After conquering South America, HANGGANG MAKITA KANG MULI struts in Africa...meanwhile, Pinoy Network Wars go to Thailand?: DESTINY ROSE & PANGAKO SA YO

After making history in 2017 as the highest-rating Asian telenovela to be shown in Peru, the GMA teleserye Hanggang Makita Kang Muli will try its magic this year in Africa. It's now on weekend primetime on KTN, Kenya's top-rating free-to-air TV channel.

Last year, GMA new international releases surprisingly overwhelmed ABS-CBN as the latter only managed to sell a single 2017-produced teleserye for the whole year (Magpahanggang-Wakas). Early 2018 proved that the GMA upsurge  hasn't waned, new GMA teleseryes keep popping in various locations while its rival can't seem to sell its new releases in the international market: Poor Señorita in TV3, Malaysia's largest free-to-air TV, Vietnam had My BFF, Second Chances  in Africa & Ecuador, Destiny Rose in Thailand, etc. It's now February & like last year, Abs-Cbn is still mostly relying on its 2016 & earlier hits to be rerun in various locales (As a consolation, the 2016 Kathniel  teleserye, Pangako Sa Yo has a chance to shine in Thailand).

It's clear the GMA writers are propelling GMA to greater heights in the international arena: innovative plots, not only internationally acceptable Pinoy good looks & sleek production values, are now flying the flag for teleserye abroad. Meanwhile, ABS-CBN is still in GMA mode, still aping the fantaserye genre started by the latter as GMA upped the ante with stories not usually tackled by teleserye (amazingly, a future GMA teleseye is titled The Cure. Getting cutting edge in medical thrillers? )

Meanwhile, it's safe to say the sudden international prominence of the Big 3 young loveteams of ABS-CBN (Kathniel, Lizquen & Jadine) was a fluke. A tsamba which nobody knew how to handle. Yeah, it was probably serendipity that 3 cute Pinoy LT's were created at the same period that they were noticed in various geographical areas in the world, reaping adulations not normally accorded to previous Pinoy or any Asian loveteams. Proving that physically, the beautiful among the Filipinos will be more readily acceptable in more dispate geographical areas of the world than the usual Asian stereotypes.

 But a short look at the history of loveteam making in the Philippines would confirm that cute loveteams coming too far in between was the norm in Philippine, particularly ABS-CBN, loveteam making. The truth is, despite the overabundance of cute youth in Philippine streets, ordinary-looking teen idols were de rigueur in the last 30 years. It doesn't surprise me that my batch never bothered with the so-called Pinoy teen loveteams then (so did the world, obviously), most of my friends  looked far better than the stars and worse, I hate to admit it but I didn't know anybody who wasted his time with Pinoy showbiz. A few bad apples could really spoil the whole basket. The looks of certain Pinoy stars could rebuff a big part of the Philippine population. I remembered the time while channel-surfing when I felt revolted watching a reality show because I found the host "cross-eyed", only to find out years later  when I was already writing this blog that she was actually a big star in that channel. If not for this blog (thereby realizing Pinoy showbiz was bigger than her eyes), I would have lost respect on Pinoy showbiz forever.

Propaganda assumes that mass media can trick the people into  believing or adulating what it dictates. Not a fat chance here in the Philippines. People mostly ignore it when it's tacky. Like we did.

The good thing is that the Big 3 has really proven that unlike the stereotype Asian look, the Pinoy melting-pot look is more acceptable in more geographical areas of the world. And looks matter. This is classically typified by the greater acceptance of the Pinoy teleseryes over the kdramas in all the international areas where they were shown together like in South America (Peru), Southeast Asia( Indonesia), Africa, Central Asia (Kazakhstan), etc.

Perhaps in 2050 when the Philippines is predicted by HSBC to be the 16th richest country in the world, some Filipino strategists would decide to elevate the stature of Filipinos (much like how the South Koreans are doing now in promoting themselves out of the shadows of its giant neighbors, the Chinese & the Japanese). It should occur to them, however, that the we don't have to mix delusion into the effort just like how the South Koreans have done it. The Koreans are not only aping the Japanese Jpop for its Kpop or the Chinese for their  F4, but in a ludicrous effort to gain anchor into the Spanish-speaking world, its propagandists went hilariously overboard & had the weird temerity to hilariously tag themselves as "Latinos of Asia", a tag given to the Filipinos by the Latinos themselves. To extremely hilarious results, as expected. As we have documented in the blog,  they were perennially clinging for years at the very bottom of the Peruvian rating charts while their propaganda was hilariously proclaiming they were popular. Nobody was fooled.

