The Panti Sisters (2019) is a Filipino movie about three siblings whose father makes them compete for their inheritance. His rules? They must "stop with all the gay stuff" and get a woman pregnant each.
The film is directed by the openly gay Jun Robles Lana. It stars Paolo Ballesteros, Christian Bables, and Martin del Rosario as the three siblings and John Arcilla, Carmi Martin, and Rosanna Roces as their parents.
The Panti Sisters contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: Don Emilio is extremely emotionally abusive and physically abusive too.
- Ambiguous Gender: The film is pretty inconsistent about Daniel's gender identity. In one scene, he confesses to not really being a gay man — because he's not a man at all. But he isn't a trans woman either, making him probably the first explicit example of a nonbinary character in a mainstream Filipino film. Yet he's described as a gay man in later scenes.
- Ambiguously Bi: Samuel and Gabriel are both clear-cut examples of gay men. Samuel is utterly repulsed by the idea of having sex with a woman, and Gabriel can only bring himself to have sex with Kat 1) because she's his best friend and 2) because he's watched lots and lots of gay porn. Daniel, on the other hand, appears to find flirting with women quite easy. His biggest problems during the bar scene, where he tries to pick up some women, are that he's scared cute guys will distract him, the fact that he's just pretending to be traditionally masculine, and that he's been in a relationship with someone (Zernan) for years — not a lack of attraction towards women.
- Anti-Villain: Samuel is the mistress' son and an interloper in the Panti household. An ominous theme song even plays every time he walks in. But it's very clear that he's not actually a villain.
- Aww Look They Really Do Love Each Other: Near the end, the siblings unite and end their petty rivalry, especially once they realize that their abusive father isn't worth fighting over.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Played with. Samuel is the youngest sibling, but Daniel is treated more like the baby of the bunch due to his sweet and bubbly demeanor. However, Samuel and Daniel are close enough in age that Samuel doesn't use honorifics when talking to him (unlike Gabriel — both Samuel and Daniel use honorifics when talking to him) and it's repeatedly acknowledged that Samuel is the youngest.
- Bastard Bastard: Played with and ultimately Subverted with Samuel. He's initially presented as one, and he's undoubtedly flawed, but is nowhere near a real villain.
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn:
- Beauty: Daniel undoubtedly fulfills this role. He's touted as the sweetest sister and it shows. He's also "the pretty one" — Samuel tells him that when he first saw Daniel, Daniel was so annoyingly pretty that she wanted to poke her face. (Gabriel says, "More like punch him.")
- Brawn: Samuel. He prides himself on being "the Queen of Tondo" and describes himself as "a young, gay dragon." He can hold his own against a bunch of street goons, though it's played with a little bit in that he's the only sibling without formal martial arts training. He lets Daniel and Gabriel fight when they're around because they're black-belters, but also jumps in to save Daniel as he begins to struggle.
- Brains: Played with a little bit too. Gabriel is no great intellectual or genius, but he's much older and more experienced than either of his siblings. He also acts as their leader and the person they turn to for decisions and advice.
- Black Comedy: The movie's themes are homophobia and Abusive Parents, but it's handled with a good deal of Black Comedy.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: Although the other "girlfriends" are attractive too, well-endowed Kat is undoubtedly the one shown as the most desirable. Even Gabriel says that if he weren't gay, he'd probably be in love with her too.
- Camp Straight: Invoked and Played for Laughs. Vilma tries to claim that Samuel is "just metrosexual" when Don Emilio announces that not doing "gay stuff" is a requirement for getting 100 million pesos (or even 300 million, depending on the circumstances), but he refuses to go along with it.
- Even The Gay Guys Want Her: Gabriel outright tells Kat that he'd have fallen in love with Kat long ago, if he weren't gay.
- Fan Disservice: Daniel throwing up all over the woman he's been dancing with at the club, because he drank too much alcohol.
- Fanservice: Despite the movie's plot, Daniel making out with a woman he met at the club is milked for all the fanservice it's worth. That is, until... (see Fan Disservice above).
- Good is Not Nice: Gabriel and Samuel can both be mean and petty, but they're not bad people. Downplayed with Daniel, who is the sweetest sibling — but he still does have a petty streak. In fact, he says that he lied in front of everyone and claimed Joy's child as his own just so he could witness Gabriel and Samuel freaking out.
- Hollywood Pudgy: Invoked. Gabriel snidely calls Joy "piggy" because her pregnancy is making her eat so much, despite the fact that she's clearly in her earliest stages and looks model-thin. In another scene, Gabriel offers to speak "whale language" for Daniel, even though he's played by the super-fit Martin del Rosario. Del Rosario seems to have even lost a bit of bulk for the role, looking skinnier than usual. To be fair, it's also obvious that Gabriel is just being petty and mean.
- Leitmotif: Each Panti sibling has one that plays every time they're making a grand entrance.
- Gabriel has brassy pop-rock background music.
- Daniel has sweet, bubblegum pop background music.
- Samuel has villainous, dark background music.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Chiqui accuses Samuel of this when he asks her to roleplay Edward Cullen from Twilight. Roleplaying sexy vampires is the actual turn-on for Samuel, which isn't that outrageous a kink, but she assumes that maybe he's into dead people (aka necrophilia). He does not like this accusation.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Gabriel and Kat, to the point that Gabriel outright says "If I weren't gay, I probably would've fallen in love with you too, long ago." Despite the lack of attraction between them, Gabriel decides to platonically marry Kat. He explains that it's because they're such good friends, he can see himself growing old with her. It's also worth noting that his marriage to Kat is not treated as a real obstacle to him flirting with guys. Kat doesn't stop him; it's platonic life partnership through and through.
- Pink Means Feminine: Daniel, the most traditionally feminine sibling, clearly loves pink.
