Title: Marupok AF (Where is the Lie?)
MPAA Rating: Not Yet Rated
Director: Quark Henares
Starring: EJ Jallorina, Maris Rascal, and Royce Carera
Runtime: 1 hr 24 Minutes

What It Is: Based on a true story, a transwoman named Janzen (Jallorina) in the Philippines falls victim to cat-fishing due to a transphobic group of people in the modeling industry led by a sociopath director named Beanie (Rascal). The film follows all sides of the story with each person involved in the situation giving their interviews throughout the movie. Janzen falls in love with a fake online persona Beanie creates named Theo and Beanie relentlessly toys with her, all the while possibly developing feelings for Janzen. Janzen suffers heartbreak after heartbreak while being emotionally manipulated by Beanie until it all escalates well past any person involved intended.

What We Think: There is a movie that I infamously hate named Sierra Burgess is a Loser that is all about cat-fishing. It sweeps cat-fishing under a rug and plays off the whole thing like it’s a forgivable, lighthearted offense. The movie is a romantic comedy that makes my skin crawl because cat-fishing is portrayed as almost romantic. This is not that movie. Not even close. This movie was a roller-coaster where it makes it very clear that Janzen is a victim and Beanie is a vile, irredeemable monster. This movie broke my heart over and over again. Each time Janzen was devastated, I felt devastated for her. I don’t think I’ve hated a character more than I have hated Beanie in recent memory. It was nauseating to see the lengths that Beanie goes to keep up the charade. It kept you wondering if Beanie was ever going to become redeemable, only to show that she is constantly willing to sink further and further until things culminate to a conclusion that only makes sense. Beanie very clearly does get feelings for Janzen, but it is a sort of sick and sociopathic love that thrives on the lies Beanie continuously feeds Janzen. The acting in the movie is very solid, with Jallorina and Rascal giving the strongest performances in the film as the protagonist and the very vile antagonist. Janzen is a likable protagonist who we just want to see win and it’s definitely in no small part due to the wonderful acting capabilities of EJ Jallorina. I don’t think the vile things that Beanie does would have affected me so much if Jallorina didn’t play Janzen as such a lovable and caring person who just wanted to be loved.
The movie is based on a true story and is very much so about transphobia and the difficulties a transgender person can face. It lets you know that, very brutally. If I did have only one real critique I could come up with for the film, it’s that the emotional brutality of it does hit hard repeatedly. On one hand, there are moments that feel almost like it’s trying to play itself off as a comedy, but then the soul-crushing onslaught of Beanie continues. It gets legitimately upsetting. I do think, however, that is what the movie was going for, in which case, it succeeded. This movie had me squirm more than a horror movie because I legitimately got worried about what would happen to Janzen. I wasn’t sure if Beanie knew any limit to the things she would do and I wasn’t sure just how far the emotional abuse of Janzen would go. Thankfully, my worst fears about the direction of the movie weren’t realized, but it did still prove to be quite an emotionally harrowing journey. I would say that Beanie is unrealistically cruel, but the chilling fact of the matter is that there are people that have that level of cruelty in them. While she’s not gunning people down in the streets or doing anything that could land her jail time, the amount of enjoyment she gets from emotionally crushing people is disturbing in a very true-to-life way. Hats off to the writer and hats off to Rascal for playing a character I really hated.

Our Grade: A+, This movie is the anti-Sierra Burgess is a Loser. You feel how disgusting the cat-fishing in the movie is and it never tries to redeem the characters that do it. Admittedly, my grading of this movie very much so depended on how this movie was going to end (better have a satisfying conclusion if you’re going to make me feel things to such a strong degree). The movie doesn’t end with a bang, but rather a whisper. A whisper that feels true to life. Even when karma comes for malicious people, life moves on and there are pieces to be picked up by their victims. There is a sort of quietness to the ending which lets you know the story is over, but the characters will have to live with the events of what happened for the rest of their lives. Transphobia is the topic of the film and I feel like it’s approached in such a way that really makes one sympathize with the struggles a trans person could face in the world. While this movie is very upsetting at points, it’s powerfully making a statement. All in all, it’s a very solid movie.