Category: That’s Entertainment
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Kristoffer King and Coco Martin.
Both were indie stars.
Both were good actors.
Both were director’s favourite.
Good luck knocked on Coco’s door and his life was never the same again.
Endorsements, movies, a long-running television show and a beautiful rumored girlfriend, too.
Properties, mansions and a hand at directing.
He is every small artists’ benchmark.
On the other hand, Kristoffer struggled.
With 6 mouths to feed and a deteriorating health, he tried his best to live.
But movie offers were not as good as when he was young and salable.
While Coco reaped the fruit of his fame, Kristoffer walked under his shadow for some cash.
His character in a television show died on the day that the real him passed away.
Yes, it is art imitating life but for me it’s life imitating art.
Show business has two faces: sad and happy, scarce and plenty.
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He was once a lovely teenager that was internationally known as Charice Pempengco. As Charice, he had the time of his life when no less than Oprah, David Foster and Celine Dion had her back. He was earning really good and she had that international celebrity vibe; her local fans could not even go near her for a simple selfie.
I was not a fan of Charice; her brand of music was too young for my taste. But yes, I was proud when she guested on Glee. That restroom showdown scene with Lea Michelle continues to give me goosebumps whenever I see it on youtube.
Jake Zyrus’ revelation that he was a lesbian shocked his local fans. The former Pinoy pride turned into a laughing stock when he decided to take male hormones and even had a mastectomy. Jake Zyrus changed his singing style from the “birit” where she was most famous of to being an Andrea Bocelli wannabe in that duet with Jessica Sanchez.
Jake Zyrus’ revelation that he was a lesbian shocked his local fans. The former Pinoy pride turned into a laughing stock when he decided to take male hormones and even had a mastectomy. Jake Zyrus changed his singing style from the “birit” where she was most famous of to being an Andrea Bocelli wannabe in that duet with Jessica Sanchez.
When Rustom Padilla admitted that he was gay, people praised him for his truthfulness. When he cross-dressed and labeled himself as Bebe Gandang-hari, a lot of fans took it as being brave; never mind the rest who ridiculed her. When businesman Ian King decided to be honest and renamed himself as Angie Mead King, people sympathized with the Mead-King couple. But why the hate on Jake Zyrus?
Some ex-fans are saying that Jake Zyrus is disrespectful to his mother but as far as I know, the mother-child relationship has always been love-hate even when he was still Charice Pempengco. Jake Zyrus is becoming one of the favourite laughing stocks in the local entertainment industry with his “feeling tunay na lalaki” actions. Amusing? Yes. Funny? Yes. But this does not give anyone the permission to mock him below the belt. Proposing to his girlfriend is none of our business; we can just enjoy his music and his antics.
Some ex-fans are saying that Jake Zyrus is disrespectful to his mother but as far as I know, the mother-child relationship has always been love-hate even when he was still Charice Pempengco. Jake Zyrus is becoming one of the favourite laughing stocks in the local entertainment industry with his “feeling tunay na lalaki” actions. Amusing? Yes. Funny? Yes. But this does not give anyone the permission to mock him below the belt. Proposing to his girlfriend is none of our business; we can just enjoy his music and his antics.
The problem with some of us is we are accepting to gays but are scornful to lesbians. Some would even quote a bible verse about it but can’t we just focus on not hating the person if our religious stand is anti-LGBT?
Jake Zyrus and the rest of the LGBT world need acceptance as a person. There’s too much hate in the world to be focusing on another person’s sexual preference.
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Somebody posted on Facebook that a cheating woman is worse than a cheating man because the former has emotional investment whereas the latter can have sex without the attachment.
Warning: Spoiler alert.
The case of Aida Macaraeg played by Vilma Santos is a more complex one because she doesn’t care if she doesn’t love her lover for as long as she benefits from him materially. The movie starts with a struggling Aida who tries hard to provide for her family. Her father is bedridden, her mother is not working, her younger brother is irresponsible, her youngest sister has a lot of school expenses and Aida is tired of all of these. She is the only one in her family who understands her younger sister’s situation; Miriam is a mistress to a well-off old man.
