At the rate things are going, with most local movies screened in theaters ending up in the doldrums, what fate awaits the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF)? Ten official entries will be shown in cinemas all over the country starting on Dec. 25 until Jan. 7, and elsewhere like Los Angeles, California, from Jan....
Category: Film/TV
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Netflix’s ‘Chef Chico’ offers delicious viewing experience
“Replacing Chef Chico” is a taste test of how far Filipino creatives can satisfy the international audience. And from the rave reviews and positive feedback it has been receiving since it was released globally last Nov. 24, it looks like the first Filipino-produced series on Netflix has passed the test. As of this writing, the...
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National talk: KathNiel split
Once there was a big-hit onscreen love team popularly known as KathNiel. Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla had been the top revenue-generating tandem in the advertising and box-office receipts of ABS-CBN, its erstwhile free TV Channel 2 and other tube broadcasts, and the network’s film arm, Star Cinema. Cable networks and livestreaming apps are still...
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Remember Vida Verde, sexy actress of the ’80s?
TUMAUINI, Isabela—I hate to call them “bold stars,” those nymphets who bare their bodies on screen. But in the past and down to the present, I toe the line of the consumerist’s tag to sell a product. For the moment, though, let me use the term “sexy actress” to describe Vida Verde, one of the...
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Hello, Dolly
Last Sunday at a mall in Quezon City, shrieking fans were applauding the young box-office sensation Kathryn Bernardo and the seasoned actor Dolly de Leon. Damn, one thought, it’s about time. The occasion was a promo activity for “A Very Good Girl,” Kathryn and Dolly’s latest project which starts showing today, Sept. 27, in cinemas...
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‘Gomburza’ gets to the big screen
A new film about the Filipino priests Mariano Gomez, Jose Burgos and Jacinto Zamora, or GomBurZa, whose execution during the Spanish colonial era helped spark the Philippine Revolution, will soon be viewed in Philippine cinemas. The full-length motion picture—with the lead roles played by Dante Rivero, Cedric Juan and Enchong Dee, respectively, supported by Piolo...
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Barbie’s story in the Philippines is not all glamour and glitter
The pink, sparkly dress of the Barbie doll has been veiling something much less glamorous—the loss of thousands of jobs when the company that manufactured the toy in the Philippines closed shop. It is now a blurry episode for most Filipinos, but it may still be fresh in the memory of the workers, mostly women,...
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An Emmy nomination for a film all Filipinos should watch
“Delikado” is an eye-opening documentary that could use a little help in finding the multitude of viewers that it deserves. Its Emmy nomination, announced on July 28 thanks to the folks at the US National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences who deemed it worthy of inclusion for the 44th News and Documentary Emmy Awards...
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Pelikulove presents anthology of young voices in Cinemalaya Festival
“How to Make an Effective Campaign Ad” reels you in from the opening scene: An inmate swaggers along the corridors of a provincial jail while escorting two young men past rows of crowded cells into the cell of a jailed politician. The young men are scholars of “Gov,’’ and they are there to shoot a...
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The original ‘Eat Bulaga’ will go on
The show will go on even if Tito, Vic and Joey (TVJ) have yet to reclaim the name “Eat Bulaga” from their former producer. Vicente “Tito” Sotto, one of the three original hosts of the country’s longest-running television variety show (the other two being his brother Vic Sotto and Joey de Leon), said on Sunday...