No need to go the South Korean comedy route, Pinoys now know we can count on our looks. Perhaps by 2050, we'll have learned how to handle internationally other Big 3's. After all, we have the supply.


Destiny Rose

 Pangako Sa Yo

Read more @ PINOYISTICS

Changing Partners Movie Review: Well Acted Musical About The Universality Of Breakups & Heartaches Regardless Of Gender

'CHANGING PARTNERS' is based on a play with songs by Vince de Jesus, originally staged at a reading in the Virgin Labfest and later as a play by PETA. It then received funding from Cinema One and became a full length film, winning best picture, best director for Dan Villegas, best actor for Jojit Lorenzo and best actress for Agot Isidro when shown in its annual filmfest.

An intimate look into unusual romantic and sexual relationships, just like recent films "12" and "All of You". It also reminds us of the off-Broadway play "The Last Five Years". The film has a non-linear structure and there are two sets of actors playing major characters Alex and Cris who all break into song to express their inner feelings in crooned monologues.

At the start of the film, Sandino Martin cannot understand why characters in a musical suddenly break into song. Agot Isidro says that this is an effective way of expressing the emotions of the characters which they want to set free. Then they both start singing also about their own love affair.



There are two kinds of lovers featured in the film. First are those engaged in a May-December affair: Agot Isidro and Sandino Martin, then Jojit Lorenzo and Anna Luna. Agot and Jojit are 45 while their partners are 29.

Then there are the lovers in a gay relationship: Agot in a lesbian relationship with Anna, then Jojit and Sandino. All of them have been living together for six years and now, their relationships have become shaky because of jealousy and mistrust.

The older partners all have good jobs, so they're the ones in a position of power since they hold the money bag, while the younger ones are all jobless and just dependent on their benefactors. All the younger ones have a friend named Angel, who we never see as they just fight over him or her. This Angel could be man or woman, and the older partners are feeling terribly insecure and jealous of this Angel person, leading to ugly scenes of confrontation and recrimination.

It quickly becomes apparent that all their relationships will end in an inevitable ugly breakup. What the film wants to say is that whatever gender you might have, the feelings of insecurity, jealousy, mistrust and even paranoia are all universal. If held unchecked, they ultimately erode a romantic relationship that usually starts well then deteriorates as years go by.

Since they're the ones with more challenging roles as straight and gay, it's but natural for Agot and Jojit to show a wider range of skills, shine more and easily eclipse their younger co-stars. They are both successful in giving separate nuances to their various roles. Agot is just perfect as the lesbian lover and as the older partner who both have very strong, assertive personalities. The same goes for Jojit, who's so manly in registering his rage as the heterosexual lover, but betrays the gay-ness of his other character with simple nuances, avoiding to make the gay character a swishy one.

In all fairness to the younger stars, Sandino and Anna, both give competent performances in their respective dual roles. All of them are required to sing and they both deliver adequately. We just wish we get to care more for all the characters in the film. We can't sympathize that they are involved in messy relationships. Ginusto nyo yan, e, di magdusa kayo. As the father in "Call Me By Your Name" suggests: just embrace your pain.

The play was originally written by Vincent de Jesus. For the film's script, he's assisted by Lilit Reyes. They make a fairly good adaptation for the big screen and the film version is beautifully helmed by Director Dan Villegas with some touches of wit and humor. He surely knows quite well how to expertly mine the strengths of editing and camera work in film as a medium to present on screen effectively what is basically a theatrical material.

The cutting is truly excellent, with the generally well crafted film jumping effortlessly from one different scene to another to forward the parallel stories being told on the big screen. It's just sad that when we watched the film in a mall theatre, there were just about a dozen of us viewers watching it.

We admire Cinema One for bankrolling this film project since it's already common knowledge that local musicals don't do well at the tills, just like "I Do Bidoo", "Emir" and the more recent "Larawan".

Also, so many "hugot" films about problematic and failed relationships have saturated our theaters lately and quickly lost its appeal that moviegoers now seem to have gotten tired of them. Nakakasawa at nakakaumay na rin namang talaga after a while.

The edge of "Changing Partners" is the fine music it offers. The songs are better, more relatable and heartfelt than in "Larawan", especially the melodies. But some lyrics are still so pedestrian you'd wish Vincent got a co-lyricist with a more satisfyingly poetic touch. We need songs that are not so literal (we hate that the word "tinatarantado" is used in one song) but still catchier, more meaningful and emotionally resonant to reflect the very private feelings of the characters.


Read more @ Showbiz Portal