Taguan, A Quickie Musical (2020)

Declaration of love in times of pandemic

Cinema has always managed to create wonderful worlds, fantastic scenes and perfect dialogues where feelings and words combine in an ideal way to express the very essence of love.
Each couple in their personal history has a movie, a scene or a soundtrack that is part of their memory, moves them or makes them exchange knowing glances because it evokes special and unique memories.
There is nothing more powerful than a good love story brought to film or television, and a script full of witty and emotional phrases that support it. Whether they are spontaneous gestures, proposals for a hand, or cathartic moments that change everything, declarations of love are the best way to consolidate a romance on the big or small screen, and to bring the audience to the brink of tears.
Written and directed by Jose Jeffrey Camañag, the Filipino short film 'Taguan, A Quickie Musical' presents us with a declaration of love between two boys in the midst of the pandemic caused by Covid-19.
Also known as 'Taguan, Secrets Kept' and released on May 30, 2020, the audiovisual, of the Romance, Yaoi, Comedy and Musical genre, shows us the telephone communication between the two best friends Tristan (Jayson Santos) and Chris ( Vince Conrad) who, forced into social isolation or home quarantine, are locked in the confines of their homes.
Between drinks of alcohol and tears, Tristan calls his best friend by video call to confess a secret that he has kept deep in his being for years. This is how the musical narrates that very special online video chat of two teenagers who, during quarantine, realized that they wanted to end their friendship... to be more than just friends.
The protagonists perform three songs in the almost 15 minutes of their magical transition from friendship to something deeper. The songs are "Ganito Pala", "Munting Ala-ala" and the title song of the short film: "Taguan".
With spoken lines and Filipino music in the voices of the two protagonists, 'Taguan, A Quickie Musical' was created through a novel program from the Artist Playground company, called Artist Playground Theatrix, a new form of visual and auditory performance art that uses the latest in technology that combines musical theater and film in its final production.
The team behind the audiovisual is made up of award-winning creatives and entertainment industry experts. The narrative, script and lyrics of the songs were created by José Jeffrey Camañag, filmmaker who won the Live Entertainment Awards and festivals as Best Director.
The music is by multi-award-winning maestro Jesse Lucas, while the editing is by Carl Santos, the artistic direction is by Roeder Camañag and the project director is Paul Jake Paule.
In the midst of such a long pause that led to the cancellation of premieres and filming and the confinement of actors and film production experts to preserve their lives, short films like this came to experience new concepts and executions never before made.
Challenging themselves to do something new, they managed to create and produce virtually so that the cast and crew could stay healthy and safe amid the pandemic. The writer and director never physically met the rest of the creators and artists during the filming process. Camañag managed the talent remotely. The two protagonists not only act, but are also filmed at home.
In this way, the project is one of the highest-profile cases of a filmmaker seeking to adapt production to the demands of the global health crisis. While hundreds, perhaps thousands of films and television shows in the Philippines and around the world saw production halted to protect actors and crew during the pandemic, Camañag produced and gave us 'Taguan, A Quickie Musical', a play simple, but with an intelligent and timely dialogue, marked by the circumstances that humanity was experiencing at that time.
Jayson Santos and Vince Conrad are a revelation, two incredible actors and singers that I hope to see again on other shows.

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A perfect lockdown confession

One thing is certain, Philippines have nailed it in the department of lockdown BL romance, nobody does it better! This short film must have been one of the first ones and it is practically perfect! So please, can someone tell me why is this so badly rated? It is a wonderful, well written, produced and acted short film. So why you don't like it, people?

When you finally realize that you are actually in love with your best friend, you want to tell him, in person, immediately, right? But with the lockdown, it is difficult so Tristan cries not knowing how to tell Chris about his feelings. To comfort him, Chris takes out a box of shared memories (tickets, toys etc.) giving Tristan courage to confess when he realizes that that box means more than just best friends!

The lockdown seems like a distant memory these days, we have all moved on and seeing this short movie brings back the memories of uncertainty, fear, doubt. The characters here feel all that which makes Tristam, in particular, take stock of his life and dating experiences and finally accept that the most important person in his life, the person he loves the most , is his best friend.

The three short songs are just the right means to convey sincere feelings. The actors are cute with those dimples (sorry, I fall for those every time!). The production values are high, the editing is excellent considering this is basically a static film where they both barely move. It is cute and butterflies inducing, so go watch it! Only 15min long but they managed to tell a story of a lifetime in it! Talent does not lie so I will start digging now and try to find their other works. If there are any. Fingers crossed!

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