Released Date: 20 January 2005

Synopsis (Courtesy from Cathay-Keris Films):

The film explores the rituals, and conflicts of a poor, Bolivian-born girl, a rich, young stud leaving Santa Cruz for university in New York, a Colombian boy visiting his cousin in Bolivia, a black female college student in New York and a model/football player at the same University. Thematically structured around issues of femininity, masculinity, virginity, rape and sexuality, the five stories draw upon each other as each character struggles to make sense of their own identity. With nothing in common (socioeconomic status, race, nationality, culture), except the desire to experience true intimacy, their stories are woven together through an underwear ad campaign, representing everything they feel they are supposed to be and everything they feel they are not . Their lives unfold and overlap as each character becomes victim to their own sexual dependencies.

Movie Review:

The film is separated into 5 segments. However, all this segments are linked, kind of like ‘Pulp Fiction’. It deals with teenagers from 2 different countries [Bolivia and America] as they explore their own sexuality and finding their own identity.

Story-wise, honestly, is nothing fresh. The first 2 segments dealt with two teenagers losing their virginity and does not really go anywhere and neither is the character development. Matter of fact, I find all the characters from all the segments rather stereo-typical of teenagers. Especially the last segments which take place in America, the portrayal of American teens looks like it was borrow from a TV soap opera.

The best segment is probably the 4th story ‘Mirror’. The story involved one actress, one location and verbal action. The story is about an African-American girl telling us her child-hood period to her 1st sexual encounter and leading to a very detail rape that is very emotional and scary. This segment might seem boring because is too wordy but actually if you pay attention, you might be in for a surprise at the end.

Another thing that I like to add is that throughout the 104 minutes duration, the film was shown using split screen technique. And both screens are showing the same event except from a different angle.

This gimmick has its pros and cons. The pros being that it makes the viewing rather refreshing and also using different angle, its help to show other character’s expression in some scenes which won’t have much of effect if it was done in a single screen format.

The cons being that it can get rather distracting especially for audience yet to get their eyes adjusted to the idea. The director might have gone a bit over-board with this technique and kind of spoilt the film.

In the end, the film might confuse certain audience and might even put some to dream-land. But for those patient audience, you might find it to be a slightly above-average film.

Movie Rating: B

Review By Terry