Vivamax: Review of LAGASLAS: Leaking and Lacking

February 19, 2023

Edmar (VR Relosa) was the lazy, good-for-nothing son of hardworking market vendor Aling Loleng (Rubi Rubi). One day, while investigating a water leak, he saw and peeked into a makeshift enclosure and saw a pretty young woman taking a bath inside. In the following days, he stalked her to find out her name was Karisma (Manang Medina) and that she was living with an older man Vicencio (Julio Diaz) with whom she had intimate relations. 

Aling Loleng and the other vendors in the market were facing eviction after being scammed by their agent who never remitted their rent to the owner. However, instead of helping his mother out, the more Edmar pursued his risky obsession with Karisma. Their relationship progressed to a consensual sexual one, even as Vicencio already amended his will to leave everything to the adopted daughter he lusted after and loved.

VR Relosa's Edmar was one sexually-preoccupied dude who must have had more than five scenes of pleasuring himself either in an erotic fantasy world of his own or while peeping into an unsuspecting woman's private room. It was either that or he was having sex with Karisma or with his mother's manicurist Divine (Pow Pai). The rest of the time, he was just being a lazy useless lout, not really doing anything promising for a debut. 

Manang Medina does not have a particularly memorable or star-quality screen name.  She was either taking a bath or engaging in a sexual act, no substantial acting moment to shine in throughout the film. Come to think of it, that final moment of hers sitting in the car of Atty. Acosta (Arnold Reyes) was more promising than everything else she did before that point. Sky Alvarez as the promiscuous market vendor Betbet even made a stronger impression

Whether Relosa or Medina can reach the level of Sean Guzman or Angeli Khang in the Vivamax stable still remains to be seen. But hopefully they can be given more substantial material than the thin dreadful story told here, their debut feature. A proficient performance of character actress Rubi Rubi as Edmar's patient mother and an estafa case to justify the extra time beyond the unstimulating sex scenes are not enough. 2/10.