T-Bird at Ako goes by the alternate English title, Lesbian Love. That title is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in terms of lesbian representation in this movie. It was pretty disappointing watching a movie subtitled Lesbian Love and it being as overall straight as T-Bird at Ako is.
T-Bird at Ako is a large-spanning legal drama. The two leads Sylvia and Isabel. Sylvia is a lawyer. She’s not married and not particularly interested in men or femininity. Isabel is a beautiful dancer who kills a powerful man’s son in self-defence against rape. Sylvia takes on Isabel’s seemingly unwinnable case for reasons she can’t fully explain, even to herself. She also allows Isabel to live with her. Sylvia becomes increasingly possessive of Isabel even as Isabel’s former lover and baby daddy reenters the picture.
This is a film with a lot to say about the culture it takes place in. The court room scenes particularly depict how sexist, homophobic and moralistic 1980s Filipino society was. There’s absolutely no subtly in this commentary but it does get the point across.The focus on colourism is also notable. Isabel is considered beautiful because she has fair skin whereas characters of darker skin are considered less desirable. As much as the characters are unlearning about harmful stereotypes, it feels like the filmmaker is too. But sometimes this unlearning doesn’t go far enough.
The movie leaves a lot on the table in terms of deconstructing cultural opinions. I don’t want to be too harsh. It’s absolutely fair to say T-Bird at Ako is a product of its time. And it’s definitely trying to be forward thinking. All that being said, the film’s depictions of gay people, women and especially gay women is sometimes heavily outdated. A lot of this is entrenched in basic gender essentialism; woman is made for man and that’s why gay people are unnatural. T-birds (masculine gay women) are basically men right down to the infidelity. Feminine gay women are bisexuals who are one day away from going straight as that’s what’s “natural” anyway. The film understands that it’s difficult to be gay and sympathizes. It just doesn’t always understands why it’s difficult. It’s not because of inherent mental differences, it’s because of how culture treats us.
The most heartbreaking aspect of the film’s treatment of gay women is the ending. Isabel gets a heavily romantic happy ending with a man. Okay, fine. She was a staunch heterosexual the whole movie. But Sylvia also gets a heterosexual happily ever after. Sylvia spent most of the film in a sexual identity crisis brought on by Isabel. Outside of Isabel, she had little interest in marriage and less interest still in presenting as an ideal, feminine woman. Yet the film ends with her in a dress and makeup getting together with the prosecuting lawyer. The film frames this as a happy ending. The exact same scene, shot with the undertone of Sylvia forcing herself back in the closet would’ve worked. But instead the scene comes across as once Sylvia embraces her femininity, all of her problems disappear and she can be happy with a man now.
So, T-Bird at Ako is hardly even gay. It’s a woman having a sexuality crisis over a straight girl who ends the film with a male lover interest. Seriously, I probably shouldn’t even review this film on my site. T-Bird at Ako was way less gay than I was hoping for. And mostly for that reason, I’m giving it a negative review. This site is called WLW film reviews. I can’t exactly review a film where women don’t really love women and say it’s good. Even disregarding my heterophobia, T-Bird at Ako is at best, messy in its story structure and execution. The film is extremely interesting as a cultural document and I will admit, I didn’t have the the necessary cultural knowledge to fully appreciate the film. But still, there isn’t really any lesbian love in this movie called Lesbian Love. My disappointment is vast and incalculable.
Overall rating: 2.2/10
Other WLW films in similar genres
Heterosexual endings
I was extremely disappointed by the film as well and I’ve learned that the film was directed by a man (which means it is most likely in the lens of male gaze), albeit the storyline was written by a woman. It is the only classic sapphic filipino film that I could find that is in the year 1900s. I observed that the relationship was toxic, with the way Sylvia became possessive of Isabel to the point of bribing to silence Dante so that the man wouldn’t be a threat to her blossoming relationship with Sabel. It is not a good representation of wlw relationship but for the filipino context, it was already highly controversial that time for that movie to be made. Both main actresses were icons and are usually paired in a movie to be rivals, so them being lovers in the film is revolutionary. It is sad that the romance is not enhanced and they only portrayed the sexual attraction of the two. At some point, I think Sabel liked Sylvia too but she’s not as brave as Sylvia to express it and she doesn’t want to depend on Sylvia. She never wished to be cooped and taken care by Sylvia. The pair was already unlikely to work with their different idealisms. But I think that it is a great representation for showing that wlw attraction is natural and inherent. That it is innate for Sylvia to be a “tibo/t-bird” (butch lesbian) and her being a “feminine woman” in the end was forced because of societal pressure. It meant that in order for filipino lesbians to live peacefully that time, the only option is to change themselves to fit in the society, by erasing their authentic selves because of patriarchy. The movie is realistic in that aspect. It is a filipino film made to represent the issues women and queer women face at that time, it wasn’t made to be a love story so I consider this movie historical and a form of art.