The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the government agency that organizes the annual Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) in December, has no qualms about green-lighting the staging of the event this summer. With health protocols eased as coronavirus cases decline, the first Summer Metro Manila Film Festival (SMMFF) has been scheduled for April 8-18 by...
Category: Film/TV
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To (finally) launch a Philippine sex cinema book in the US
I had long wanted to launch my new book, “SekSinema (Gender Images in Philippine Sex Cinema Enfolding Pandemia),” not only on our soil but on foreign land as well. A wide distribution of my books has been on my bucket list ever since I was published by UST (University of Santo Tomas) Publishing House in...
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Postscript to MMFF awards: What was the matter with ‘Family Matters’?
We were right, after all. We’re no psychic, only an ordinary moviegoer, so we claim nothing except our daring to look beyond the rainbow. We fearlessly predicted that Nadine Lustre would win as Best Actress in the 48th Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) for her portrayal in Viva Films’ “Deleter” of a digital content manager...
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Politics, sex cinema, deaths stirred Philippine show biz in 2022
Up to the end, the Year of the Tiger has been a period of growling events and pulsating newsmakers in Philippine show biz—some wild, some victorious, some tragic. Seemingly like the tiger, the media-savvy stars were contradictory in behavior: intimidatingly fearsome yet warm-hearted, temperamental yet calm. The coronavirus in all its mutations is very much...
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At the MMFF: Don’t get dazzled by movie trailers
Beware of movie trailers. Some are so good at setting high expectations that the actual films fail to deliver. Take the current Metro Manila Film Festival’s “Family Matters” and “Deleter,” for examples. The “Family Matters” trailer promises the second coming of “Tanging Yaman,” that classic tearjerker from the 2000 MMFF about a big dysfunctional global...
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Triangle of excellence in acting
Thirty-two years after West End brought Filipino musical theater talent to the international stage in a major way via “Miss Saigon,” the European movie industry, with Hollywood connections, is finally catching up: It’s putting Philippine-born, -raised, and -based actors on the world cinema map with lead roles in high-profile films. And just like Lea Salonga,...
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Gawad Urian fulfills its social responsibility
More than being just another award-giving group in the film industry, the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Manunuri) is a corps of critics who review and recommend films for their commercial, artistic values and it’s social responsibility to serve the best interest of Filipino moviegoers. Since it was established in 1976, the Manunuri has changed shallow...
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Always and ever: the Nora Aunor mystique
Does Adolf Alix Jr.’s “Kontrabida (The Villain)” winning a Netpac (Network in the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Award for Best Asian Film) at the 6th HIFF (Hanoi International Film Festival) held in Vietnam early this month still merit attention? Of course. Not only is “Kontrabida,” the Philippines’ entry in the festival, directed by a prolific and...
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‘On the Job: The Missing 8’ is not a sequel but an altogether different story
I’ll cut to the chase. John Arcilla does more than a good job in “On the Job: The Missing 8”; he gives nothing less than a masterclass in acting in the role that’s front and center in a sprawling sociopolitical dramatic thriller about the labyrinthine corruption in Philippine politics and media. If that sounds like the...
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Into the forest, across streams and rivers, and up and down hills
I went back to the remote Barangay Villa Espina in Lopez, Quezon, one Tuesday morning. At 6:30 a.m. after insufficient sleep the night before, I jumped into a decrepit jeepney—only one unit plies the route twice daily if the weather is fine—bound for the barangay (village). It was sunny, unlike the first time I embarked...