The Story:
The Panti Sisters may not be the most outrageous movie I’ve ever seen, but it’s up there. The premise is, Don Emilio Montemayor Zobel Ayala y Panti has three children. The oldest son, Gabriel Panti (Paolo Ballesteros), is a drag queen, Daniel Panti (Martin del Rosario) is a demigirl, and Samuel Panti (Christian Bables) is a transgender woman. Since Don Emilio is not happy with how his children turned out, he offers 300,000,000 pesos to the first one to get a woman pregnant. This seems pretty straight forward until the movie gets going.
The film opens with Gabriel walking onto a regal estate in a long flowing pink gown edged in purple feathers. The dress has an incredibly long train, which makes the scene even more outrageous than it already is. It’s an opening that sets the tone without giving the viewer enough of a warning of what’s to come.
The Panti Sisters gets more outlandish with each scene until you either give in to it or walk away. It also becomes so ridiculous that it falls into intentional mess territory. To explain the story past the premise and opening would not do it justice, so I’m going to stop here. It reminds me of a film starring actual drag queens, but none of the actors in The Panti Sisters are drag queens—I Googled them. They’re well-known Filipino actors, and they do a great job with their parts.
The Panti Sisters has comedy, action, drama, and a human element that you don’t often see in this type of movie. It ends up being about acceptance and finishes on a positive note. Director Jun Lana does a good job holding it all together and making it work.
Final Thoughts:
The Panti Sisters is outrageous fun. The acting overall is good, the characters are well defined, and the costumes and makeup are perfect. However, if you’ve never seen a drag movie, it might be better to start with Die Mommie, Die! before watching this.