Wednesday, 30 August 2017
Paglipay Movie Review: A Touching Story Of Love And Survival Among The Aetas In Zambales
The story is set in an Aeta community in Zambales. And lest your forget, Aetas are the aborigines or original inhabitants of our country. A young man, Atan (Gerry Cabalic) bumps into his friend, Ani (Joan de la Cruz), while hunting and they are seen together in the river. For their tribe, this means they have to get married soon or Ani and her family will be disgraced in the eyes of their fellow Aetas.
For Atan to be able to do this, he needs to pay a "bandi" or dowry of P20,000 to the parents of Ani. To raise the amount, he leaves their community called Baytan and goes down to the town in the lowlands to sell the produce he has harvested from their farm. He also plows the ricefields of other people for added income.
While he's in town, he meets a student from Manila, Rain (Ana Luna), who is conducting research on her thesis about the inter-marriage or mixed relationships between curly hairs (Aetas) and unat or straight hairs (non-Aetas). As Rain interviews him and he accompanies her around with her friend Cai (Marinella Sevidal), a 'babaeng bakla' who tries to steal all her scenes, Atan finds himself growing in attraction to Rain.
His feelings for her are something new to him, natural and not engineered or contrived, unlike his arranged marriage with Ani. In a protracted scene showing them drinking beer, Rain gets so drunk and pours her heart out to Atan, crying unabashedly for her unrequited love with a guy whose name starts with J. He comforts her as she throws up and helps put her to sleep.
Soon, it's time for Rain to return to Manila and Atan chooses to just leave without saying goodbye to her. Back to their place in the mountains, he changes his mind and runs all night back to the plains, ready to reveal to Rain his true feelings for her.
Rain was already at the bus station when he finally catches up with her and introduces to him the guy she's in love with. And he turns out to be the guy from "100 Tula Para Kay Stella", JC Santos. It's a bittersweet ending, with the final shot showing Atan going up a mountain all by his lonesome self and reciting a solitary lament in their dialect about his sad feelings, amidst the silence and vastness of Mother Nature, stunningly captured in all its beauty by cinematographer Albert Banzon.
"Paglipay" (which means crossing) manages to show us how the Aetas manage to survive in their harsh surroundings. Mt. Pinatubo's eruption has changed their daily existence, with businessmen quarrying black sand that puts their lives in danger. We see trucks going by for a new mining project while the changes in the weather have made their agricultural livelihood harder. This film is certainly vastly different from the usual very commercial formula romcoms we get to watch all the time.
Ana Luna gives an effective portrayal of the outsider who unknowingly steals Atan's heart. This is as competent as her performance as the jologs girlfriend in "Barboys" and as the young teacher in "Maestra". Gerry Cabalic is a true blue native and is a natural for the role, unlike other films about ethnic tribes, such as "Banaue" and "Bontoc", where the male leads are actually fair skinned mestizos. He has an easy charm and doesn't seem to be acting at all.
The same goes for Joan de la Cruz who gives a very relaxed portrayal of the frizzy-haired Ani. She symbolizes the plight of Aeta women, who don't even have a say in choosing who they want to marry. We should thank writer-director Zig Dulay for giving us something different and for casting real Aetas in the lead roles for authenticity.
Read more @ Showbiz Portal
Bea Alonzo And The Rest Of 'A Love To Last' Cast Will Star In A Farewell Concert At The KIA Theater On Friday, September 8, 8 PM
Viewers saw how Bea and Anton's love blossomed amidst the resistance of some people and how Bea eventually became the stepmom of Ian's three kids with his first wife, Iza Calzado as Grace. The three children are portrayed by Julia Barretto as Chloe, JK Labajo as Lucas and Hannah Vito as Kitty.
Now, the show will have its thanksgiving concert to be held at Kia Theater on September 8, Friday, at 8 PM. The stars will be performing special musical numbers for their loyal supporters. To get your tickets to the concert, log in at ticketnet.com.ph or call 911-5555.
As the show nears its end, Bea as Andeng realizes that love is not a fairy tale. After her marriage to Anton, she encounters all sorts of hardships and problems in their relationship, especially now that she also has to attend to her family's own problems. Her brother Enchong Dee has made a girl pregnant, Bianca, the niece of Grace played by Kazel Kinouchi, while her dearest grandmother Perla Bautista suffers from a stroke. Ian gave money to Enchong and helped in paying the hospital bills of her grandma, giving Iza Calzado and Cris Villanueva as Paul (dad of Bianca) the chance to accuse Bea that she really married Ian only for his money. Will the love of Anton and Andeng (or Tondeng) prove to be stronger than all the difficult challenges that are proving to be thorns on their smooth relationship or will these obstacles make them fall apart? That is what you have to find out in the last few episodes of the show. But as Bea confidently puts it: "Love will find a way. Love will triumph in the end."
Read more @ Showbiz Portal
HERMANAS/THE HALF-SISTERS: Believe it or not, for International Release...
I never really bothered to check this when it was still being shown in the Philippines. But I was so surprised, and delighted after watching the trailer, to learn now that it had a brillant plot: two girls born at the same time but from two ova fertilized by different sperms. Very original, just like the feral child in Cautiva/Hanggang Makita Kang Muli. I'm now really impressed by the storytellers of GMA.
Of course, not having watched it, I have no way of knowing how they developed the plot narrative. But it lasted for two years so it must have pushed the right buttons to idle homebound masses in its afternoon slot. It's now being marketed for international release. As can be seen from the trailer, the mother of the main protagonists, the still beautiful Jean Garcia, hogged most of the clips, as if the salesmen were hesitant to highlight the two main stars. I myself have reservations why the two actresses were even discovered. GMA has mostly displayed a fine taste in its stable of stars but the presence of not quite a few saling pusa really puzzles me. Why even bother? The two main protagonists could have passed in a comedy, but with such a spectacular plot, this teleserye could soar higher with more star-quality stars. We see here the limitation of stars meant for a supposed clueless masa in the more discriminating international arena. There, good plots are wasted by looks that people won't be bothered with. Just look at the kdramas who actually tenaceously clung at the bottom of rating charts in many parts of the world despite the fake hossanas of the Korean propaganda.
Of course, not having watched it, I have no way of knowing how they developed the plot narrative. But it lasted for two years so it must have pushed the right buttons to idle homebound masses in its afternoon slot. It's now being marketed for international release. As can be seen from the trailer, the mother of the main protagonists, the still beautiful Jean Garcia, hogged most of the clips, as if the salesmen were hesitant to highlight the two main stars. I myself have reservations why the two actresses were even discovered. GMA has mostly displayed a fine taste in its stable of stars but the presence of not quite a few saling pusa really puzzles me. Why even bother? The two main protagonists could have passed in a comedy, but with such a spectacular plot, this teleserye could soar higher with more star-quality stars. We see here the limitation of stars meant for a supposed clueless masa in the more discriminating international arena. There, good plots are wasted by looks that people won't be bothered with. Just look at the kdramas who actually tenaceously clung at the bottom of rating charts in many parts of the world despite the fake hossanas of the Korean propaganda.
Read more @ PINOYISTICS
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