Hollywood’s 95th presentation of the Oscars—deemed the mother of all movie awards—is the most revealing in decades. Asians won the top awards in the annual derby, with Malaysian Michelle Yeoh taking home the Best Actress plum for the seriocomic “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It was the first time ever for an Asian woman. The...
Category: Entertainment
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They also deserve press coverage
It has become a joke in local show biz—a film suddenly being shown in movie houses without so much as a word about it and its content, or its cast, or its director, to inform viewers and stir their interest. When a producer screens a film without the necessary drum-beating, the biz is abuzz with...
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How will the Metro film festival set in April fare?
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...
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What pulls you to K-drama: the actor or the storyline?
It may sound unbelievable but there are still some Filipinos uninterested in K-drama, like my mother and two of my close friends. Of the latter, I conspired with Melie Cruz, a senior adviser for an international development organization, to get our high school buddy Joy Chadwick to watch a series. We got her started on...
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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...