Sakristan (2020)

What a wasted effort

The show started out strong but succeeding episodes failed to impress.

Full of cliches, corny and unnatural script, and the producing company's attempt to include all their talents in the episodes. I also hate the inclusion of the flambuoyant gay friends, not because i hate their gayness that stereotypes filipino gay guys, but because they were taking so much screen time. I went to see the story of the sakristan and his lover and not everyone else's. They are just too much.

The final 4 episodes did become better - it at least gave the 2 leads the platform to showcase what they can do as actors.

However, just like in thai BLs, and im saying this objectively, the biggest thing i hate about their stories is when one sees his bf kissing someone else and then he weeps and becomes angry and just decides they should break up. That is just lame storytelling.

I also dont understand why they needed to make Christian's father gay, and Zach's father a priest. I dont even know why they added them in the first place. What the heck is that- an attempt to stir controversy???

And the ending? Lets not talk about that ending. Lets just pretend Zach wrote that letter and Christian read it and then the end.

Will i watch it again? Not even if you pay me. Will i reccommend it? Only If you have 160min to spare while waiting for your delayed flight or of you are stuck in EDSA traffic. I do appreciate that it is released in Youtube and its free. Overall rating 6.5 and that is me being nice.

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Sakristan (2020): All Bark But Not Much Bite

I can understand why a number of my My Drama List (MDL) and Twitter contacts wanted me to stop watching “Sakristan.” Their opinions about the controversial director Darryl Yap [accused of sexual exploitation of children, perpetuating misconceptions about rape, and shading other Filipino (Pinoy) boys’ love (BL) series, among others] are valid and I respect their principled position to boycott this series. But I really felt bad for the efforts given by the actors, so I wanted to judge this series based on its artistic merits. It wouldn’t be fair if I dismiss the series outright without even watching it.

Unfortunately, in terms of artistry, “Sakristan” was found wanting. While I admired Sakristan's efforts to confront the Philippine Catholic Church’s bigotry and hypocrisy on the issue of gays within its community, such plot/storyline did not really move forward on this series. Indeed, it was all bark but not much bite. The entire series was also replete with gender and sexual stereotypes that don’t advance lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-queer+ (LGBTQ+) representation. Not even the introduction of Christian's gay father and the tokenistic opening reminder (LGBT) can hide the series’ superficial understanding of the day-to-day issues confronted by the LGBTQ+ community in the Philippines.

A lot of times, screenplay was corny and cringy. It was also soapy (akin to soap operas) for most of the series. There were awkward dialogues intended as jokes that weren't really funny. There were also lines that were a bit long and preachy. I would argue that the best scenes from this series were those without dialogues and with only the soundtracks and the sceneries. By and large, cinematography blended pretty well with the soundtracks.

While the acting performance of both lead actors and the chemistry between them improved throughout the series, Clifford and Henry, fell victims to the lack of proper acting direction. The VinCentiments style of acting failed to grasp the difference between stage and screen acting. Because of the perspective and proximity of the audience, acting on stage on the whole is bigger and exaggerated to be able to reach the people at the very back of the theatre. This means making vocal, physical, and emotional choices in acting that are oftentimes unnatural and unrealistic. The problem with the VinCentiments style of acting, it's as if the actors were still on stage! The lead actors and especially the support actors were overacting most of the time. It’s not as though the actors don’t have potential, they do, but since they weren’t given suitable acting direction, their style of acting always looked bad on screen. It's a pity because I really liked Clifford and Henry on this series. They may not be as good-looking compared to the lead actors of other Pinoy BL series but they have Pinoy features and vibes that I genuinely appreciate. Clifford was sexy and a sight for sore eyes and his intimate scenes with Henry, mostly without dialogues, were generally done tastefully.

Production design and editing were up and down throughout the series while the music (especially the soundtracks) was consistently good.

All in all, I would only recommend “Sakristan” for posterity, for those who are interested in watching one of the pioneers of Pinoy BL series, mindful of course of the fact that there are much better representations of the genre, namely, “Gameboys” and “Hello Stranger.”

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Such a huge waste of time...