Vilma’s acting as Aida is very natural. She complements Philip Salvador’s natural acting as her loving but poor love interest. Aida’s flaw can be seen from the start of the movie; she wants somebody to save her from her miserable life. Since Carding is the only one available, she decides to live with him even without the blessing of matrimony. This angers her religious mother and Carding’s conservative aunt. Aida doesn’t care about this for as long as she’s away from her obligations.
When Carding’s luck runs out, their union is put into test. What is ironic is Aida’s angelic face masking her unimpressive attitude and Carding’s tough exterior covering his soft character. With Carding’s incarceration, Aida becomes hopeless and entirely falls out of love and finds an old man to live with. But here’s the catch, Mr. Pangilinan is a married man with three kids. He does not hide that for her from the start.
While Aida lives a luxurious life as the 2nd Mrs. Pangilinan, Carding languishes when he is transferred from Manila to Davao jail. There never is a day he does not think about his wife and maybe her miscarriage. Carding is just too trusting to a fault. How can he not see that Aida does not love him enough and that wedding at the jail is his wedding alone and not theirs?
In a funny twist of fate, Carding is released after 7 years and looks for Aida as soon as he comes back to Manila. His excitement turns to confusion when the now sophisticated Aida seems to find reasons to avoid him. We can see Carding’s transformation, too from being ruggedly handsome to clean cut.
When Aida’s scheme is exposed to both Carding and Mr. Pangilinan, she faces more problem– an adultery case filed by Carding and the risk of losing custody to her son because Mr. Pangilinan hates scandal.
Aida asks for Carding’s forgiveness and Carding drops the case. The ex-couple meets one last time to say good-bye.
Aida: What happened to us?
Carding: Don’t bother to ask. The answer could hurt us.
****
It seems like a happy ending for both Aida and Carding but if we will analyse it, Aida is not really happy with the way her life turned out to be. First, she notices Carding’s physical improvement. Second, she asks Carding what happened to them. Third, she seems surprised about Carding’s perseverance in life after his release in jail. We cannot bake our cake and eat it, too. Aida’s lust for money blinded her for the more important things in life like true love. On the other hand, had Carding becomes hardworking early on their relationship, maybe they are still together and happy.
*****
While watching Adultery, I cannot help but admire Vilma Santos’ acting. She surely is the Star For All Seasons! She has this magnetic charm that draws viewers to the screen and want more from her. I know Philip Salvador as Kris Aquino’s ex-partner but I didn’t expect him to have this massive sex appeal during his heyday. My bad, I underestimated him and forgot that he is a Salvador; I should watch more of his old movies. Same goes through with his niece, Deborah Sun. I only knew Deborah as what she is today; she has a slight resemblance to Maja Salvador on some angles. It must be the eyes.
****
Lesson learned: cheating is never okay for both genders. When you cheat, you put yourself in the losing end because karma will catch up on you.
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I was trying to remember old movies from the 80’s when “Agnes of God” popped into my mind. Meg Tilly played the role of Agnes. In case you are not familiar with Meg, she’s the ex of Collin Firth and in case you do not know Collin Firth, just watch Mamma Mia. 🙂
Agnes of God is a story about a young nun who is accused of killing her newborn baby. Dr. Martha Livingston (Farrah Fawcett) is assigned to assess her mental state. Dr. Livingston sometimes clashes with the mother superior (Anne Bancroft) but gets her cooperation in the end.
I read that there’s a real-life story about this and the movie is inspired from it but I’ll just focus on the movie. From my perspective, Agnes is a deeply-troubled young woman who experienced abuse from home. It is not just physical, emotional and mental abuse but also sexual abuse. The perpetrator is no less than her mother because her mother hates her so much; she’s even considered a mistake. If Agnes experienced sexual abuse from a young age, then the concept of sex is nothing new to her.
Agnes is raised as an illiterate with no interface from the outside world. The convent becomes her second home when her mother died. Her friendship with Sister Paul and their secret escapade puzzled me at first but later on changed my mind about my perception of the elderly nun. My take is, the reason why Sister Paul told her about a secret passage from the convent to the fields is because she wanted Agnes to experience life outside of the convent; unassuming of the danger that could happen to her.
