Terrifyingly realistic, with some glimpses of hope
Some of the best and most successful BL-series of 2020 have come from the Philippines. To name two of my favourites: 'Gameboys' is a huge international success, having been acquired by Netflix in the meantime, mostly due to its main actors, Elijah Canlas, who has won international prizes for his outstanding acting as an AIDS-infected boy in the movie 'Kalel, 15', and Kokoy de Santos, who also starred in a full movie ('Fuccbois') before. 'Gaya sa pelikula' is regarded by many as one of the most beautiful BL-series, due to the great chemistry of the two leads, Ian and Paolo Pangilinan, convincing script and cinematography.
The commercial success of those series (and some more, like 'Hello Stranger' or 'Quaranthings') has triggered a boom of Pinoy web-series, some of which started promising, like 'Amore' or 'Lakan', but ended in a mess: 'Amore' seems to have run out of money, 'Lakan', which was intended to show the culture clash of a tribal young man who meets a young professional from the capital, was forced to change the script after the setting was destroyed by a typhoon.
Dozens of other series the titles of which I'd rather not mention suffered from a low budget, poor acting, terrible filming, unbearable sound, and a non-existing script.
'Stranger's Kiss' seemed to fall into this category, I thought, after watching the first episode, and so I skipped it. After five episodes had been released, I was surprised to see that the episodes gained up to a quarter million viewers, many of them international, which is quite a lot for a series like that. So I got curious and gave it a second chance, and honestly, the script has some flaws, the sound is sometimes awful, and cinematography poor at times.
But: in contrast to all those Thai 'student coming out' stories focussing on the internal troubles of sons from well-off families, this series displays the struggle of lgbt people at the lowest end of the social scale. Although it doesn't by any means reach the quality of the 'Kalel, 15' movie, it conveys the same dark atmosphere, relieved only by some glimpses of hope and happiness.
Without spoiling too much, let me give a few hints at the plot. The lives of the protagonists move from one catastrophe to another. Nico, for example, after his parents' death has to leave his little brother Arjay behind in the province when he moves to Manila to earn some money. His departure is a heartbreaking scene, and things don't get better for him. He is robbed and beaten up for being gay, he is yearning for a meal of rice, and he has to take the humiliation of his evil boss when he finally does get a job. Meanwhile, Arjay is being sold to a pimp.
Miray and Nora hope to make some money by winning a gay beauty contest, but their gowns are torn to pieces by a competitor, and Vergel, who is running to bring them another gown, is beaten up in the street and gets to the venue too late, so they again end up hungry. Vergel himself is so desperate because of unpaid bills that he tries to commit suicide. He is rescued by Miray, another heartbreaking scene and superb acting.
This series is ugly, dirty, disturbing sometimes. But life of lgbt people in this social setting is exactly this way, and so 'Stranger's Kiss' often comes across more like a docudrama than a fictional story. It is terrifyingly realistic in places, and this is to a large part due to a) the fact that all of the characters are not one-dimensional which is surprising for a miniseries of 8 x 20 minutes, and b) the talented actors. It seems unfair to mention one of them in particular, but I want to mention three of them: Lj Russell as Prince, who lives up to his character's name, Xerxes Damuggo as Nico, who credibly depicts the role of the caring brother as well as the desperate province boy in the djungle of the megacity, and most of all Edz Bonggastar as Miray, who shows so many facets of hope and despair (and must have gotten badly injured because it seems extremely realistic when she is beaten up by her drunken father time and again).
I must admit I was deeply moved by this series, although (or because?) it is really hard to watch sometimes. Even some of the small glimpses of hope I mentioned before bear some irony: Nico goes to pray in a church for his little brother, and even Miray prays to the Virgin Mary, and one wonders why they seek consolation from an institution that does all it can to make life of lgbt people even harder.
There is one more positive thing I must mention, and that is the OST. The sound of this series mirrors the messy sound of the megacitry Manila (street noise, quarreling people etc), but the beautiful song 'Magkasama' by Justine Cabiso, a low budget production like the series itself, is a kind of counterbalance that helps you recover from all the ugliness, dirt, and hopelessness.
So if you are willing to be confronted with the tragic life of socially disadvantaged lgbt persons in a poor, conservative country, if you are willing to let your heart be broken by real-life tragedy, if you are willing to feel with the protagonists who are literally struggling to survive and at the same time struggling to remain good persons, if you are willing to face a reality that is brutal through and through, and if you thought that 'Kalel, 15' was one of the best movies of 2019, then this is the series you should watch.
There is a quote from Prince in episode 3 that characterizes this series quite perfectly: 'Sometimes in life you think you are a loser because you are alone in this world, but the truth is that we live so as not to give up to fight and learn, and I am Prince who will continue to fight with people who are willing to sacrifice and love.'
Country: Philippines
Episodes: 8 (à 20 mins.)
Director: Mayumi Layne Villar
Cast: LJ Russell, Xerxes Damuggo, Edz Bonggastar, Ryan Espanol, Angelo San Diego
