‘Sampung Utos Kay Josh’ REVIEW: Thou Shalt Laugh in This Christian Dark Comedy
‘Sampung Utos Kay Josh’ REVIEW: Thou Shalt Laugh in This Christian Dark Comedy
Josh (Jerald Napoles) pees standing up while staring at the life-size statue of Saint Joseph inside their bathroom. Photo taken from the film’s official trailer.
Sampung Utos ni Josh is not meant to be controversial, but it’s hard to tell how a film like this would be received by the general Filipino populace.
Satan is heavily featured in the film and its marketing, which could make it a target of religious conservative groups that aren't afraid to flex its influence in the government. The MTRCB itself can be fickle and inconsistent with its ratings: They gave this film an R-16 rating for its vulgar language, sexual undertones, and mature themes, while the family-friendly Filipino film Dear Satan — which has the same premise as the Paramount+ streaming film Dear Santa starring Jack Black even though it was earlier than the latter — was banned from showing in cinemas since its depiction of Satan as a redeemable being was interpreted as an attack on Christian faith. Even the cast and crew are aware of the stir their film might create during the film’s premiere, with director Marius Talampas mentioning that his parents are afraid to share the film on their Facebook accounts because it might be contentious with their church group.
If the film’s prevalent use of Satan wouldn’t create bad publicity for the film, its clash of sensibilities possibly could. Talampas and writer Sherwin Buenvenida — a comedy veteran who wrote for TV shows like Goin Bulilit, Home Sweetie Home, and the Philippine adaptation of LOL: Last One Laughing, but sadly passed away last year after a bout with lung cancer — has concocted a deeply Christian film about faith, free will and morality, but crammed it with a cornucopia of stupidity and sex jokes in this riotous dark comedy.
Josh (Jerald Napoles) learns he is charged with bank fraud. Photo taken from the film’s official trailer.
The titular Josh (Jerald Napoles) is a devout Christian who lives his life by the Ten Commandments for it was instilled to him by his equally devout parents. He still lives with his mother (Irma Adlawan), whom he goes to mass with every Sunday. Whenever he feels the temptation of sin, he begins to imagine his punishments in Hell enforced by Satan (Pepe Herrera) if he strays from the moral path.
He also believes if you are good with God, then God will be just as good to you. His life has improved immensely and he credits it to his strict religiosity. The bank manager (Edgar Mortiz) he works for keeps promoting him, his girlfriend is the gorgeous daughter (Debbie Garcia) of the bank manager, and he is already preparing to buy a new house they can live in once they get married. His confidence in his beliefs has made him conceited and judgmental of others who don’t commit to the word of the Lord as hard as he does; even with his friends at work. His ability to do good is as skewed as you’d expect, since he expects a reward for his good deeds. He even uses his good deeds as content for his social media posts, and would go so far as to wait for someone to see him drop a 100-peso bill in the church’s alms box.
His streak of good luck ends when he is jailed for a bank fraud scheme he didn’t commit. His girlfriend leaves him after finding out his supposed misdeeds, and his mother is hospitalized because of her stage 4 lung cancer; a disease she hid from him. With everything going wrong all at once, he begins to question his faith and thinks that God betrayed someone like him. He decides to take revenge by breaking each of the Ten Commandments with the help of his friends and encouragement from Satan.
Satan (Pepe Herrera) getting ready to punish Josh (Jerald Napoles) in hell. Photo taken from the film’s official trailer.
The film’s comedy isn’t as debauched or sacrilegious as one might expect. It’s a juvenile film in the best way possible, riffing on its premise as a platform for silliness and vulgarity. Jokes involving sex, masturbation, cannibalism, kleptomania & other unholy activities abound, its glee in delivering them not unlike a tittering teenager (hehe tite). Yet whatever shock they hold is nulled by its insistence in being goofy & dumb with its sense of humor.
It takes a while to get going as it needs to set up its characters and the world they navigate, while some gags don’t land as hard because they rely on cheap, bawdy humor alone. The film reaches its apex when it uses any of the Ten Commandments as a starting point for a comedic setpiece, creating silly situations where its characters of differing levels of intelligence & libidos can shine as it exhausts every possibility for a joke. The cast are just as sharp who are well-equipped in delivering punchlines: The camaraderie of the central foursome consisting of Jerald Napoles, Albie Casiño, James Caraan and GB Labrador are believable despite their differences, while Pepe Herrera is clearly having fun playing Satan as he relishes in pulling Josh to the dark side with a wide grin.
It is heightened by the film’s visual flair thanks to Dix Buhay’s cinematography, with visual gags pushing the absurdity further with simplicity and panache. Even its version of hell is gorgeous, moving away from the obvious hellfire in favor of a world presented in stark black-and-white. It’s a natural evolution for Talampas who made his feature debut with Ang Pangarap Kong Holdap and made noise with his ads under GIGIL & Arcade — which includes the infamous RC Cola ads — where he presents a grounded, realistic space where anything can literally happen.
Josh (Jerald Napoles) and his friends (Albie Casiño, James Caraan & GB Labrador) are about to be engulfed by flames. Photo taken from the film’s official trailer.
Its comedy freshens up the bog-standard Christian faith-based drama that makes up the film’s core. Many Christian films and lenten specials on local television have tackled some version of the Book of Job before and it’s to the film’s credit that it treats this aspect of the film seriously. Josh’s relationship with God and his mother is treated with importance, as it informs Josh’s story throughout the film.
It’s just disappointing the film doesn’t do a good job of showing Josh’s journey back into the fold. Despite his flaws, Josh is still a kind character. He is just a child throwing a tantrum because he did not get his moral dessert. That’s why whenever he decides to break one of the Ten Commandments, his conversations with Satan become a battleground for his morals. This leads him to new situations that challenge his morality. But his conscience and bias for following God’s rules snaps him out of it, so he ends up right where he started. The film only motivates Josh to commit a sin by increasing the stakes.
Josh (Jerald Napoles) holds the hand of his sick mother (Irma Adlawan) resting on a hospital bed while he stares at a crucifix above her head. Photo taken from the film’s official trailer.
The film repeats this formula every time, which means Josh rarely changes throughout the movie. Its comedic setpieces feel isolated from Josh’s character arc as a result. It rarely puts him in situations where Josh’s imperfections are addressed, with the sole exception when sex worker Genesis (Ashley Rivera) calls him out for looking down on her profession. The pivotal moments where Josh grows also involve other characters telling him what to do, instead of learning them as a consequence of his actions. It makes Josh more of a passive character than he already is, when his behavior leaves room for change.
It doesn’t help that the film’s exploration of morality is shallow. It could’ve probed more on what it means to be good in an unjust world, where following God’s rules isn’t enough to live right. Instead, it is content with delivering the same trite speeches about the nature of free will and faith we’ve heard before without the support of a compelling story.
There’s no question Sampung Utos Kay Josh succeeds as a hilarious comedy with a puerile sense of humor. It’s just disappointing that its higher aspirations are out of reach. Talampas aims to deliver a film that combines the sacred and profane to speak on the value of God and kindness, but fails to make it resonate to those who aren’t already converted.
