“KALIWAAN” is one of the darkest and most brutally violent local films we’ve ever seen.
Produced and created by Brillante Mendoza, it’s directed by his protege Daniel Palacio.
The story is about a pair of young lovers, AJ Raval as Monica and Vince Rillon as Boogie.
Their relationship takes a turn for the worse because of jealousy, giving the movie itself a very violent detour.
“Kaliwaan” starts with a pre-title opening credits prologue, a lengthy torture sequence showing Mark Anthony Fernandez, a jaded cop, punishing a naked woman for allegedly talking too much and betraying him. He also shoots to death the man who is with his female victim.
The ending is another prolonged torture scene showing one of the main characters being savagely penalized by some guys who cut off his tongue and ear, pulled out his fingernails and then slit his throat.
It turns out this graphic bloody main course is not yet complete.
For the dessert, we are treated to a massacre scene where five people in a car are sprayed with a hail of bullets and all of them get killed in an instant.
For those who love torture porn, they will just love this movie.
Viewers who enjoy feel bad movies and fell ecstatic watching characters on screen being sliced and diced and crying “tama na po, tama na po”, while extreme pain is being severely inflicted on them, will reach their climax several times while watching "Kaliwaan".
They will also surely appreciate that Vivamax has a rewind button so they can watch these gruesome, grisly scenes over and over again.
But viewers who are squeamish and do not have the stomach for such repulsive, horrifying scenes, then they can just watch the sex scenes.
AJ Raval is shown being violated here several times, the most violent one is that by Mark Anthony Fernandez inside the spa cubicle where she works as a masseuse. We were really squirming while watching this scene as AJ looks so pitifully "kawawa".
Newcomer Denise Esteban takes off all her clothes and does full frontal nudity to seduce Vince Rillon. The newcomer Juami Gutierrez also has no qualms about showing his family jewels in the scene where he forces himself on AJ Raval.
“Kaliwaan” will no doubt reinforce the reputation of Vivamax as the streaming channel to go when you want unabashed, unimpeded sex and violence.
Voyeurs and bloodthirsty audiences who love and vicariously enjoy kinky sex and bloodshed will surely relish all such scenes in ‘Kaliwaan” and find it a feast for their warped senses.