AFTER the sexy comedies “Gusto Kong Maging Porn Star1 & 2”, writer-director Darryl Yap now comes up with a wholesome comedy-drama about a father and his gay son, “Para Kang Papa Mo”, opening in theaters this Wednesday, December 13.

Mark Anthony Fernandez and Nikko Natividad both give very competent performances as the father and son, but the one who makes a big impact in the movie is character actress Ruby Ruiz who comes out as the film’s sole leading lady as she is given so many comic and dramatic highlights in the movie.

She plays Tita, the manager of the dance group of the Gwapings, played by Mark, Eric Fructuoso and Jao Mapa. She is very religious and is devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary, but has a foul mouth, curses a lot, and her favorite expression is the Tagalog equivalent of ‘Sonofabitch”.

She handles all her scenes convincingly, whether it’s comedy or drama. One of her funniest sequences is when she absent-mindedly boards a jeepney carrying a toy gun that someone has just returned to her.

The passengers inside the jeepney think she is a holdupper and panic, quickly giving to her their wallets and cellphones. This funny scene comes right after she just did a serious dramatic scene in a church. She is shown talking directly to an image of the Crucified Jesus Christ and fervently asking that the ailing Nikko Natividad, who is suffering from a kidney ailment, be completely healed.

Darryl Yap obviously wants the movie to be a crowdpleaser and this can be seen even in the musical production numbers he did, like when Mark Anthony Fernandez is released from prison and he is greeted by children in their neighborhood wearing colorful costumes and dancing on the street to welcome him back home.

The movie is really a father and son story with Mark Anthony as the dad whose son, Nikko, grew up under Ruby’s care while he is serving a jail sentence. He and former Guwapings colleagues Eric Fructuoso and Jao Mapa used to be members of a dance group.

They are about to perform at the start of the movie when cops suddenly raid the place and Mark is arrested for having drugs inside his backpack. He is jailed for being a drug pusher but later on, it turns out that the bag really belongs to somebody else and he suffered in prison for the crime committed by a good friend.

Eric and Jao also have their own sons, Zeus Collins and Kid Yambao, who are real macho men. But Mark’s son, Nikko, turns out to be a cross-dressing trans. This does not prevent Mark from loving his son unconditionally and accepting his gender.

Nikko is very bright and is about to graduate as valedictorian in high school. He is also the chair of their local youth org, Sangguniang Kabataan. To make sure that he will able to finance his son’s college education, Mark does something that both Eric and Jao have also done before for their own kids: sell one of their kidneys.

But as fate would have it, just as Nikko is about to deliver his valedictory address on graduation day, he suddenly collapses right on stage and is diagnosed to have a life threatening ailment.

The way the movie is written and executed is very commercial, meant for those viewers who just want to be entertained without making them think hard or anything. After a tearjerking sequence towards the end where everyone cries, the movie concludes on a positive note with Mark himself getting to fulfill his own dream for his son.

It helps that both Mark and Nikko do well in their respective roles, even if Nikko actually looks too buff to be totally believable as an effeminate fairy. It’s quite obvious that he has even more well defined biceps than Zeus or Kid.