There are so many things about this I didn’t like. It would probably shorter if I listed things I liked about it but nothing comes to mind. I felt there might have been a good story somewhere in the series, but it seems like most of it got left on the cutting room floor. Instead we have marginal acting at best, horrible editing and sound quality. The film itself seemed to vary in quality. I found myself not really caring about any of the characters or their motivations. I was rooting for Zach and Wolf and it seems like that nigh’ expectations happened in the last episode, but once again, the scenes seemed to be taken out of context. This felt like the director was trying to make a bold, artistic statement that ended up looking like a student project. I can’t think of one thing I liked about it, unless you count watching someone shoving food into her mouth for half an episode. Was that supposed to be funny? Because the tone seemed out of place in the series. Watch Gameboys or Hello Stranger for something uplifting and fun. Don’t waste your time on this.

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Quite Bad But Love the OST Though...

First heard about this series through a Reddit post on the Boys Love subreddit and decided to check it out. There has been controversy surrounding the director of this series and many people decided to not watch due to this. However, I will judge this series on the work itself. I personally believe that works of art should be critiqued on their own merits regardless of the background of its creators. Anyways, this series is a low-budget BL. It feels like a student film so far, in terms of the flat acting, the low budget, the poor sound editing, the unflattering cinematographic choices, and the off-putting editing. Definitely not the work of a person who has done a successful feature film before. There is no chemistry between the leads. The dialogue is uninspiring. The group of four femmes critiquing men based on their looks was irritating. Another poor portrayal of femme gays for comic relief. Ugh. However, the story isn't bad (so far). Though rushed, it was able to lay the foundation for the relationship between the two leads and seems promising so far. Also, the OST is very good, particularly the song towards the end of Episode 1 and the title song! I will continue to follow this series to see if it will get better.

On a side note, the views that this series has been able to garner on YouTube (over 500,000 views in 5 days) is impressive though (it does help that it was released on a YouTube channel with over 1 million subscribers though).

On a different side note, Gameboys, another filipino BL that is currently airing, is far superior and I highly recommend anyone interested in a different kind of BL or pinoy BL's to watch it!

Episode 2 was horrible. It was awkward, cringey, and completely unnecessary with its random singing competition. I’ve read that it does show pinoy school life but there are so many ways to show pinoy school life without resorting to a cheap, poorly-edited, Lady GaGa-inspired competition storyline which literally did nothing to progress its central love story. Only the ending showed a bit, but it was weird and awkward. When did the two leads become such good friends who helped one another to study? So far, this is without a doubt the worst BL I’ve seen. I doubt that it will get better but I’ll continue watching since it’s quite short anyways...

Episode 3 actually went back to focus on Christian and Zach so props for that. However, too much time has passed. Their relationship was too rushed! They have gone out with one another for 2 months and yet we have barely seen them interact so far as it is only the third episode! The editing was still quite bad, especially during their meal and when they asked their friends for advice. However, the portrayal of religion and homophobia in Wolf, Christian's childhood friend, was affecting. I'll continue watching to see where the series goes from here.

Episode 4 focused on Christian preparing to have sex with Zach. It was quite dull and uninspiring the entire episode until when Christian and Zach got together. The scenes of them acting like a couple, brushing their teeth together, playing in bed together and sleeping next to one another were actually quite touching and nicely shot. It made me yearn to be able to experience something similar with someone who I love and who also loved me. The ending in which Wolf, Christian's childhood friend who rejected Christian harshly with homophobic remarks, tried to reach out to Christian was also quite touching. It seems like Wolf has a crush on Christian and lashed out at him because he was jealous of Zach. I'm actually excited for the next episode!

Episode 5 was quite bad also. So many plot points and character actions that don't make sense at all! Zach kissing Wolf made absolutely no sense at all! I can understand Zach wanting to out Wolf to prove that Wolf had feelings for Christian, but it was still extremely out of character for Zach and didn't really serve anything. So you prove that Wolf is secretly gay and that he likes Christian? And... what? You can't stop Wolf from liking Christian anyways so what's the point in that outing? And so much yelling! Omg! Christian's mother who was being completely unreasonable that Christian hid his sexual orientation and the girl who is so annoying and shrill! I doubt that the series will get any better. I'll continue watching it as I hate dropping series midway through...

