No Way Out

This is a very dark movie with no happy ending. It is about two youths, Joaquin (Polo Ravales) who is 24 and has tutored Waldo (Joseph Bitangol) who is 19. They fall in love. Joaquin's wife returns and wants a baby. Joaquin feels obligated but his heart isn't in it. Waldo leaves for Manila and Joaquin follows to find him. This is where the darkness begins to fall. Neither understands the workings of the underbelly of either the gay world or the sex slave trade. There are two baddies. Mr. So (Wilson Go) runs a teen-age slave trade in both boys and girls. The youths are promised jobs overseas and once taken are shipped out and sold "like fish" to the highest bidders. The other baddie is Rufo (Emilo Garcia) who is a cop, as procurer for Mr. So and a sadistic son-of-a-bitch who loves to beat up on his wife on any pretext. He also loves to beat up on the young boys he procures and holds prisoners as he does with the girls until they're shipped off. I must tell you that there are two rapes scenes. One with Waldo and one with Joaguin. They are well done if a rape scene can ever be seen as well done. I would add that when a gun is pointed at your head or shoved in your mouth, it is rape. As I have said there is no good ending and one is left with questions. I would recommend this film because it doesn't sugar-coat life and discusses some things that aren't usually shown. The story line is good as are the actors who are believable as well as good looking. The photography and editing are also good and smooth. I give it 5 stars

I don't understand why so many in the US do not watch anything with subtitles. There are many wonderful movies not made in America. This is not one of them. Yes, I watched all of it and took in the bad acting, poor production, and slow boring story wondering, why am I watching this. It is kinda like passing an ugly accident on the freeway. I had to look. Cringeworthy film. Really. Truly.

The acting is good. The film is really about the sex slavery market and is kind of dark and it is frightening that this type of thing actually exists in the world. Don't hope for a happy ending- but it is an ending that seems believable. The guys on the cover are only in the film as dancers in the club and are not the main characters- though the cast is equally great looking.

Really a marvelous film. .. Don't be fooled by the cheesy cover. . . Felt a the full range of emotions throughout the entire picture and was scary at times.. . Be warned a couple scenes are hard to watch and you feel a pit in your stomach watching this film.. .. One of the best LGBT movies I have seen in a while: not for its depiction of gay life but for a gritty, raw reality of what it might be like halfway around the world and what one does for true love.

As a foreign film, it was decent. The acting could have been better, but the story is easy to understand. A young man who just graduated high school is high strung in his behavior. He is gay and was tutored by his neighbor, whose wife was away for a couple years due to a job. The gay young man is emotionally attached to his neighbor who turns out to be bisexual and has obligations to his wife. When the wife returns, the young man gets jealous and runs away leaving behind his grandmother. Concerned, the neighbor must decide if he should stay with his wife or leave her behind in search of this kid who ran away to a crowded city, Manila. If he searchers for him, does it mean he loves this young man and will he be able to find him? The movie does follow the adventures of the young man to the city with strange situations such as male prostitution and human trafficking. Will this boy return home to his small fishing village safely? Watch to find out.

Tough to watch human trafficking, but well done with good cinematography! A view of corruption perhaps mirroring reality. Well casted

I encourage people not to watch this film, unless they are into tragic, sick, hopeless worlds that depict lives of tragic people who live in hell. This is the fourth Filipino production I have seen and they all are similar in that they depict lives of people on poverty row with little choice in the way of employment except menial labor or prostitution. There is never, ever a ray of hope. This is the only one of the four that actually attempted to tell a story. As usual, there is a gay man masquerading as a straight man. He is married, of course, but has a gay lover. Here, as with all the films, women are treated as necessary evils and are often mistreated, lied to, taken advantage of or worse. When the gay lover leaves the "straight" one, the straight one decides he can't live without him and dumps his wife like she was garbage and runs off to Manila in search of his man. What he finds out is that a corrupt cop, also married, but with a thing for men, is in human trafficking, and was going to send off the lover, "Waldo," to some country where he would be marketed as a prostitute. At first Waldo thinks the cop is going to help him "secure the paperwork" to "work abroad." He then discovers that this is a very sick, twisted, horrible person who physically and psychologically abuses his victims (not to mention his wife). Joaquin falls victim to the cop, in a different way, but ends up with Waldo in a locked room, forced to "perform" for the sick cop. The actors did their best and bring real emotion to horrific situations. Let's say that things do not end well for our star-crossed lovers. I could not escape the feeling that the stories told in this film are true and that many people in the Philippines fall victim to the same fate. The people who should be forced to watch this film are the corrupt city officials and police who allow these horrific situations to exist. "No Way Out" is the correct title for this film. Again, the filmmaker had some concept of a story and his actors did their best with very, very difficult material. There is one sweet love scene on the beach that is imagined by the "straight" man as he travels to Manila to pursue his gay lover. If everything in the film or in their lives or in the world was as sweet and beautiful as that scene, people would be happy and the world would be a wonderful place to live. But the corrupt cop and the horrible person who pays to have the human beings trafficked are more indicative of the mentality of the people who make life a living hell for many. Not enjoyable, not uplifting, not redeeming. I cannot recommend it. Very, very, very sad.

Wow. I had no idea they made this caliber of films in the Phillipines (unsure of spelling). I understand now why it is so expensive. It's standard definition, but sound, acting, story, subtitles, and lighting are all way better than the usual movies from there. Not as much nudity or sex as one might expect considering the subject matter, but the actors are all beautiful. 5 stars in spite of picture quality simply because it is 1 of a kind. Watched it on prime and just ordered it for my top shelf.