In Quark Henares' excellent drama, Marupok AF (Anima Studios, 2023), EJ Jallorina plays Janzen Torres, a design student in Cebu nursing bruises from a failed relationship. There’s a few things brewing under the surface when she starts a long-distance relationship with Theo (Royce Cabrera), a young man she met online and starts a long-distance relationship built on lies and deceit. As the game — if that’s what it is — progresses, Janzen and her admirer form a virtual bond that she begins to take seriously. The internet is the preserve of losers and pedophiles; Janzen is neither, although she is lonely, social media is her friend. After all, the text and phone conversations between her and Theo are just her, writing and speaking from her mind and heart. As those talks continue, Janzen finds herself falling for Theo, but this feeling is different. It's one of a genuine emotional connection. Can something founded upon a lie be real? That's the central question here, but Henares observes it, not as an inquiry about morality or reality, but as an examination of Janzen. And then there's Beanie Landridos (Maris Racal), wrong-headed yet empathetic, luring Janzen into the kind of distant romance with Theo. What ensues is an elaborate online masquerade. Suspension of disbelief is only temporary, since Beanie automatically plants the seeds of her own downfall with her self-destructive behavior. It’s a film deeply rooted in Beanie's point of view and I can’t imagine another actress as able to carry it off as Racal, with her long, emotive face, deep soulful eyes and sensual comportment. Henares' alternately sharp and sensitive tale of romantic love in the internet age is layered with many surprises. It’s held together by not only Jallorina’s luminous, passionate, naturalistic performance as a transwoman who feels invisible (and in one brilliant scene, she actually is).
There are secrets revealed and a few surprises as Marupok AF proceeds through its third act, but they almost don't matter to the core of this story. The revelations explain plenty—about Beanie's motives and a truth that offers another angle to the game of falsity and fakery being played here. They don't change that Henares' film is a melancholy, desperate character study about feeling abandoned and finding freedom, as well as a lot of pain, in pretending to be someone else. Beanie and Janzen's meeting is a rich device to propel the narrative and keep the audience guessing. It also gives space for Racal and Jallorina to engage in an emotional pas de deux, a rollercoaster ride that examines youth and isolation, and fantasy and reality. It's impossible not to get sucked into the social media nightmare that unfolds, which is made all the more excruciating by the exceptional performances. Marupok AF is modern, intelligent and thoughtful in the way it considers the impact of the internet in our lives; it’s proper cinema, keeping the audience right on edge and allowing both Racal and Jallorina to deliver yet another revelatory performance. Films like this reflect deep and hard on how we live and provide food for thought, giving you reason to pause as you reach for yet another online fix and only drops you deeper down the reality tunnel of self-delusion. A lie can bring pain, as it inevitably does to these characters (the number of lies piles up), but it can bring comfort, as it does in a speculative story about how things could have been. While the twists and turns of Marupok AF feel like a bit much near the conclusion, the film at least ends with the only truth that matters to this story: what Beanie wants.
Directed By: Quark Henares
Written By: Quark Henares & John Bedia
Director of Photography: Tristan Jed Salas
Production Designer: Adelina Leung
Editor: Benjamin Tolentino
Music By: CRWN
Sound Design By: Erwin Romulo
