Sue Ramirez bares all in ‘Flower Girl’ with a strong comedic turn

They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend. But in Cebuano filmmaker Fatrick Tabada’s solo directorial debut “Flower Girl”, now showing in cinemas, Sue Ramirez plays a sanitary napkin commercial model Ena, who has a different kind of companion: her lady part. She even gives it a nickname, “Poochy”, and treats it like a prized co-star in both her personal and professional life.

Ena is everything a modern woman is: opinionated, sex-positive, self-assured, and proud of her womanhood. The problem is, her views on gender identity are quite limited.

After an argument with a trans woman (played by KaladKaren) in a gas station restroom, Ena wakes up the next day, cursed that her Poochy is gone. With her love life and career hanging in the balance, she’s placed on a timed mission, marked by a flower plant whose petals fall one by one as a countdown: find someone who can love her for who she truly is, or lose Poochy forever.

But the film isn’t really about whether she gets her Poochy back (voiced by a familiar Kapuso actress near the film’s end) or whether she finds someone who loves her. It’s about the journey Ena takes to change her perception of womanhood and herself as a woman.

Ena has always defined her womanhood by what’s between her legs. It’s why she refused to see trans women as women. But throughout the film, that mindset begins to unravel. Is being a woman solely about anatomy, or about identity, lived experience, and the unapologetic way one embraces womanhood?

Her redefinition of womanhood also comes from learning to accept and love herself. Over time, Ena realizes that people seem to value her more for her Poochy than for who she is.

Her shallow boyfriend Robert (Martin Del Rosario) complains that her Poochy isn’t “as tight and fresh” as it used to be, prompting her to visit a gynecologist for vaginal rejuvenation.

In a world where people reduce Ena to her genitalia, Robert’s approval is what she clings to the most. But with Poochy gone, Robert dumps her for someone who can satisfy him.

After going through thousands of potential partners (including a few women, just in case), she eventually meets Dick (Jameson Blake), who claims to care more about her personality than what’s between her legs.

But don’t mistake this for a love story, or a tale of a man helping a woman reclaim her identity. It’s far from that.

“Flower Girl” is a love story between Ena and her womanhood. It asks: if you lose the one thing you thought defined you, are you still yourself? By that logic, without a vagina, is Ena still a woman?

Tabada’s witty and hilarious script killed one bird with three stones: it’s unapologetically feminist, pro-trans, and a sharp critique of society’s tendency to define people, and themselves, by their genitals instead of what’s in their hearts and minds.

Ramirez shines in one of her most versatile roles to date. Known for her dramatic and action-packed performances, she shows off her excellent comedic timing and fearless commitment to bringing Ena to life in the wildest ways possible. Whatever crazy thing Ena has to do in” Flower Girl,” Ramirez pulls it off effortlessly.

“Drag Race Philippines” Season 3 winner Maxie Anderson is another standout, playing Ena’s transgender assistant Mel. Rather than antagonizing Ena, Mel becomes a voice of reason, guiding her with both humor and heartfelt insight as she begins to unlearn her prejudice.

“Flower Girl” will likely be remembered for one of the most cinematically satisfying endings, as Ena prepares for another commercial shoot after a life-changing epiphany about her womanhood.

Without spoiling the moment, seeing Ramirez bare it all in almost full frontal nudity as she finally feels at peace with her femininity encapsulates the film’s message about gender identity and womanhood, brought to life through Tabada’s clear and compelling storytelling. Four stars out of five.