D.I.D.: Dissociative Identity Disorder: “Hidden” (2022)

A BL short film with a message

Filipino filmmakers have proven that they are able to tell a complex story or/and convey an important message in a low budget short film, and ”Hidden” is another example of this.

Let me summarize the plot first. Ivan, a kind hearted young man, by mere coincidence met Dante, who was drunk, a month ago and stayed with him for some hours because he was afraid something bad might happen to the drunk boy. Now Dante has invited Ivan to his place, and after some talking to get to know each other better and exchanging compliments, the two boys get closer. Although Ivan is reluctant at first, he then agrees to make out with Dante. When one of the boys is hurt and bleeding, Dante turns into his second personality, Diego. He yells at Ivan and attacks him because he doesn't remember why the two of them have been intimate and are half naked. Ivan is scared as he doesn't understand what is going on. Then Diego realises what Dante has done, and he explains to Ivan that Diego and Dante are one and the same person. When Ivan is about to leave, Dante takes over again, and Ivan kisses him good bye and promises to meet him again.

The actors, Jesler Bernard as Ivan and Jason Real as Diego/Dante (the credits of the movie don't say who plays whom, but I found it on facebook. Unfortunately, the credits don't reveal the director and producer's names either) are handsome and do a good job – they seem to be newbies, but they are talented, so I hope to see more of them in the future.

I appreciate the good intention of the movie which combines a BL love story with an explanation of the rare dissociative identity disorder. The message is obvious: this disease exists, and people who have it can be loving and caring like ”healthy” people, and they want and deserve to be loved like everybody else.

The execution has some weaknesses, technically as well as script-wise. For example, in some scenes the actors aren't perfectly lip sync, which can be explained by a low budget, but could be fixed with simple means. Another point is that I would have liked to see a little more of the condo – instead of Dante saying he didn't clean it, a short shot could have shown it.

Now to the script. Like in some other low budget productions, the backstory, i.e. the first meeting of the two boys, is being told instead of acted. I don't like actors speaking to the fourth wall unless necessary, and I don't like voiceovers of their thoughts either, and in this case it would have been easy (and not very expensive) to film Ivan and Dante's first encounter.
Another thing that I would consider as a missed opportunity is the fact that the point of the story is already being revealed in the title. If the title had only been ”Hidden”, the switch from Dante to Diego would have been a surprise to the viewer, and thus much more effective, as it was perfectly done in the Pinoy BL series ”The Shore”, which had a similar subject.

My nagging may sound like I didn't like the movie, and reading all my complaints, I must admit they sound too harsh even to myself, because all in all I liked the movie. The intention to make the viewer familiar with DID and using a BL story as a pretext is commendable, and the movie is worth watching. I am glad that it has already been watched by 75,000 viewers on youtube, which is quite a lot, bearing in mind that it wasn't promoted much.

All in all, this is another example of an innovative Pinoy BL short film, and if you can do without rich Thai boys driving around in expensive cars, I can only recommend you to watch ”Hidden”.

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