Film: Tuhog

Tuhog

Due to a road rage between two buses, an accident occurs which puts the lives of its passengers in jeopardy. But the ones greatly affected by such event are a middle-aged woman named Fiesta (Eugene Domingo), an old and retired family patriarch Tonio (Leo Martinez), and a lad named Caloy (Enchong Dee). These three people are pierced through a single steel bar – a dangerous situation that even their doctors find hard to solve. But even before this unfortunate circumstance, these three have their share of ill-fated lives.

Fiesta is a bus barker of Janus Express whose life revolves around taking care of her demented father Carding. Being a dedicated daughter to Carding turns her into a lonely spinster that scares men away with her fierce and masculine demeanor. Until she meets Nato (Jake Cuenca), a new driver hired by Janus Express that eventually wins her heart. But just when she thought that she’ll finally have her far-fetched happiness with Nato, things start to get complicated when she finds out Nato’s painful secret.

Tonio is a retired old man who after getting past his prime and being a refuge to his family, now wants to fulfill his shrugged off dream of becoming a baker. He decides to use his pension to fulfill this dream. At first, his own family is skeptical about it but he eventually gets their support along with his friends to make it happen. Now, it’s all up to him to make this work and find out if this is a dream worth all that risk.

Caloy is a young man preserving his virginity for his girlfriend Angel (Empress). They have made an agreement to give up their virginities to each other and only to each other. However, Caloy gets challenged to remain faithful to this pact because of the difficulties of the long distance relationship he shares with Angel. Moreover, he starts to doubt the loyalty of Angel to him and to their relationship because of a guy named Jun Rey who is seemingly getting involved with his girlfriend.

Tonio and Nato were pulled out of the steel bar and were each brought to the only two operating rooms in the hospital while Fiesta was left to die. The film ends with Nato visiting the grave of Fiesta, Tonio having a success with his bakery and Caloy lying in bed with Angel.

The main highlight of the movie was the accident. It happened on the first 20 minutes of the movie. After the movie, it showed the lives of the characters before the accident. The movie was divided into three parts for each character. Each character shared different stories before the accident happened. The characters also didn’t know each other even before the accident. But the three characters had something in common. They all came across this one boy whom they had a conflict with. And when they did in the movie, the boy stated that the character will die.
The conflict of the movie was the accident itself. The characters involved in the accident were all having crisis in their lives at the same time. The term “tuhog” literally portrayed how the accident was. Maliksi Morales played a special role in the movie because when he stated that the three characters would die, the same characters were the ones who were involved in the “tuhog” or the accident. The movie didn’t portray a main problem of the story. In my opinion, the movie was trying to show how death can happen any time. It showed how accidents happen to anyone. No matter whom you are or how meaningful your life is. Accidents happen to anyone anywhere.

In my opinion, the movie’s goal was to show how doing bad things to others may lead you to your death. But in my point of view, I think the movie was bit shallow. Yes, doing bad things to others may have consequences. But I just think that, Maliksi Morales had no powers over that. No one has that much power that they can just make accident happen to anyone they had a conflict with.

The main flaw of the movie was the appearance of Maliksi’s role. He appeared on each of the three divisions once. But I think the movie didn’t show much relevance of his character throughout the movie. I was just surprised at the end that his role was very important to the story. The movie was described as a funny, dark movie. The movie did justify its comedy that it promised. But the movie was not dark at all in my opinion. I just think that some role and parts of the movie was not highlighted that thoroughly that it didn’t show much darkness to me.