On a side note, what's up with the intro that had a title card that said "The Philippines' FIRST YouTube Trending BL Series"? I'm pretty sure that it's a cheap attack on GameBoys, which has been receiving much more acclaim and hype than Sakristan. Darryl Yap is so petty.

Episode 6 wasn't too bad. Christian reconciled with his father, who turned out to be a drag queen, and met with Zach (though whether or not Christian forgives Zach is to be determined). I did absolutely love the scene where Christian's father's employees gushed over Christian and his father was like, "That's my son!" Lol. The music is still top-notch though!

Episode 7 was quite bad and dull. Most of the episode was Christian's annoying female friend ranting to him while eating. The POV shots of Christian and the girl were kinda weird too. The ending was so cheesy. Why would you spend so much effort to paint your brother's boyfriend to have him symbolically cover it. What?! At least there's only one more episode of this mess...

Episode 8 wasn't too bad. It was a surprise to see Zach and Wolf dating. And the ending church scene was pretty good I must admit. Not sure what the point of Zach seeing his father was though as it didn't really serve any purpose. I kinda hoped that they would show Zach telling Christian that he was dating Wolf so that we could see his reaction. Overall, the series is quite bad though I must say that there is a certain indie charm to it that is endearing.

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I see the ambition, but was not set into action

Hi! To look at this objectively, here are the points as to why I think Sakristan has a good premise but bad execution.

STORY: for me, it is one of those few BLs that are very brave in their narrative, which really happens in real life. I love how this story depicts what others seemed to be afraid of. However, it ends there. The srory has no progression at all, sticking with a lot of cliches. And cringey dialogues.

ACTING: Probably this what made me score this super low. A great story needs great story tellers and thisbis where Sakristan lacks. The acting is so bad that it fell flat for almlst the entirety of the series. The director seemed to be known to produce at least one box-office film, it is just nothing if they had conducted casting and acting workshops so the story wouldnt be put into waste.

MUSIC: Very good!! Prolly the best aspect of this series

REWATCH VALUE: id say it's low because the actors will make you wanna stop rewatching the episode.

IF YOU WANT A BRAVE SERIES WHICH TACKLE AN ASPECT OF (TABOO) REALITY, AND IF YOU CAN SEE PAST THOSE BAD ACTING ISSUES, THEN THIS SERIES WILL DO FINE FOR YOU :)))

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"Web Series Review: Sakristan (2020)"

Despite the controversy and nose made on social media in the past weeks, Sakristan made its way to the finale. It is a Filipino BL series that deviates from the traditional aim of the LGBTQIA subgenre. The series has social relevance, in that it discusses principal issues that reconcile faith in the name of the Mother Church and faith in yourself. Acceptance, self-discovery, and compassion are the message it brings to the fore.

The following criteria will be used for this review:

1. Directing
I’ve known Dir. Yap’s style and approach to his projects since I last saw #Jowable the movie. Straightforward, provocative, and sometimes topics in discussion are still treated in Philippine society as taboo, which became Yap’s major contribution as he introduces them in this day and age to young viewers. I’m aware there was an audition for the roles and choosing casts that fit the characters in them made me think that Yap may have selected them not because of talents alone, but the personality each actor carries. However the process of casting, I will honestly say that since some of them are newbies, I just hope that Dir. Yap had required the actors undergo a series of workshops before the shooting started.

2. Writing
Yap is both the writer and director of Sakristan. What I truly admire the series are the lines with underlying meanings in Filipino and Gay Lingo. Sometimes, the mistranslation can be at fault but if viewers only knew the lingua franca used in the series, they would have understood the social context in the story. Undeniably, the scriptwriting is well crafted.

3. Cinematography
Cinematography wise, I would commend the Team using a vintage-like filter in the scenes and the cinematic flavor really comes from the creative reign of the director.

4. Editing
The series is filmed but it feels raw. Notice that some actors who possess brown skin complexion or in Filipino, Kayumangi, are unfiltered, meaning it remains as it is. Perhaps, this is Dir. Yap’s decision too so as to show the physical beauty of Filipino in spite of many of us fancy over white skin.