Maybe, in one of her lone escapades, Agnes met a man who took a fancy on her and she mentioned about the secret passageway from the fields to the convent. Being too trusting, she allowed the man to enter her room. Maybe feelings were also developed but he’s not the type who would wait so on the 7th meeting, he forced himself on him. Because she’s not immaculately innocent, she knew that she was violated that’s why she burned her bedsheet.
With regard to her growing tummy, I think that she really does not know that that’s pregnancy. When she started starving herself because she thought she’s getting too fat, that’s her old tortured soul speaking. When she delivered the baby, she was horrified and angry for bringing another “mistake” so she did him/her a “favor” by killing him/her.
My disappointment in the story is her rapist was never caught and identified and maybe ready to attack another nun or another woman.
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So this is not about Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom because the movie is average (3 out of 5 stars) and I promised my friend not to talk much about it (anti-spoiler). This is just about me and my perception about going to the movie in my mid-life.
My first movie house experience was in Balanga. I was 5 years old then. The movie house looked more like a religious fellowship activity with its long chairs. (Imagine the chairs inside the Catholic church, that’s it.) We were too close to the big screen and every time the industrial fan hit it, it waved and distracted us.
My parents’ parenting style was too old-fashioned during the 80’s. We were not allowed to go to the movie house with our friends because according to them, it was not a safe place for anybody. There was a time when selected students of our class went to Clark, Pampanga as a treat for something that I could not remember. When we went back to Balanga, one of our classmates suggested to watch a Vilma Santos movie in Recar Cinema. I told the group that I could not go with them because I was afraid of being reprimanded by my father but one of the teachers assured me that they would explain to my father, when needed.
Most of my classmates wanted a Tito, Vic and Joey starrer and one of them warned me that Dolzura Cortes was an adult movie so I went with them instead. That was my first movie house experience in the company of friends instead of my family. Speaking of my family, expect a Friday date with them everytime FPJ had a new movie. Back when I was younger, my mother and aunt used to bring me to the movie house to watch Sharon and Gabby. I was bored; I was too young for love stories then.
In high school, believe it or not, we were required to watch movies in Bataan Cinema for our essay writing. Among the movies that the school required were Ghost, Beatlejuice and Sakay. Quiet and guarded most of the time, one of my classmates asked me if I was okay. I told him (he was gay at that time) that I was not used to watching movies with friends and our schoolmates’ noise were getting into my nerves.
College gave me the liberty to decide on my own. I realized that the movie house was not really an evil place where maniacs and thiefs thrived on. Rather, it was a little dark place where lovers met to express and explore. For the first time, I felt safe inside a movie house with my then boyfriend. I forgot the name of the movie house in Magsaysay Avenue (Baguio) where they offered a double movie to a price of one.
When I started working and earning, dating meant going to the movie house every week. Time Square Cinema was part of my young life in Olongapo and the Harry Potter fever has not yet started there when we watched it. Watching movies in the movie house became seldom and seldom when I moved to my current residence.
Since I got busy juggling my time between work and family,  almost all of my activities when I was single took a backseat. The second movie that I watched (in the movie house) as a married woman was Fantastic 4 and that was 3 years ago. We brought our children and it was a playful disaster! Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom looked promising so we brought our children last night to watch. Waltermart Cinema was good enough. The air-conditioning units were working, the floors were clean and the seats did not smell bad. Despite this, I was paranoid and feared about bedbugs on the seats! I turned on my phone’s torch to check further and when everything looked clean, I focused on watching the movie. Of course, there were instances when one of boys would comment about the movie and there I was telling him to keep quiet. The popcorn did not taste fresh and the soda smelled a little fishy. Between the two, I could tolerate the popcorn but not a fishy-smelling soda!
As an adult and in the company of young kids, movie watching is an extension of babysitting. As a giddy teenager, it was automatic that my date provided for the jacket to make me comfortable. It was a rule that my date would be the one to fall in line to get me a food or drink. Now, I am the one doing all those to my kids and I love it.
