Hurray to Pinoy humor!

I’ve always respected the genius of Comedy Kings Dolphy and the late Chiquito (and especially Pugo, though it’s sad that today’s generation no longer knows him). Lamentable, however, is the fact that their brand of comedies sometimes had either slapstick or toilet humor or both. (The Felicing Constantino comedies of Nida Blanca and Nestor de Villa — as far as I recall — were often clean and devoid of any form of vulgarity.)

Through the years, fortunately, Pinoy comedies had been changing for the better — and we have to acknowledge the contributions of several generations of film critics who, in their reviews, kept pounding on the heads of local filmmakers that it is never a good thing to dump toilet humor and slapstick on our audiences.

In the ‘80s, while Cachupoy and the Tatlong Itlog still had the power to lure masses to watch their films that had mostly crass humor (oh, that was the lowest of the low!), Ishmael Bernal (later declared a National Artist) succeeded in making box-office hits out of his respectable comedies like Pabling and Galawgaw for Regal Films and, the best of them all, Working Girls, for Viva.

Jose Javier Reyes, in both TV and movies, also taught viewers to develop their tastes and viewing preferences by feeding them with good material — usually brilliantly-written dialogues that are funny, yet delivered in a style that is spoken in our every day conversation.

In this new millennium, I am happy to note that Pinoy comedy has finally achieved a bit of sophistication. Jeffrey Jeturian’s Bridal Shower and to some extent, Wenn Deramas’ Tanging Ina, are among the better examples.

And now comes Kimmy Dora, which is one of the most intelligent local comic flicks I’ve seen lately — no, make that in a long time.

Kimmy Dora casts Eugene Domingo as twins. The older one, Kimmy, is bright — a genius, in fact. But there is a downside to her character: After a bout with typhoid fever sometime in her childhood, she becomes nasty and mean and carries that trait with her until the time she begins to work for the family corporation.

The younger one, Dora, born after one week (hey, this is a comedy, remember?), is the exact opposite. She isn’t exactly dumb, but is slow and lacking in self-confidence. And it doesn’t help that Kimmy is forever bullying her and picking on her. Oh, but Dora is the sweetest — to the point that one of the good-looking company executives, played by Dingdong Dantes, falls for her instead of Kimmy, who had been dying to snag him.

The rest of Kimmy Dora shows how the relationship between the twins further deteriorates and what follows is a madcap confusion that is riotously fun till the very end.

Kimmy Dora is a laugh-out-loud, laugh-per-minute and laugh-your-lungs-out type of comedy. Everything is over-the-top, but it works. At the end of the film, when the credits rolled, I discovered why the material is excellent: It was written by Chris Martinez who also wrote Bridal Shower and last year had the chance to write and direct 100, the Mylene Dizon film about dying.

This film, which was graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB), is directed by Binibining Joyce Bernal. Joyce has done some fine works in the past, but this is her best so far. I credit her for injecting a lot of little details into the film that you appreciate and relish in your head long after you’ve seen the film. As the fashionable Kimmy (a composite of several personalities we know in society), you of course expect the character of Eugene to be driven around in a luxury vehicle. But for her car upholstery to be garbed in Louis Vuitton is truly a funny touch.

In one scene, we see a bit of toilet humor — as in literal toilet — when Dora is born straight into the toilet bowl. But that is forgivable because there is nothing execrable in the way it is staged by Joyce. And now that I think about it, maybe that was aimed by Joyce and Chris to be a potshot at toilet humor that had plagued Filipino comedies for decades.

But what is truly visible is the way Joyce motivates her cast members: Everyone delivers a commendable performance. On top of the list is Ariel Ureta, who plays the twins’ widowed dad. Ariel, who was king of television during the first half of the ‘70s, made an on-cam comeback in Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo and Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo as the father of Ryan Agoncillo and husband of Gloria Diaz. He gave very good performances there. Here in Kimmy Dora, he is twice better.

I also liked the acting job delivered by Miriam Quiambao and I am willing to give a one-man standing ovation to whoever thought of casting her in this film. Imagine putting a Miss Philippines and a Miss Universe first-runner up there as Eugene Domingo’s battered secretary. And Miriam, to her credit, doesn’t waste the opportunity and the role because she is truly effective in the way she approaches that character.

Dingdong also turns in a fine performance and he doesn’t mind that he is mere support to Eugene in this film. It is so unselfish of him — agreeing to do this project because it wouldn’t have been the same without him and his stature there.

Of course, the film belongs to Eugene Domingo. I’ve always admired her as a performer — starting from the time I saw her play Matet de Leon’s nanny in one movie some 10 years back. She has delivered other brilliant performances in the past, but I liked her best in Pisay and in Foster Child and to this day, I regret that she didn’t get the Gawad Urian Best Supporting actress trophy last year since she was this close to clinching it (I fought hard for her). Don’t worry, Eugene, your time will come and victory should be sweeter by then.

Actually, the comedy Kimmy Dora wouldn’t have been able to stand on its feet without Eugene in it. This is the type of film, you see, that requires an intelligent comedienne and there aren’t too many of them in showbiz. (Tessie Tomas could have done it in her time had this project been around then.) But thank heavens we have Eugene Domingo and her intelligence to entertain us in this very intelligent Filipino comedy.

I never thought I’d be able to say this but finally: Hurray to Pinoy humor!