5. Acting Performance
Truth be told the main leads lack chemistry and cannot execute the lines well. But to demand a performance like the veterans would seem unfair judgment. Of course, as viewers, we see to it they are chosen because they have real talents to offer. Unfortunately, the two actors who play Zach and Christian have to make themselves comfortable of their roles in case they will be casted in future projects. Honestly speaking, I always look forward to the series because the actress who portrays the role of Penelope is so good in acting, and sometimes exaggerated by uttering sarcastic lines.

6. Production Design
Aesthetic is essential in filmography. The series is aesthetic in its own right. Not all viewers will agree with me about that. The shooting location of urban streets and often the characters interacting in school and church highlight the Filipinoness which becomes for me an ideal motif of the series.

7. Official Soundtrack
No doubt the playlist in the series has captivated the soft side of viewers. I won’t further discuss the song one by one, but it is a must to listen to them in times of uncertainty like what we are going through.

Did it meet my expectation? At some point, it did and did not. Though there is little satisfaction in the finale (unexpected), I would still watch a second season depending on three criteria: performance, relevance, and cinematography.

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NEEDS IMPROVEMENT! (CRINGE AND OVERWRITTEN SCRIPTS, INEXPERIENCED ACTORS, CINEMATOGRAPHY)

SCRIPT:
The Overall Script of this Series is too high flown that some of the dialouges are too pointless that why the viewers tend to skip 10 to 20 seconds just to see the part that has interesting factors and expected scenarios.

ACTING:
The acting of the Main Characters are too exaggerated, cringey and sometimes doesn't show more feelings to each character that's why the main characters don't have the chemistry. The movement and the way the characters act is typical of one of Darryl Yap's KPL Shorts, Bunganay, #DobleVista, etc. They need to be attached to the other concepts that most viewers are most attracted to. THEY NEED IMPROVEMENT.

DESIGNS AND SCENES:
The scenes and designs are the factors that can catch the eyes of the viewers as for them they did not even reach my expectations. The settings of the scenes are too lifeless. The places where they shooted is perfect but the natural colors of the scenes are sometimes too contrasted and that's why it's get me more bored to watch it. The camera's angles are too boring it's like they only have one camera, the cameras are too far from the actors and just like I said it is just like the same as Darryl Yap's short video contents.

BINDED IN CAPTIONS:
The translation from Tagalog to English is spot on but it is more efficient if they just used YouTube's built in captions because the captions are too small and yellow-colored captions are not my and viewer's type for a series maybe that is suitable for Darryl Yap's short contents.

STORYLINE:
The distribution and the plot of the of the entire series is almost perfect but again IT NEEDS FEELINGS and they should've make the whole storyline less words and epigrams.

OVERVIEW / SUMMARY:
The series is not good enough. It is somehow recommended but I don't know if it will make the viewers watch it again...

P.S.: This is just my review and my own opinion.
*Peace*

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Where do I begin with this series!

Its production is simply lousy. The editing is awful. The sound is sporadic and uneven in a lot of places. The support characters are superficial and stereotypical. The main actors are at times have a flat affect about them and lack depth and suffered from someone not being able to give them good acting directions. The story meanders a lot and at times was hard to follow. But God, I LOVED IT! I honestly felt for these characters. It is just a stunning series of human reactions, of love, and of human pain yet filled with totally unrealistic characters that should NOT have worked. But did! There is nothing pretentious about this series. It is satirical but serious. It is over the top but never over acted. What makes this series so memorably brilliant (and I do mean brilliant) is the screenplay. This story is so in your face that it is hard to describe fully. There are mass amounts of symbolisms in this series that are just too numerous to mention but nonetheless add so much to the understanding of this story, sometimes with humor and sometimes very serious. I am aware of the issues surrounding the director but I am judging this series as to its merits. You can read my full review of this series at ppbongi.medium.com. I have a lot more to say there.

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Honestly surprised

Before watching it, "Sakristan" had a lot of promise. The other Filipino BL dramas I've seen have all been really good quality, so I was a little disappointed that "Sakristan" would have a half-written story, awkward actors, and moments that were unsuccessfully supposed to be "artistic". In the end, though, this became all part of its charm. Overall, it's a rather fun series, and even struck several emotional chords I wasn't expecting it to.

