The build-up: expectations and early whispers
Following the announcement of Iar Arondaing directing a Vivamax original titled Salisihan, the fans of Filipino sexy-dramas started to speculate. The marketing created a sense of intrigue: a childless married couple, a mysterious stranger, a secret pregnancy, and the secrets to be uncovered. Salisihan seemed promising to fans as Vivamax over the years built a reputation for films that boldly embraced the taboo, sensual conflicts and moral intricacies that other studios shied away from.
The posters, trailers and press materials portrayed not just the erotic sensations, but also the emotional despair: What does it mean when a marriage felt like a mere ritual? Filipino audiences, and social media users, expected drama on both emotional and physical levels. Their main concern was over the treatment of the subject matter. Would it be nuanced or for sensationalism? While many anticipated a complex drama centered on believable characters, others voiced a more cynical expectation of a provocative drama that was, in the end, merely provocative.
What the story offers: fragile bonds and shifting loyalties
The narrative centers around three emotionally central households: Dan and Anna, a married couple distanced from one another yet desperately wanting children; a pregnant woman named Sophie, who claims Dan is the father of her unborn child from a previous relationship; and Gab, Dan’s son, who until Sophie’s arrival, was unknown or at least not in active life.
Initially, the tension is more about betrayal and identity rather than direct confrontation. Dan and Anna’s intimacy has turned mechanical; their conversations and interactions are scripted. The arrival of Sophie disrupts this imbalance. Sophie’s frustration in tracing Gab, her own pregnancy, and the emotional rollercoaster her pregnancy brings, start to wear away the comfortable walls Anna and Dan have built around their lives. Their physical intimacy, in all their interactions, is emotionally charged. In another film, the scenes that are suggestively explicit might be titillating, but here, they are laden with guilt, longing, and confusion.
Sophie goes through an emotional progression from vulnerability to insistence, then to anger, and finally to disillusionment. In contrast, Dan transitions from the problem-ignoring husband who seeks to fill the emotional void with sex, to a man who is increasingly unable to avoid confronting the realities of the marriage he has neglected and the child he is legally tethered to. Anna is arguably the most quietly complex. She is certainly hurt, but also conflicted about shame and the remnants of love, and the need to preserve a marriage, a lot of which involves graceful improvisation. She is often less driven by rage than by a profound woundedness and a sense of lost hope.
The plot becomes even more intense when Sophie experiences blind spots, when Sophie’s claim, or even Dan’s past becomes alluded to. The focus of such moments transitions from large-scale confrontations to the ability of emotional honesty to persist in the face of shame and betrayal. The last moments of the film is essentially an anti-climax, leaving the audience pondering: can love and truth coexist? Can trust stand on the aseptic grounds of the weak foundations of betrayal?
Who they are off‑camera: actors living echoes of their roles
One of the more interesting features of Salisihan is how the real-life histories of some actors seep into their performances. Ralph Christian Engle, who plays Gab, mentioned in some interviews an emotional, seven-year long relationship that ended when his partner moved on to someone else. He said that emotional experience helped him in this, his first supporting lead role. Engle said that the emotional pain of betrayal and the feeling of being replaced helped him access the insecurity of his character when Sophie presents her claims about his father.
For Zsara Laxamana (Anna), the actor is recognized for balancing smaller performances before gaining prominence with provocative streaming dramas, but here, the emotional restraint required for the part was puzzling. She had to encapsulate the experience of a woman juggling desire, pride, and the fear of replacement — a stack of emotions many off-screen actors refer to but few get to portray with such depth. Chester Grecia (Dan) plays the husband role, who needs to revisit his past and unacknowledged responsibilities — in a more personal sense, Grecia has stated in interviews that playing complex, morally unambiguous roles is more challenging because the audience tends to either completely love or hate you. For Amabella De Leon (Sophie), this film continues to broaden her range with strong erotic/provocative roles, but here she has to tackle emotionally weighted themes: pregnancy, accusation, desire, entitlement, and guilt.
As such, these actors also face the history of public reception: being judged for their roles, censorship, and fan backlash, all of which is likely to help with some of the more emotionally challenging scenes. Sophie’s shame, Anna’s guarded sadness, Dan’s avoidance — these are not merely scripted. They echo the sentiments of actors in the Filipino sexy-drama who spoke in media interviews or faced social media commentary.
What worked for many — and where the film wobbled
Salisihan was able to get some things right. The tension between intimacy and emotional distance was almost palpable, when the camera lingers during silences between characters, during those moments when Anna watches Dan, and when Sophie’s anger is muted by shame. The pacing is tight; the film is under an hour (≈48-50 minutes) so there is little filler, and the brevity works because there is no room to drag. The difference in mood is close to the explosive norm some viewers appreciated as a change from the spectacle. The mood is intimate as the difference in mood is close to the explosive norm some viewers appreciated as a change from the spectacle. The cinematography often uses soft lighting and close frames in the home to show how the domestic space can feel both safe and claustrophobic.
There are gaps. Due to the film’s brevity, certain character motivations go underexplored. For instance, Sophie’s insistence and emotional transitions appear sudden and those seeking more context on Sophie’s overlapping history with Dan will be disappointed. Dan’s journey from being an avoidant husband to someone who confronts reality is plausible but the film sometimes ignores the reason for Dan’s prolonged silence on Anna’s questions. Although Anna, emotionally, is the strongest character, she is mostly reactive in taking action. The film emphasizes the erotic side but underestimates the emotional longer-term consequences.
There are people who feel that the pregnant stranger and erotic tension is more in the realm of fetishism. For other people, that provocative discomfort is exactly what Salisihan lacked. The film’s score is of a decent quality, but a greater use of audio cues and ambient sound would have intensified areas of discomfort. Some scenes, particularly those where Sophie witnesses people in intimate situations, are almost voyeuristic. Unsettling in nature, some viewers found this discomfort more provocative for the sake of provocation than from an artistic viewpoint.
Behind Closed Doors: What People Rarely See
Furthermore, due to the erotic character of the film (sexual tension, intimate scenes), the production had to be careful of Vivamax’s standards, local censorship, and audience sensibility. Scenes that could have been more explicit were captured through shadows and angles to depict the scene with less exposure. Whether or not these cuts helped the film is a topic of debate among fans.
More behind-the-camera tension: Salisihan is a Vivamax original, meaning the streaming platform’s guidelines, audience ratings, and the expectations around the “Vivamax brand” were dominant. These expectations often push filmmakers to come up with erotic first. In Salisihan, there is more emphasis on sexual provocation rather than the emotional story. This could be the reason some viewers feel certain choices in Salisihan are largely focused on sexual provocation rather than psychological depth.
Finally, attention was given to Ralph’s off‑screen disclosure during the film’s press conference that his partner of seven years relationship ended when his partner “just said they were friends,” before moving on. Many perceived that as an allusion to Salisihan’s story‑arc involving betrayal, replacement, and emotional ambiguity. Such unconfirmed speculation inevitably influenced the audience’s perception of Ralph’s performance.
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