Markova: Comfort Gay (2000)

This is a masterpiece!

This may not be everyone's cup of tea also in addition that this is a somewhat political movie due to the occupation of the Japanese army during WW2 but movie is a masterpiece.

Trigger Warning: Some scenes in the movie shows violence towards the LGBTQIA+ community, Torture (Physical & Sexual), Rape, and War.

- Acting-wise, everyone did such a splendid job. not to mention the Philippines comedy King Dolphy is the one portraying Walterina Markova. He did such a splendid job. The young Walternina & her friends did a great job too on their characters, I had felt what it was like to be a part of the LGBTQIA+ community during those times. I can't dent the fact that being part of the community is such a controversial issue then up to now & also this movie might also have been controversial due to its nature but in my opinion, everyone that has to do with this movie really did a good job~
- The scenes and events were acted & shot great!! yes, it's not perfect but still, the message & the feelings were delivered to me.
- This movie is just purely an art in film.
- The movie was based on actual events told by Walterina herself. You can research the story and some news clipping s on google if you want to know more about her life.
- Will definitely watch this movie again and again if I got time~

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A very solid film by Philippine standards.
First of all, I was very interested in the story, a story based on the real events of Walter Dempter/Walterina Markova, and of course I watched from the perspective of an Asian viewer, because on other continents the story would probably be filmed differently.

Yes, the world of homosexuals for the entire timeline it depicts is portrayed in a feminine way, but it probably couldn't have been otherwise, a non-feminine gay would probably not have survived in those days of Japanese wartime rule. And it's shot less drastically than the reality probably was, probably with not only the Filipino viewer in mind.
The role of the "old" Walterina is played by Dolphy Quizon (unfortunately deceased today), and the interesting thing is that the roles of the younger and youthful Walterina are played by his sons Eric (we know him from the film Pusong Mamon mentioned here) and Jeffrey (he played the most and very well.. .). It is also interesting that the "old" Walterina enters some of the war scenes physically, as if in memories, as if she wanted to change the unfavorable fate.

Maybe someone will say, this type of nonsense, Asian bullshit, why is someone writing about it so long here, but the depth of the picture, at least for me and my interest in it, was satisfied today.

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