‘KITTY K-7’ is a Vivamax movie written by Pam Miraz, directed by Joy Aquino and produced by acclaimed directors Dan Villegas and Antoinette Jadaone.
It is an adult film with a very adult material and intended only for adults.
It stars Rose Van Ginkel as Hana, an underpaid graphic artist. When she catches her boyfriend of seven years (Miggy Jimenez) cheating on her, she breaks up with him pronto, but she is crushed.
She then meets Krishna (Marco Gallo), a photographer who asks her to pose for him.
She consents and he takes erotic shots of her. As may be expected, they end up in bed.
Krishna records their lovemaking on video and Hana doesn't object. Krishna insists they should have no commitment to each other then leaves for an assignment abroad.
Hana consents, but her experience with him transforms her from being a quiet and reserved girl to a wild and liberated woman of the world.
She continues her journey of self discovery and reinvents herself as Kitty K-7, a sexy cam girl who becomes her alter ego.
She earns more from her new job and her economic status improves.
She’s able to move to a plush condo unit, gets to give more money to her mom (Dolly de Leon) and even acquires a second hand car.
The film will surely shock the conservative manangs who would view Hana’s job as sinful, like what her religious mother tells her after discovering what she really does.
For Hana, she has no guilt feelings about what she is doing. For her, it’s just a regular kind of work.
And this is the significant point of view that the makers of the movie take.
For them, being a sex worker is really just a means to earn a living, like any other job, and they say that like other careers, the rights of the sex workers should be protected.
You may or may not be convinced by the film’s premise but there’s no doubt that the way they put it across is quite engrossing.
In fairness, they don’t glamorize or moralize in their stance.
Traditional depictions of sex workers are usually harrowing dramas about their sad plight and they’re stigmatized, like in “White Slavery”, “Mga Rosas sa Putikan” and “Aliw, Sir”.
Here, Hana is very emphatic in saying that she enjoys what she is doing.
Something that will surely make moralists cringe.
The film’s scriptwriter and director say they interviewed at length a real cam girl, Salome Salvi, who acted as their consultant in the making of “Kitty K-7”.
She advocates the decriminalization of being a sex worker and for it to be considered as regular labor.
We just wish they also interviewed some of the regular clients as part of their research, to shed more light about sexual behavior and desire.
Why do these men need to seek the help of sex workers to get their own kicks?
Most of the films about the eldest profession were made by men and gays.
So it’s nice that “Kitty K-7” deliberately chose a female writer, director, cinematographer, and even producer, Antoinette Jadaone.
They make all the past films about prostitution look out of date. With today’s technology and the internet, the sex industry is apparently constantly changing,
And they should thank Rose Van Ginkle for being so persuasive in the role of Hana.
At the start, she’s a dowdy wallflower who doesn’t even put on any make up.
In the course of the film, she blooms and blossoms to be a truly sexy seductress who quickly gains a lot of regular customers. She doesn’t consider herself a victim or promiscuous.
She offers no apologies. She just enjoys what she is doing as part of her journey to self discovery.
Van Ginkle’s performance is perfectly nuanced from her facial expressions to the tell tale movements of her eyes.
This is the strongest performance by any actress we have seen this year and we honestly believe she should at least get a nomination for her very courageous interpretation of “Kitty K-7”.
