MIDNIGHT DANCERS (SIBAK)

Philippines, 1994, 128 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Mel Chionglo.

Mel Chionglo is one of a number of Filipino directors who focused in his films on themes of macho dancers, young men who danced in gay clubs and also acted as male prostitutes. His films include Burlesk King (1999) and Twilight Dancers (2006).

The setting is the poverty in Manila and in other Filipino towns, the parents with large families dependent on the incomes from the sons. Three brothers work in a gay bar and the youngest about to do the same. They want to protect him. Some of the brothers are married with family but see their work at the bar and with the men as part of their work. One of the dreams of many of these Filipinos and their girlfriends is to escape from the Philippines and get profitable jobs in Japan.

The film focuses a great deal on the performances (sometimes rather explicit) and the training of the macho dancers in the club as well as their liaisons. It also focuses on the manager of the club and the clientele. At the same time, this is balanced by a portrait of the difficulties in urban life in the country.

1. A Philippine production for the Philippines audience? For international audiences? Raising issues of sexuality and poverty and exploitation in the Philippines?

2. The local settings, the slums, the houses, the clubs, the police precincts? The focus on Philippine prostitution, the sex clubs, the dancers, the macho dancers and their clients? Moral comment on these situations and characters or not?

3. The opening with Sonny, with his client? The audience immediately plunged into the world of prostitution? The contrast then with his coming to his family, his age and experience, his relationship with his mother and father, with his older brothers?

4. The fact that the older brothers were macho dancers and prostitutes, Sonny going to the bar, the boss, the transvestite, his being ignorant, his being fascinated by the dancers, the customers? Audience response to the dancers themselves, to the customers and their response? The attitude of Sonny's mother to the situation, the poverty and her accepting of it? His father's disdain?

5. The world of city prostitution, the streets, the fights, seeing the men with their clients, the dancing, the tricks?

6. The street gangs and their violence in the city? Stealing cars, fighting?

7. The older brothers and their names at the club, their dancing? The married brother and his children? His relationship with the client? Morality and money?

8. The men at the club, the two brothers, their relationship with the boss? The drug-taking, the collapse? The police raids?

9. Michelle, the friendship with Sonny? The discussions about going to Japan to earn more money and a better life?

10. The ordinary life of the young men outside the club, seemingly normal, family, friendships? The possibility of buying another house?

11. Bogart and his coming into the household, his being accepted? As a thief, causing violence?

12. The scene at home, the father moving out, the mother pursuing him, the fight with the mistress? The attitudes of the sons?

13. The raids, the police and their action? The boss getting the men out of prison? The continued life at the club, the men on display for the clients?

14. The build-up to the drug deals, the shootouts, the gangsters, the street gangs, Dennis being killed? The finding of the body, the funeral, the photo, his mother? The speech about retribution?

15. The question of the future, the police, the young woman going to Japan?

16. The shootings and the boys on the run, the mother bashed? The final moralising, Sonny and his other clients, trying to build up the money? He and his brother having to escape, the final crouching and watching the macho dancing?

17. The film as an insight into aspects of life in the Philippines? The Catholic country and its religious traditions, the morality and amorality of the sex industry, the tolerance of families in their children earning money, the hopes to get away from the Philippines, even if simply to more advantageous prostitution? The corruption of the police? The absence of support from government or the church?