Personally, it would have been nice to see more development of Christian and Zach's relationship before they started officially dating. Of course, the way their relationship played out after they started dating was beautifully portrayed! Of all the Asian BLs I've seen, none came this close to depicting character development and interpersonal drama in such a risky, nontraditional, realistic way. "Sakristan" actually manages to depict real human emotions and thoughts, which is both shocking and refreshing.

Another great thing about this drama was how it presented a nuanced view of faith and Christianity. The characters have varying opinions about religion and homosexuality, and even go through opinion shifts. Ultimately, they learn to work together and respect each other, even if there isn't complete mutual understanding.

One of the things that made me extremely uncomfortable with this drama, though, was how sexualized Zach was. The actor was only 15 or 16 when the filming was going on, so the torso-shots and similar scenes were disturbing. >:(

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ACTORS WORTH LOOKING OUT FOR!!!

Clifford is an extremely talented young man who in my opinion doesn't get the recognition and fandom that he rightfully deserves. At such a young age he balances acting, modeling and athleticism and he does it quite flawlessly and without stress. I am not privileged to know what his daily life is like, but with all he does I'm sure that his days are pretty hectic, but yet he has time to personally respond to fan comments and answer personal messages. Besides being sexy as hell he seems to be pretty down to earth and treats everyone with respect, so please watch out for him and help raise his fan base on all social media platforms because he's destined for great things and we should all start supporting him now and not wait till he makes it big!!! his IG is @clifford_pusing19 so IF you use IG please follow him and encourage others to do so as well cause he's definitely worth supporting in my opinion, but read about him and watch his dramas and determine for yourself.

His character of Zach represents the characters of many young people who find themselves becoming curious and some eventually becoming aware of their sexuality through exploration by being open minded. Unsure of himself in the beginning Zach follows up on his curiosity without any concrete preconceived notions on sexuality albeit there was a bit of prejudice on his part about religious people and what he felt was their hypocrisies. However, overall all the actors combined presented a well thought out plot that in the end gives you the impression that it's okay to have some apprehensions in life about different things, but it's better for you if you keep an open mind and judge it's thing at face value. Most importantly though, this series in my opinion shows that no matter how love develops it can completely overwhelm us unless we are mature and responsible enough to deal with it.

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!!YA'LL DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME WATCHING THIS!!

I can't believe people have to die down their expectation to salvage this wreck of a series. It has horrible cinematography, cringey dialogue, and unable cast. The fact that Viva and a skin whitening brand is endorsing this and their director is a pedophile just makes this worst. It was all carried by the hype of the BL wave carried by 2gether The Series being a hit in the PH and the apparent timing of its director in his announcement.
In technicalities, their cinematography is so lazy, they have been relying on single angle shoot for a long time. This technique isn't necessarily bad but the use of this technique should have context. Sakristan's cinematographer uses this for convenience. Inexperienced actors. We can't run away from them, however the skill level that the cast gives is equivalent to a high school project. They should've atleast held an acting workshop. Cringey dialogue. We know how cringey and brazenly vulgar their screenplay could get, relying on insult humor, tasteless words, and rudely sensitive topics.
Sakristan is a low effort series than can only humor people with low IQ or have little to no education in sensitive subject matters. This isn't a direct jab or insult to people who are mis-educated but this is towards the crew who keeps on cultivating this culture through their screenplay and film.

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I started this series when it came out. Stopped at episode three, decided to catch up on this series today, only to realize the finale was today. This was my first Philippines BL that I have completed.

Story-7.5/10
It started off different form the usual series that I watched. Also, in episode six when Christian met his dad, that got to me a bit. And eventhough Christian and Zach broke up in the end and reamined friends, it is still seen that Zach still cares for him. However, I do not like that Zach and Wolf kissed, cause Christian totally did not deserve that.

Acting/Cast-6/10
This was the actors first time acting. They did thier best with the script that they were given.

Music-8.5/10
The music was truly the saving grace for this series. It was truly beautiful and moving. They did a good job in respect of that.

Rewatch Value-4.5/10
I can safely say that I am not in any rush to watch this series again. It was okay, but not something that I will watch again.

Overall-6.5/10
It was an okay story, giving us a different view in BL.

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