The first image in Tikoy Aguiluz's Boatman is the gleaming revealed blade of a balisong--a switchblade knife made in the province of Batangas. A group of prepubescent boys lines up to an old man carrying the blade and a stack of leaves. The bravest one presents himself as the first boy to be circumcised. Tikoy Aguiluz shows the details of the ceremonial passage to manhood: the old man pulls the foreskin from the penis and attaches it to the implement before slicing it off; the kid then spits the chewed leaves before jumping into the river. Aguiluz cuts to the same river, and appearing from the river is Felipe (Ronnie Lazaro),presumably the brave kid many years later, now grown into an ambitious boatman who delivers tourists from town to the waterfalls of Pagsanjan.
Boatman
A boatman wants more than just paddle his canoe for tourists in his town famed for its waterfalls. He moves to Manila, and lands a job as a live-sex performer, and his partner sees in him a way out of the slums and the red light district.
