City After Dark brilliantly intertwined different personalities living in the reality of poor living conditions. Orestes Ojeda is a playboy who flirts with Lorna Tolentino, a waitress; Alma Moreno, a nurse and Bernardo Bernardo, a gay shop owner. Bernardo, on the other hand, has a thing going with William Martinez, who in turn has a college girlfriend, Gina Alajar and a sauna attendant, the blind Rio Locsin. Locsin is the lover of drug pusher Cherie Gil, to whom William's gang gets their drug. Chariot Solis is William's mom who unknowingly supports her son's drug use.
Ishmael Bernal masterfully brought different colorful characters, giving them equal exposure, developing their stories and even adding some side stories like the restaurant owner, Maya Valdez and Rio's boyfriend who was cheated by his recruiter. Harsh realities all.
The only minus I could see here is that the dubbed voices are not their own (William, some of Cherie and some of Rio). Otherwise, it's still entertaining to watch and even 30 years after, it's still relevant and I should add, ahead of it's time.
Ishmael Bernal masterfully brought different colorful characters, giving them equal exposure, developing their stories and even adding some side stories like the restaurant owner, Maya Valdez and Rio's boyfriend who was cheated by his recruiter. Harsh realities all.
The only minus I could see here is that the dubbed voices are not their own (William, some of Cherie and some of Rio). Otherwise, it's still entertaining to watch and even 30 years after, it's still relevant and I should add, ahead of it's time.
