Franco risks his life and freedom with years in prison when he begins stalking Brent Barcelon, a local celebrity. The problem is that attraction gives way to devotion and this to obsession, and that complicates things, because the Filipino prostitute boy takes his desires to the limit, showing his sickest version. He may be handsome and have a statuesque body, but behind that another truth is developing.
'Lodi', idol spelled backwards, is a low-budget, slow, soft-core Filipino porn film from 2017. The protagonist, named Franco, a young sex worker with a beautiful body, is criminally obsessed with a straight boy.
Finally Franco, who visibly does not regret his actions, takes the path of stalking, theft and violence, all with the goal of possessing the boy who sparks his obsession.
The protagonist, who realizes that he could never have a romantic relationship with Brent, pursues him, and discovers where he lives. In this way, he comes to occupy a position as a maintenance manager in his condominium, with the sole purpose of being close to the object of his obsession, without considering the ethical, criminal, legal consequences and harm to himself and other people.
As she commits her crimes, the director and cinematographer simply enjoy the view of her naked body for much of the film. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it too.
The film reflects the involution of a human being as he goes towards his wild instincts, the lowest, twisted and darkest. Franco does not like to deceive and manipulate his clients. Their friend Tiger (Carlo Mendoza), another prostitute, drugs them before robbing them. The protagonist of the story rejects this action.
However, carried away by his dangerous obsession, he also decides to commit the crime, and drugs and rape come into play.
As we can see in the images, 'Lodi' has an important erotic charge with scenes of paid sex and domination sex, but others are not real, as they are recreated in the imagination of the protagonist, who sees himself having consensual sex with Brent.
These explicit sexual scenes (completely removed from the universe of pornography) provide absolute meaning to the story of the protagonist and the plot of the film.
In every erotic drama there is an almost tacit rule: the irrationality of the acts must be recorded, stripping them of a moralistic perspective, but trying to unlock the reasons for the magnetism that leads its protagonists (again and again) to approach each other in the context of the forbidden and even crime. 'Lodi' starts from that guideline, and does it accordingly.
This homoerotic film is directed and written by Tim Muñoz, and stars JM Martinez as Franco and Ace Toledo as Brent.
It was made with a modest budget, which helps it succeed with its proposals.
JM Martinez shines in his role, reflecting an individual whose attraction for another boy grows in crescendo, giving way to an unhealthy obsession that leads him to commit unforgivable crimes. It only takes one sequence of the several that exist in the 79-minute duration, and which lasts just five minutes, to persuade the viewer of the monster that has been created.
JM Martinez's performance is overwhelming, considering that the best tool to reflect his character's obsession was to remain with an averted, inert gaze, with an imperturbable face despite everything he has been planning to carry out his evil plans.
The disruption generated by Brent's presence in the life of a young man who seems to have everything resolved in his life thanks to the sale of his body, is reminiscent of what occurs in other films by the director, such as 'Don Filipo', in the one in which a man becomes obsessed with dominating another to take away his heart and be able to achieve eternal youth.
For his part, the character played by Ace Toledo convincingly demonstrates that he is oblivious to what has been brewing around him such an abject being, whose actions border on the implausible, even within the codes of this story, where instinct takes precedence over any more thoughtful thought.
Both actors starred in 'Hombre', the first feature film by Tim Muñoz and after the short film 'Estranghero' (2016), an erotic film in which JM Martinez and Ace Toledo play LGBTQ+ characters with nude scenes and extreme sexual content.
The supporting cast also contributes with their realistic performances. It's filmed almost in a documentary style and that lends credibility to the whole storytelling aspect of the story.
In his third film, and with the erotic eye of Gregg Araki and Gus Van Sant, Tim Muñoz, whose scripts are in the Filipino vernacular, but always provide subtitles to reach an international audience, also portrays a reality in the world since Antiquity : a fan's devotion to his idol, but taken to unimaginable consequences.
We all, to a greater or lesser extent, feel admiration for an equal, for their peculiarities and characteristics. In many cases, this admiration can be identified with a type of behavior that in psychology is called "idolating", and refers to the assessment and recognition we make of another person, but exclusively focused on their positive qualities.
The ending is cruelty so harmonious with the general story.