Did I enjoy Jurassic World?
No.
Did I feel comfortable inside the Waltermart Cinema?
No.
Why?
I am paranoid.
Will I watch another movie again at the movie house?
Yes, when my kids want us to.
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Okay, so this is so 80’s because the movie was shown in the late 80’s. I used to be very scared of this movie!
Disclaimer to those who still want to watch: Spoiler alert!
The story is just the usual plot; a mother (Charito Solis) who favors the younger son (Jestoni Alarcon) over the elder son (Ricky Davao) resulting to sibling rivalry. The rivalry thickens when both brothers fall in love with the same girl (Pinky Suarez).
Helen (Pinky Suarez) uses Robertito (Jestoni) for her personal gain so it is easy for her to dump him in favor of his elder brother (Ricky). Heartbroken, Robertito tries to end his life but is stopped by his mother (Charito) and Julie (Rita Avila) just in time. Robertito and Julie start dating much to the chagrin of Julie’s suitor (Jojo Alejar) and reveals that Julie is just playing with his feelings.
Believing that Julie (Rita) is just playing, he leaves the house and meets a fatal road accident. The doctors cannot do anything to save his life so his mother resorts to the mysterious Lucio (Ruben Rustia) to repair his damaged body.
Unable to cope up with his demise, his mother brings his corpse home and lets herself to believe that a miracle will happen. Her relationship with his elder son (Ricky) worsens because she blames him for Robertito’s death. She shuns away visitors to keep her secret that she is hiding her son’s corpse; only her loyal servants and Julie are allowed inside the house.
Her faith in God is tested when despite her pleadings that God brings back to life her son yet he decomposes, she resorts to evil faith. Satan grants her wish but her son is no longer the meek child she knows. Robertito turns into a zombie-monster and starts to attack all those that will either expose him or hurt him in the past. He kills their male servant and Helen (Pinky)Â in a series of attacks.
During a sacrificial ritual, Lucio (Ruben) instructs Robertito (Jestoni) to kill Julie (Rita) but his mom (Charito Solis) attacks one of Lucio’s men, thus giving way for Julie to escape.
The final scene in the cemetery is the fighting of both brothers and Gabriel (Ricky) being saved by his mom Aurora (Charito) from Robertito’s attack. Robertito weakens from “crucifix exposure” and goes to Aurora for that final good-bye. Wounded, Aurora dies with Robertito on her lap.
Gabriel, who has always felt insecure about his brother, asks the priest why his mother saved him. The priest replies that it is because he (Gabriel) is her (Aurora) son as if telling us that in the end, Aurora finally treated her sons fairly.
Movie Review:
As I mentioned earlier, this is just the usual sibling rivalry plot and the movie is even low-budgeted. The saving grace of this movie are the actors.
Charito Solis is excellent in her role and you can feel her pain when Robertito dies. Ricky Davao is supposed to be the antagonist here but you can also feel his pain and longing for his mother’s love. Jestoni Alarcon looks vulnerable as Robertito and somewhat funny as the zombie-monster. Of course, this is the 80’s so expect Rita Avila as his leading lady.
Ironically, I found the second half of the movie boring when Robertito turned into a zombie-monster. Why can’t they realize that Robertito is afraid of the crucifix? Julie could have survived had she realized that the reason why Robertito fell down during the first attack was because of the crucifix on the wall. Even the parish priest did little to help realize that.
Without looking at the inconsistencies, well, this movie is all about motherly love and how an unequal love can lead to sibling rivalry. This movie is also about a mother’s repent when she realizes that too much motherly love is toxic. This movie is about reminding mothers that there is little that we can do about our children’s behavior later in life because the formative years are the most important. In the case of Robertito, Aurora probably shielded him from pain and rejection when he was small so he grew up weak and dependent.
From a point of view of a sister, the movie reminds us that while unequal love is not okay, sometimes we just have to understand that our parents give love to our siblings who need it the most but it doesn’t mean that we are not important.
Conclusion: 4 out of 5 stars
The World of Second Chances 