wish that had been addressed with more intensity as it deserved it. Mark has an anger management issue and some type of understanding of what unacceptable behavior is from here on out needs to be established. There were missed opportunities to make a point against sexual and physical abuses. Too bad. That would have enhanced this series considerable. Instead, it is glossed over although I do appreciate that it is portrayed as happening in the gay world.
This is unique in the sense that it is ‘older-younger’ relationship (not ‘daddy’, an incredibly detestable word). And with ‘class’ differences. The story was raw, gritty, so real, and so current despite the notion that HIV is hardly ever discussed even in the gay world anymore. I am glad that it was addressed in this series as it is still a problem. This is the only recent series I have watched where this issue is even mentioned let alone tackled. It did give some awesome advice to “GET TESTED” before having unprotected sex. It also showed clearly what marginalized people must go through to ‘prove’ they are worth something. Very depressing.
On a lighter note, and more earthy note, both actors sure looked good in underwear. Some of their massage scenes were well done and rather sensual. How can you possibly go wrong (or not get excited) with watching two handsome men frolicking around in tight underwear in bed? No matter what your orientation is.
As a further side note, I would have rated this series higher. Overall, it is a brilliantly acted series with topical and relevant subject matters, but what gnaws at my inner core is the cavalier use of physical force onto another person when it is simply not justified and of course the rape. Gay people still are marginalized, and we do not need to portray that it is somehow still all right for individuals in our community to choke another person simply because you are angry with them. Worse than that is the inability to see these types of reactions is reprehensible and wrong. How can rape be acceptable? We must stop giving any kind of credence to these notions.
Men do manly things! Sorry, not buying it. Can you imagine if a “Mark” would have choked his female lover like that? What would the outcry had been? I think we would have ALL recognized the abhorrence of that. Yet, at times, we tolerate this behavior with acceptability with little to no consequences. I think we have a moral responsibility to speak out again these portrayals of inappropriate behaviors – gay, straight and everything in between.
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