Growing up gay in the ghetto
Maxi, the 12-year-old hero of this low-budget Filipino drama, is a pint-sized drag queen, who waggles his hips 24/7 and laughs when his family make jokes about it being «that time of the month».He has much in common with Justin, the fashion-crazy nephew in Ugly Betty, except that where Justin is a marginal character, Maxi (Nathan Lopez) takes centre stage.And when not being threatened with rape and destitution, he's lusting after a hunky, twenty-something cop.All of which may suggest that first-time director Auraeus Solito is simply out to shock. In fact, his story unfolds with great naturalness — delicate and raw in equal measure.The camera buzzes around Manila's trash-filled streets like an angry fly, rubbing our noses in the ugly beauty that surrounds its pre-teen hero.Meanwhile, the script (by Michiko Yamamoto) crawls under Maxi's skin, forcing us to share his pain and pleasure, to the extent that when he watches the sad, virtuous cop Victor (JR Valentin) pull up his underpants, the force of the boy's innocently carnivorous gaze makes us gulp.Back in 1959, Tiger Bay explored underage desire, and ghetto-living with the same kind of grimy intensity.That film took years to find its niche; The Blossoming, blooming in a limited release, will probably struggle too.
