Despite Philippine cinemas are still closed, the opening of Vivamax helped a lot in promoting small-budget indie films like Taya but the quality of many latter films is taking a hit. Taya is a low-budget, low-quality film that is aiming to make a big profit by attracting a mostly male audience. This is no difference from the late 90s films when sexy movies were dominating the big screen.
The film is both exciting and disappointing and I’ll explain why.
Aj Raval different shots
Taya summary
Journalism student Sixto (Sean De Guzman) is tired of his college life. He only goes to college because of his mother’s persistence. he is falling behind in his studies because of unwillingness and procrastination. He is having hallucinations and daydreams or making love with a woman whom he saw on one of the online betting sites.
His professor (Mon Confiado) is pressuring him for his thesis and because he doesn’t have a camera, his requirements are getting delayed. This is where he met his classmate (Pio Balbuena) who’s working for the online betting syndicate. His classmate lent him a camera and he was able to continue working on his thesis.
Disturbed by the woman he’s seeing on his wet dreams, Sixto placed a bet on an online “ending” betting game hoping to win the woman. he won but because of mishaps, he got a different prize, a woman named Nanette (AJ Raval). Sixto eventually fell in love with Nanette and the two eloped but not before something terrible happened.
His classmate who lent him the camera was killed by the syndicate and the police looking for him after the CCTV shows he was the last one seen together with his deceased classmate.
Sixto and Nanette eventually moved to a remote place but because he couldn’t find a job, Nanette left him.
He returned to Manila and submitted his completed thesis but his greedy professor (Mon Confiado) took the credit for his somewhat popular documentary. The syndicate killed the professor barring him from releasing the documentary to the mainstream media.
Sixto was tortured by the police and confessed to his friend. When he was released, he met a girl (Angeli Khang). The two shared the whole night and took drugs. The movie ends with Sixto getting killed and this is where things got messed up.
Taya movie review
Unlike sexy films of the 90s, Taya has a good plot. From the beginning, the flow of events is exciting. Both Sean De Guzman and AJ Raval’s performances were good, especially during the love scenes when they were alone in the remote house. The footage was good.
When Sixto meets the last girl (Angeli), that’s when things started to go out of place. Kang did not do well in her acting and was lousy. The lack of emotions on her face made her like a paid escort instead of being part of the film. The ending does not make any sense at all and there were more questions than answers.
If you want hot love scenes, watch Taya, but if you want a good story, find another film to watch.
 Review – Low Quality, Low Budget, High Profit){kind=link}