Sex is such a disruptive force that as you watch writer-director Crisanto B. Aquino's Relyebo (Viva Films, 2022) you realize the degree to which the film has succeeded in reducing screen sex to a fashion accessory. Its purpose is to embellish a story with enough discrete fillips of titillation and soft-core fantasy to quicken the pulse without causing palpitations. Relyebo crashes through the mold by acknowledging that adulterous sex can have catastrophic consequences. The lovemaking in Relyebo leaves deep emotional imprints. Sean de Guzman has the role of his career in Jimmy and his indelible (and ultimately sympathetic) performance is both archetypal and minutely detailed. He is the embodiment of a confident young man who seems to be in control of his life. It is precisely because he believes he can handle any situation that he foolishly surrenders to an erotic whim. But as his obsession intensifies, he becomes increasingly careless and distracted. You sense that putting the pieces of himself back together would still be extremely difficult. In portraying Jimmy's wife Amor, Christine Bermas' slow-burning performance charges the movie, her face, often shot in extreme close-up, is sensitive and vulnerable. Jela Cuenca brings real sizzle to Ms F. She is almost a parody of Amor's worst nightmare with all the confidence of being ridiculously attractive. There's a remarkable sequence in which Jimmy's emotional state, after his first encounter with Ms F is one anybody could recognize, though it's hard to put a name to it, suppressed exultation? Pained hysteria? Not every filmmaker can convey that physical sense. Aquino doesn't just show passion but somehow takes us inside it, so that we understand what it would be like to be Jimmy, to inhabit a body electric with nonstop longing. It's not an enviable state. It's more like a fever. Amor discovers his husband’s infidelity an hour into the film and the second half is devoted to how she deals with Jimmy’s dramatic actions. Relyebo has a taut screenplay that digs into its characters' marrow (and into the perfectly selected details of domestic life) without wasting a word. As director, Aquino knows how to emphasize what’s important without overdoing it. Small visual details are economically utilized to reflect larger point and cheap sentimentality about emotional loss is sidestepped.
Relyebo arrives on high definition with a remarkably filmic transfer that effortlessly renders the director's every intention (sometimes to a fault). Aquino's palette, warm and inviting one moment, cold and detached the next is brimming with attractive primaries, realistic skintones, and enveloping blacks. Contrast is spot on injecting reliable depth and dimensionality into the image regardless of any particular scene's lighting source and intensity. While it doesn't appear that Vivamax used any post-processing (like DNR), grain is less intrusive and more stable, source noise doesn't plague the darkest shots and artifacting has all but been eliminated. Best of all, detail is drastically improved. Textures are refined, on-screen text is crisp and legible and objects are well defined. The 2-channel track weaves the film's hushed conversations, sorrowful score and intense encounters into an immersive whole. Regardless of how quiet the soundscape becomes, dialogue remains sharp and evenly distributed across the front channels, pans flawlessly transition from speaker to speaker and directionality is remarkably precise and believable. Aggressive low-end pulses are relegated to a few intense scenes in the second act, but subtle LFE support is present throughout the film, foreground and background voices have genuine weight, moving objects exhibit natural heft and passing vehicles are often paired with the slightest of rumbles. Crisp ambience enhances the soundfield, interior acoustics have been perfectly replicated and city streets sound suitably crowded. For a film dedicated to the close observation of powerful urges and emotions, Relyebo has a relatively low pulse, a symptom underlined by the long pauses in the dialogue exchanges and the low-key turbulence of Decky Margaja's effective score.
Sound Supervision: Lamberto Casas, Jr., Alex Tomboc
Music By: Decky Margaja
Editor: Chrisel Desuasido
Production Designer: John Ronald Vicencio
Director of Photography: Alex Espartero
Written and Directed By: Crisanto B. Aquino
