Although not yet commercially exhibited outside the Philippines, Markova: Comfort Gay is a film about human rights violations that deserves a larger audience. Directed by Gil M. Portes, the movie is a biopic of Walter Dempster, Jr., who begins the film at the age of seventy-three; as a title at the end of the movie indicates, he now resides at the Home for the Golden Gays in Pasay City, Metro Manila. Dempster (played by Dolphy Quizon) is still employed part-time, training young Filipinas to perform as exotic dancers in Japan. During the first frames of the film he has a nightmare in which he is apprehended by four Japanese soldiers while attractively attired in a red dress. He then awakens and eats breakfast; while watching television, he observes as journalist Loren Legada reports on the confession of a former comfort woman, that is, a Filipina who was forced into providing sex for Japanese soldiers during World War II. Dempster realizes that his own story also needs to be told; presumably, the nightmares will stop if he does. Accordingly, Legada visits him and hears about his life, which begins when he is an effeminate boy (played by Jeffrey Quizon) in his mid-teens. His oldest brother Robert first abuses him and then tricks him into visiting his best friend Roco, who is eager to rape him. Soon, Robert returns from an outing with Roco vomiting blood and dies; filmviewers are supposed to infer that the blood is a result of forced fellatio organized by Roco. Thus liberated from Robert, Dempster joins with a group crossdressers who make a living as stage performers. When Japan occupies the Philippines during World War II, the group continues to entertain audiences. One night, a Japanese commanding officer takes Dempster (now known as Walterina Markova and played by Eric Quizon) to his Manila Hotel room, but when he discovers that Walterina has a penis, he has all drag queen performers arrested. Detained in a secret barn, they become comfort dragqueens, repeatedly raped far more brutally than comfort women, until they either escape their detention or the Japanese are driven out of the country. Walterina and other dragqueens then resume their role as entertainers, have a few flings with American soldiers, and retire as their beauty fades. Walter stops crossdressing and works as a gay make-up artist for the Philippine film industry. He confesses to Legada that many actors have gay lovers, including a particular macho actor, but he does not name names. As the film ends, Walter describes how some of his original crossdressing companions died, leaving him as the only surviving comfort dragqueen. However, Legada notes that she cannot believe Walter's story without corroboration, so the interview ends with Walter so upset that he pockets the tape from her tape recorder as his own. Clearly, the title of the film is a misnomer, as Dempster is transgendered before he becomes gay; the director has conflated the two terms. Moreover, because those portrayed as gay are extremely effeminate, Markova: Comfort Gay conveys an unflatteringly stereotypic message about swishy gays, thereby distracting from the human rights theme that the film otherwise presents so starkly. MH
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