Stranger's Kiss (2021)

Terrifyingly realistic, with some glimpses of hope

Let me start with what I hate about this series: 10 days after it's finished there are still no English subtitles for the final episode, and I don't understand Filipino. I have decided to write this review – my first at MDL – anyway, because imo this series is a lot better than the overall rating suggests.

Some of the best and most successful BL-series of 2020 have come from the Philippines. To name two of my favourites: 'Gameboys' is a huge international success, mostly due to its main actors, Elijah Canlas, who has won international prizes for his outstanding acting as an AIDS-infected boy in the movie 'Kalel, 15', and Kokoy de Santos, who also starred in a full movie ('Fuccbois') before. 'Gaya sa pelikula' is regarded by many as one of the most beautiful BL-series, due to the great chemistry of the two leads, Ian and Paolo Pangilinan, convincing script, outstanding OST and cinematography.

The commercial success of those series (and some more, like 'Hello Stranger' or 'Quaranthings') has triggered a boom of web-series, some of which started promising, like 'Amore' or 'Lakan', but ended in a mess. Dozens of others the titles of which I'd rather not mention suffered from a low budget, poor acting, terrible filming, unbearable sound, and a non-existing script.

'Stranger's Kiss' seemed to fall into this category, I thought, after watching the first episode, and so I skipped it. After five episodes had been released, I was surprised to see that the series gained up to a quarter million viewers, many of them international, which is quite a lot for a series like that. So I got curious and gave it a second chance, and honestly, the script has some flaws, the sound is sometimes awful, cinematography poor at times.

But: in contrast to all those Thai 'student coming out' stories focusing on the internal troubles of sons from well-off families, this series displays the struggle of lgbt people at the lowest end of the social scale. Although it doesn't by any means reach the quality of the 'Kalel, 15' movie, it conveys the same dark atmosphere, relieved only by some glimpses of hope and happiness.

Without spoiling too much, let me give a few hints at the plot. The lives of the protagonists move from one catastrophe to another. Nico, for example, after his parents' death has to leave his little brother Arjay behind in the province when he moves to Manila to earn some money. His departure is a heartbreaking scene, and things don't get better for him. He is robbed and beaten up for being gay, he is yearning for a meal of rice, and he has to take the humiliation of his evil boss when he finally does get a job. Meanwhile, Arjay is being sold to a pimp.

Miray and Nora hope to make some money by winning a gay beauty contest, but their gowns are torn to pieces by a competitor, and Vergel, who is running to bring them another gown, is beaten up in the street and gets to the venue too late, so they again end up hungry. Vergel himself is so desperate because of unpaid bills that he tries to commit suicide. He is rescued by Miray, another heartbreaking scene and superb acting.

This series is ugly, dirty, disturbing sometimes. But life of lgbt people in this social setting is exactly this way, and so 'Stranger's Kiss' often comes across more like a docudrama than a fictional story. It is terrifyingly realistic in places, and this is to a large part due to a) the fact that all of the characters are not one-dimensional which is surprising for a miniseries of 8 x 20 minutes, and b) the talented actors. It seems unfair to mention one of them in particular, but I want to mention three of them: Lj Russell as Prince, who lives up to his character's name, Xerxes Damuggo as Nico, who credibly depicts the role of the caring brother as well as the desperate province boy in the jungle of the megacity, and most of all Edz Bonggastar as Miray, who shows so many facets of hope and despair (and must have gotten badly injured because it seems extremely realistic when she is beaten up by her drunken father time and again).

I must admit I was deeply moved by this series, although (or because?) it is really hard to watch sometimes. Even some of the small glimpses of hope I mentioned before bear some irony: Nico goes to pray in a church for his little brother, and even Miray prays to the Virgin Mary, and one wonders why they seek consolation from an institution that does all it can to make life of lgbt people even harder.

There is one more positive thing I must mention, and that is the OST. The sound of this series mirrors the messy sound of the megacitry Manila (street noise, quarreling people etc), but the beautiful song 'Magkasama' by Justine Cabiso, a low budget production like the series itself, is a kind of counterbalance that helps you recover from all the ugliness, dirt, and hopelessness.

So if you are willing to be confronted with the tragic life of socially disadvantaged lgbt persons in a poor, conservative country, if you are willing to let your heart be broken by real-life tragedy, if you are willing to feel with the protagonists who are literally struggling to survive and at the same time struggling to remain good persons, if you are willing to face a reality that is brutal through and through, and if you thought that 'Kalel, 15' was one of the best movies of 2019, then this is the series you should watch.

There is a quote from Prince in episode 3 that characterizes this series quite perfectly: 'Sometimes in life you think you are a loser because you are alone in this world, but the truth is that we live so as not to give up to fight and learn, and I am Prince who will continue to fight with people who are willing to sacrifice and love.'

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This series may surprise you.

The production quality is not good - but it must be very difficult to film in the middle of Manlia slums like that and on a zero budget. It wasn't terrible either, and there were a few scenes that were given intensity by the way they were shot. I was shocked at the scene where Nico leaves home - I wasn't prepared for that level of instensity and skill at delivering it.

There are precious few serious trans characters with important roles - this production merits special attention for this.

The acting is not great in most cases, but LJ Russel as Prince and Edz Bonggastar as Miray are standouts. LJ has a very natural delivery, and an effortless sexiness that you probably can't learn - he just has "it". Edz really commits - I'm not sure how she'd be at subtle scenes, but she can deliver the power where it's needed.

The plot - well, not sure there was one. It's a little like a docudrama and the ending is a little "hunh?" but there's a sequel that I presume resolves a lot of issues.

While poverty is extremely convincingly portrayed, class difference wasn't. The "rich" kid lives in squalor and has zero manners or refinement - that was odd, especially since the poor orphan Prince is so aristocratic - if he were a real prince it wouldn't surprise me.

Unlike the usual fantasy BL about "1st world problems", this does not sugarcoat how awful it just be to be LGBTQ+ and living in poverty in a conservative society. It's very powerful how people in desperate circumstances are able to find happiness wherever they can. If you're looking for a "standard-issue BL", this is not it, but it does deliver some of the types of heartwarming scenes you would want - and unfortunately a couple of the silly tropes as well, although that's mostly in the first episode.

It does feel a little like the production ran out of steam and gave up at the end - it felt like there were two or three more episodes that were planned but skipped - I'm guessing COVID caused a serious interruption - you can tell something happened by how completely different Prince looks in the last ep - so I'm being patient and waiting for the follow-up series.

The low production quality is unfortunate, but if you give it a chance you'll see that there's passion to this project and a perspective you don't really see in any other BL. I'm looking forward to this crew's future projects.

It's hard to rate this. I almost feel like there should be a scale for mainstream professional productions and DIY projects like this. This is definitely on the higher end of that category.

The OST is unusually good.

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