Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan (VP Pictures, 1974) is a humpback movie, portending Vic Vargas' plunge from the summit of celebrity, which now adds only to the film's retroactive, plaintive appeal. The protagonist, Douglas' outwardly together but inwardly brittle emotional state is underpinned by Vargas’ equally fragile state, as we know now that this film was pretty much the last of his where he was the major star many of us never forgot and always hoped would return to. Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan is a most unusual movie, a slapstick tragedy, and superior to its reputation, in thematic concerns and lead performance. Vargas is crucial casting because it would be churlish to deny that it would be imaginable, inevitable even, for him to be an equal-opportunity womanizer who all kinds would respond positively to, as he is both handsome and charming. His eyes are smiling, all right, but even when wounded, his Douglas doesn’t use his male prerogative to lash out or torment; he gently pouts like a misbehaving dog or an admonished child, all while still looking like Vic Vargas. Douglas is an inveterate womanizer who desperately struggles with his own romantic indeterminacy. Douglas is so frustrated with his powerlessness to satiate his endless desire for romantic connection. He keeps falling all over himself and director Ishmael Bernal in fact traps Douglas with no head reshaping itself from a frying-pan shape at the end of this slapstick farce. Vargas simply has perpetual opportunities inaccessible to mere mortals and in any specific moment, his Douglas is exclusively immersed in creating a genuine connection, not using a woman as an instrument, a vessel – in Vargas’ situation, anyone might do the same thing. Bursting with sundry screwball comedy elements and sequences, Bernal's film might affect one’s response because Douglas, from the very beginning doesn’t feel like a pure comedy device but like a real person. The impossible question that Bernal poses in Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan is what’s the difference between truly loving women and merely making love to women? Who is the lover, who is the womanizer? His answer is Douglas loves women, every inch of them and makes love when he feels it will be a reciprocally positive experience, which might sound supercilious and self-aggrandizing.
Vargas' underplaying throughout is impressive, as Bernal here and throughout does not allow him to call on his various cutesy and occasionally macho ticks. He stays modestly in character throughout the film, a mean feat when he is supposed to be effortlessly seductive. Douglas is able to tune into the unique aspect of each woman he meets and has a different type of relationship with each one, which shows acute sensitivity on his part but also indicates his relationships are all determined by the women’s needs, him delivering what they need without ever fulfilling or even identifying what he needs. Vargas can’t break free of his cheerful compulsion and even when he apparently has it all plus the new self-knowledge of what drove him before, he can’t stop himself, resulting in the wedding that opens the film. What a curious way to have to describe a movie. This is why Bernal's Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan is a superior film, superior to its shaky reputation. This was the last attempt by Vargas to be a sensitive romantic lead that snuck out long after his star had disintegrated. Here, still the leading man he should have remained, Vargas gives a dexterous, proportioned performance: beautiful, softhearted and miserable. Of course, Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan needs women equal to the man’s desire for them and Bernal puts together a terrific ensemble of dissimilar, pleasing types. Gina Pareño, between her physical attractiveness and maturity, it is wholly imaginable that she could be what Vargas feels he needs after his stormy marriage with Gloria Romero, winning over the slightly tentative Liza Lorena whose character acts as a beautiful downer to counteract the high he gets from the women peppering every corner of his landscape and as such is equally desirable and plausibly seen by him as a viable solution to his dilemma. She, of course, is not so sure. One crucial aspect of the film’s success is Pareño’s performance, her every breath a sensual enterprise. Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan is much more ambitious thematically, its tonal shifts and overall tenor of humorous anguish can throw off viewers who want more sexy, slapstick lunacy and come off spurious to those who think the film should explore more of Vargas' psychosis. Pito ang Asawa Ko: Huwag Tularan maintains the tone of a light joke told with a tortured smile, who have made it well aware they have it all and yet feel miserable at some core level. Perhaps Bernal is exploring the despair of beautiful, interesting people, how do they find ways to nonetheless self-destruct?
Screenplay: Ishmael Bernal, Desi Dizon
Cinematographer: Rudy Diño
Music: Danny Holmsen
Editor: Jose H. Tarnate
Directed By: Ishmael Bernal
