'Sky Valley' is directed and written by Xion Lim, the Filipino actor, director, screenwriter and producer who was responsible for carrying out series such as 'My Day', 'Rainbow Prince', 'My Story', 'Our Story' and 'Dear Miss Becky', among others, but who also fails to capture the audience on this occasion as he lacks the voice to delineate characters and resolve conflicts, for not meeting the viewer's expectations by not achieving an adequate closure after a spectacular and powerful.
The series begins with an excellent montage devoid of dialogue that presents our protagonist, Fourth, a young man from Manila who flees from family commitments to take over the reins of a company, by traveling by plane and then by road to a paradisiacal place.
And although his true intentions remain in the dark for much of the series, both for the viewer and for himself, we will later witness that his routine reveals something more than the mere logistics of his life: we understand that he harbors resentment towards a father who wants the young man to inherit his company, which is merging with another, so he has decided to escape his responsibilities. The parent responds to his hostility with a prolonged search for his son to avoid being removed in his absence.
We will also learn that she recently had a breakup with her boyfriend, so possibly the getaway is part of forgetting a failed courtship. What he intends to do when he reaches his destination is a mystery of course to us and probably also to Fourth himself, whose anguish demands comfort as soon as rest for his tormented soul.
Upon his arrival at the airport in the Philippine city of Zamboanga, Junjun, a young rider who works at the Sky Valley Park resort, is waiting for him, the hotel located in the picturesque mountain spot chosen by Fourth to hide, which is precisely the mountain resort of the family of the director of the series and the place where he spent his first years of life. If the visitor is somber, mysterious and abrupt, the local is extroverted and optimistic, giving rise to a structure in which opposite poles repel and attract each other in equal measure.
Junjun maintains a routine of coming and going in his daily tasks, feeding and training the resort's horses, or keeping the park that surrounds the hotel complex clean, but his monotony and serenity are broken with the appearance of a kind of incarnation of a prince out of a fairy tale. From their first meeting, Junjun is attracted to the reserved visitor whose arrival awakens deep emotions within him.
While a loving Fourth tries to distance himself because he will eventually have to return to Manila to take over the company, as well as considering that Junjun is heterosexual, so she could never develop romantic feelings for him, the resort worker cannot help but fall in love, although he will also be forced to fight against the pressure that Nathalie will exert, a girlfriend with whom he has not been able to officially break up, and who will appear on the scene with the intention of winning him back.
This is how in a paradisiacal and enviable space for rest and at the same time work full of queer characters, the viewer eagerly waits for the turn in the gray and quiet life of Junjun (Jaime Lucero) to be beautifully narrated, after the arrival of Fourth, role assumed by Tim Tuppil, in an interpretation far from what we are used to in the series 'Si Andy, Si Lauren or Si Peng?' and 'Our Story', since he had always assumed the role of the top boy, aggressive and even with a touch of villainy.
Almost right with Fourth, Paris (Angelgrace America), a vlogger from Manila, arrives at the resort, who is also seeking distance from her angry and aggressive ex-boyfriend, who does not accept the breakup. Paris will begin a lesbian relationship with Taylor (Lienel Navidad), the daughter of Mrs. Corazón (Dovee Park), the owner of the resort.
In this way, the director seeks, unsuccessfully, to raise the emotion with the incorporation of Girls' Love (GL) with the couple LorrIs (Lorraine-Iris) from 'Our Story', with the intention of exciting and delighting fans of both genres. However, the terrible performances, especially that of the actress who plays Paris, the low quality of the script and the deplorable directorial decisions manage to sink the combination of BL and GL into the spring pool. The intended delight, emotion and connection never arrive and the absence of chemistry between the main couples is palpable, especially between the girls.
The always necessary antagonistic figure soon appears, this time assumed by Jabó, a character played by Jericho Del Rosario ('My Story', 'Our Story'), who also works as assistant director, the rich and arrogant local who will try take over Junjun's workplace thanks to a risky and bad decision by Taylor.
Joining the main cast's performances are Tirso Cruz III, who plays Fourth's father in a very special role, and several veterans of Oxin Films' previous BL series such as Gio Emprese, Chad Kinis, Hiro Shimoji, Philip Robles, Jake Villamor, Kate Yalung, Jaime Ramada, and a few others. Their performances are, like those of the protagonists: among the worst seen in the entire BL universe, as if at the level of a high school play. In my opinion, 'Sky Valley' is Oxin Films' worst drama so far.
The director uses, once again, very attractive actors to give life to his protagonists, he gives a lot of importance to the landscape, but he likes to focus the story on many characters, whom he does not draw well on paper, and this detracts from the lack of a deepening into the construction and history of the characters, both main and secondary, the latter also important for their weight in the events.
The music, composed by Kayowdee, includes the diegetic, that is, the music performed by the cast members guitar in hand or in the night shows that enliven the lives of the resort guests, performed by the characters Timo (Sean Perez), Simba (Christian Patricio), Pumba (Voltaire Cabe) and the actress herself who plays Taylor, is not enough to lift a series that sinks deeper into the swamp of oblivion with each episode.
A topic as suffocating as a debt and the possible loss of a family property that, incidentally, is the source of income for some of the characters and a meeting place for everyone, remains a joke.
Likewise, the viewer lacks knowledge of the causes of the characters' internal conflicts or their motivations are poorly drawn on paper, which if known could be valuable to better understand their realities. I am referring, for example, to why Fourth does not want to commit to the family business, the lack of connection with the father, he past and the failed relationship with the ex-boyfriend, these reasons for her presence at the resort and what gives rise to the unleashing of events; the reason why Paris needs to get away from her boyfriend and the past left behind in Manila; Taylor and her mother's relationship, among others.
Junjun, Fourth, Paris and Taylor don't seem to me to be characters with a life of their own. The intimacy that emerges between the four main characters does not develop organically because their performances are generally flat. A plot as tenuous as the one portrayed in the series requires much stronger characters to sustain itself. A lot of potential gone down the drain.
It's a shame that what should be a passionate intensity between the two male protagonists loses steam almost from the very beginning, before a rather artificial conflict gives rise to the relationship between the two girls. There is no emotional bond between them, as with the two girls, that connects them, in addition to the physical bond.
In a series that should be all about character and setting, 'Sky Valley' falls short of the former but succeeds in the latter. The beautiful landscapes, mountain and beach, end up forming an aesthetically coherent background for interesting characters who are otherwise not developed as much as they should.
The story aims to be an emotional and psychological journey, where the characters seek answers and comfort in the midst of their personal problems, anguish and uncertainty. But the series lacks a well-constructed narrative and compelling performances; Even so, it invites us to reflect on the complexity of loving relationships and the search for identity in a constantly changing world.
And if Fourth was a sweet and tender boy, and Junjun took care of Fourth at the beginning, Xion Lim ends up precipitating the series into an abyss of no return by incorporating threesomes and infidelities, which not even Chuk Chuk would have been able to save.