‘SALAMAT DAKS’ offers a fine and touching performance from Alma Moreno, certainly an icon in her own right in local showbiz.
At the time that Vilma and Nora were the reigning movie queens of the mid-70s up to early 80s, it was only the movies of Alma who managed to compete with them at the box office, like “Ligaw na Bulaklak”, “Eva Fonda, 16” and “Bomba Star”.
Alma has one of the loveliest faces and sexiest figures among local actresses, but she was never acknowledged for her acting.
But even if she’s disrobing before the camera, Alma's aura exudes purity and innocence.
She’s nearing her 50th year in showbiz but she has yet to win an acting award, maybe because she was never really given a role that is of pang-award calibre.
But she remains very active doing supporting roles in various Viva releases.
She now gives a very fine and moving performance in “Salamat Daks”, a sex comedy about a woman in her 50s, Maricar, who feels that life has passed her by.
Alma has obviously learned how to act after years and years of facing the cameras and here, she gives a finely nuanced performance as Maricar, who was so devoted to serving her family all her life, specially her widowed mother, played by Marissa Delgado.
Director Bobby Bonifacio, who did a fairly good job in “Bula”, a very dark comedy about a young woman (Ayanna Misola) who lives in a world of fantasy aping other people, but “Salamat Daks” is more of a flippant comedy. It’s quite apparent that Bonifacio directed it with his wagging tongue very much on his cheek.
This is quickly evident in the opening scene where Ayanna Misola is shown cavorting naked in bed with an equally naked man whose face is not shown.
The production design makes it appear that they are in heaven and above them, Marissa Delgado hovers like an angel with wings strewing petals around them.
As maybe expected, this is just a dream sequence, with Maricar thinking her dead mom is calling her to join her in the after life. The cheeky direction can also be seen in some scenes that will shock even Alma’s ardent fans of yore.
In one such scene, she is shown pleasuring herself with a vibrator. Carressing her face and body with the rubber penis that ends up somewhere between her legs.
She’s fully clothed, though, so you don’t really see anything. But the way Alma moans and writhes on the bed is so convincing you’d really believe she reaches an explosively orgasmic climax.
While surfing on her phone, she sees the vlog of a hunk called Mikko QT (Nikko Nativida), whose suggestive gyrations and humping movements attract her, making her an instant diehard fan.
She then goes to a beach event organized by Mikko where she pays P20,000 just to meet him in person.
The younger people at the beach scoff at her and addresses her as their mama or auntie, making her feel out of place.
But when Mikko had an encounter with a jellyfish, he runs to her and she applies medicine on his wound, making them instant friends.
They even get to dance with one another and this makes Maricar’s desire to recapture her youth even more intense. So she goes to a beauty enhancement clinic called VVeautiful of Dr. Trish Vera (Giselle Sanchez), who charges her half a million pesos for total overhaul.
So she mortgages the house and lot she inherited from her mom just to get that amount.
To appreciate the movie, you have to totally suspend your disbelief, or better yet, set your brain aside first. After the procedure on Maricar, she magically comes out looking like Ayanna Misola and renames herself as Carrie.
As maybe expected, Mikko is easily attracted to her and they end up in bed.
Maricar is so happy, but as we all know, this kind of happiness will not last forever.
When her former looks start to surface again, she hides from Mikko who searches for her.
After a year, she sees Mikko again who’s now with another woman who he allegedly loves very much, Girlie (Geleen Eugenio).
Of course, Maricar can’t help but regret the fact that she hid from Mikko because she’s older than him, and yet here he is finding love in another woman who’s even older than her.
And that is obviously one of the film’s messages, aside from the more obvious one of how useless it is to pine for one’s lost youth and beauty.
We all just have to move on and accept ourselves as we are, whatever our age may be.
“Salamat Daks” will remind you of “Revirginized”, where Sharon Cuneta also yearned for her lost youth.
But this one goes a step further because Sharon never resorted to cosmetic surgery in that movie.
This one is much funnier and one of the most hilarious elements in it is the casting of Giselle Sanchez as the cosmetic surgeon whose very own face, without frown lines or wrinkles and her facial muscles barely moving, is apparently the product of rampant botox injections.
Alma is very moving in a number of scenes, specially her scenes inside the bus with her just crying quietly.
Since this is a Vivamax release, then the sex scenes are obligatory. They are provided by Ayanna and Nikko, who follow the sexual acts described in the Kama Sutra like doggy style. standing position, etc.
Nikko also has sex scenes with two new girls who are so brazen when it comes to disrobing and even in doing lesbian acts, Sienna Yu and Millen Gal.
So Viva subscribers will surely not be disappointed. Also amusing is the use of local songs like “Marikit”, “Prinsesa”, “Larawang Kupas” and “Hanap-Hanap” by Ppop Generation.