‘KAMADORA’ is Vivamax cult director Roman Perez Jr’s follow up project to his recent hit movie, “Litsoneras”. Both movies had special private screenings so some folks are saying that Direk Roman is “very malakas” to the Viva bosses.

He is allowed to hold personal viewings of his movies, complete with face-fo-face presscon, when other Vivamax releases only have zoom presscons, like Direk Bobby Bonifacio Jr. and his new upcoming movie, “Kahalili”, that streams on August 18.

But Direk Roman quickly denies that he is Viva’s favored, fair-haired son when it’s even said that his movie projects also get bigger budgets than the other directors, which is not surprising considering his past releases like “Taya”, “Pamasahe”, “Sitio Diablo”, etc. all hit the number one spot in the Vivamax charts.

“Hindi po totoo ‘yan,” he says at the “Kamadora” presscon. “Pareho lang po ako ng ibang mga nagdidirek sa Viva. Hindi po nila ako basta pinapaboran.”

Direk Roman has really come a long way from the time he was directing children’s shows like “Team Yey” (that ran for several seasons) and soaps on TV. He admits that he earns more from directing for television than in doing films for streaming.

“But mas enjoy po talaga ako gumawa ng full length films,” he says. “Sa TV, may showrunners at sila ang nasusunod. As a film director, I call the shots and I get to do the materials that I want to do.”

His latest work, “Kamadora”, is once again full of his trademark sex and violence scenes. The first thing you’ll notice about it is its quirky structure that makes the story quite unpredictable.

The movie starts with two men delivering a dead body to someone in the middle of the night. From there, we meet the lead character, Jessica or Ica (Tiffany Grey), a salesgirl in a department store who is feisty enough not to allow abusive customers to maltreat her. But she is used to being abused by the men in her life.

After the film’s first half hour, Ica becomes the voice over the narrator of the movie and you’d be surprised at how her intrigue-filled life story unfolds on the big screen. There is a very big twist in the narrative which, of course, we cannot share with you as it will be a big spoiler.

This is Tiffany Grey’s most demanding role to date since it requires her to be on screen about 90 percent of the film’s running time. This is even tougher to interpret than in her past films like “My Father, Myself”, where she is shocked upon learning that her dad and her boyfriend are having an affair, and in “Paupahan” where she played a psychopathic killer.

In fairness to Tiffany, she acquits herself pretty well and she gets excellent support from Junjun Quintana as her chief tormentor, Roger, a policeman who adopts her after her mom is killed and repeatedly uses her body while holding her father captive somewhere.

Ica eventually manages to get back at Roger, but you’d wish the punishment she gave him is much more severe considering how much he oppressed her and made her suffer.

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Mario Bautista