Amarelo Manga (Portuguese) [Mango Yellow]

“Mango Yellow” is a provocative tale of low-rent losers set in the coastal town of Recife, Brazil. Like characters out of some Carnival hell, a macho butcher and his born-again wife, a forlorn barmaid, a sinister sadist and the gay manager of a flophouse called the Hotel Texas run in and out of each other’s lives in a film as sloppy, sluttish, scruffy and vital as they are. Though the film struggles to reach a meaning beyond its own shock value, it has the kind of in-your-face transgressiveness that some critics look for in a film so that it can make festival rounds. This is definitely not a gay film at all, but one of the main characters is gay and we see a bit of his mindset behind doing things that he does.

We have a sexy waitress running a bar who regularly has to shoot down advances from various men. Issac, is one such guy, lives at the Texas Hotel, where Dunga, a gay man, works as a handyman. Dunga is attracted to Wellington, a butcher who delivers meat to the hotel. Wellington, however, is married to Kika, a woman who is proud to be an evangelical Christian. On the side, however, Wellington cheats on his wife with a woman named Daisy. Daisy tells Dunga about this seeing that Wellington is not ready to make any solid commitment. And Dunga in turns writes an anonymous letter to Kika, in hope that this way he will be able to have Wellington for himself. Kika finds Wellington and Daisy together, attacks them, and then leaves. Wellington goes to the Texas Hotel to seek solace. Dunga makes his move but is eventually unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Isaac meets Kika and they have sex. As the film concludes, the secy waitress is shown again complaining about her routine. This is followed by a montage of everyday city life, ending with Kika deciding to dye her hair in mango yellow.

The film tells that there are some days that everything happens... changes are needed after some drastic events, dreams are crushed, etc. Despite that, life goes on. The world continues its existence no matter what have just happened to you and to those around you. It takes your everyday characters from the poor section of the city and weaves a story of what can happen to anyone and show us how these people deal with it. Among a butcher, a Protestant, a homosexual, tramps, perverts, and others, the movie explicitly shows that colors play an important role in our lives, especially the yellow, which is the color of the most awful things there are in life. Having said this, this film is like made for festivals. I cannot imagine a normal film goer enjoying this film at all. It is bleak and dark and shows problems of a common man that they would ideally want to run away from. Also a few sexual and nude scenes are there just for shock value in my opinion. Scenes involving that older fat lady or the church priest were just so unnecessary. From an acting perspective, Dunga gives a memorable performance as a gay hotel tramp who is always trying to involve himself in others' affairs (and get them involved in his). He embodies the film’s savage over-the-topness without flattening out as some of the other characters do. But other than that, I am not sure of I will recommend this film. (3/10)