Vivamax’s ‘Tuhog’: Morea psycho-thriller than a sex flick

The Manila Pop Culture Convention in partnership with ABS-CBN’s Sagip Pelikula, is bringing Filipino cinema classics to geeks this coming 17 to 19 November at the Ayala Malls Manila Bay. Cinephiles will be treated to cinematic gems such as LVN’s Giliw Ko (1939), Sa Init ng Apoy (1980), Captain Barbell (1973), Tisoy! (1977), Patayin sa Sindak si Barbara (1995) and Omeng Satanasia (1977). These are great films, but the definite highlight is the scanned and digitally enhanced Ibong Adarna film released in 1941 by LVN Pictures, Inc. Starring Fred Cortes and Mila Del Sol and directed by Vicente Salumbides, the film was inspired by the early 19th-century Filipino epic poem familiar to many who have read it in school. A compelling story about family, love and adventure, Ibong Adarna focuses on the lives of three brothers: Don Juan, Don Diego and Don Pedro and their quest to find the legendary Adarna bird which has healing powers that they believe will cure their ailing father. “One of our missions for ManiPopCon is for the event to be a multicultural and multigenerational affair, and it is our honor to partner with ABS-CBN’s Sagip Pelikula to provide a platform for geeks of all generations to enjoy their ManiPopCon experience by providing them with these Filipino classics,” said chief geek officer of ManiPopCon Marco Aventajado.

The new Vivamax film Tuhog seems to be more of a psycho-thriller than a sex thriller. Directed by GB Sampedro, the film is about a woman who got a father and a son to be her "husband."

The woman is actually married to the son, a soldier who, soon after their wedding, gets assigned to a war-torn area. Eventually, the father (played by Joko Diaz) and the daughter-in-law receive news that the son died in combat. Eventually, they drift toward each other.

Tuhog seems to offer more than sexual entanglements. The YouTube trailer does not even have an implied sex scene.

Star Apple Dy was recruited by Viva intentionally for its Vivamax movies. She used to appear in
art-and-fashion shows "wearing" only body paint. "Apple Dy" is a screen name Viva gave her. She's done several films for Vivamax, but Tuhog is her first solo lead assignment.

On the other hand, Arron Villaflor was invited to Vivamax last year and knew the kind of films he would star in.

"I got the invite at the time I was desperate to face the cameras again. But just the same, it took me two weeks to accept the offer," Villaflor recalled at a recent mediacon.

Now all of 31, Villaflor was only 14 when he joined a star search conducted by ABS-CBN. He ended up second place to Erich Gonzales. He appeared in a string of shows and movies at ABS-CBN and eventually got himself managed by Cornerstone, the company that handles the careers of Piolo Pascual, Sam Milby and Catriona Gray, among others.

Villaflor found himself jobless as an actor at the onslaught of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. In 2022, he decided he could show off skin and do sex scenes and not go on wallowing in depression.

Tuhog is not his first sex-oriented film with Vivamax, but the other films he did had more comic touches.

Sampedro, meanwhile, has been directing films and TV shows for about two decades now. He helmed one of Dennis Trillo's early films, Astig, in 2009.

Tuhog began streaming on Vivamax on 3 November.