Philippine Entertainment News

Local fans were infuriated when rumors came out that ABS-CBN is producing a Pinoy version of Gossip Girl. It’s understandable for something tagged by New York Magazine as the “best show ever”. To have Serena van der Woodsen played by KC Concepcion, Dan Humphry by John Loyd Cruz, Blair Waldorf by Anne Curtis, Nate Archibald by Sam Milby, Chuck Bass by Luis Manzano, and Jenny Humphry by Angelika Panganiban is not just awkward but hilarious.

When the left picture leaked into the Internet, there wasn’t news about the Malaysian-powered TV5 yet. But as the show premieres today, fans will have a new channel to blame. And a different set of cast to mock. It turns out the pics above are not just models but the actors themselves. Surprise!

Slightly recognizable at the right is former Pinoy Big Brother teen housemate Mikee Lee. And he’s flanking one of the girls with Rodjun Cruz who’s suppose to be the school heartthrob. Joining them guys is Fred Payawan, another PBB teen alumnus, plus Kevin Lapeña (da who?) and the Kung Fu Panda theme singer Sam Concepcion.

Even more obscure are the girls Cheska Ortega, Mary Grace Perido, Charina Suzara, Maxinne Eigenmann, Miki Hahn, and Saab Magalona. Ah, so many of them in line for FHM, Maxim, and Uno covers. Will it be XOXO for the new network with its new show? Looks like they have a lot to catch up on even just to be at par with Studio 23 and QTV.

Cast image from PEP.ph. Preview of the pilot episode after the jump.

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2 Comments | Celebrities, TV Series

It has its wow moments. The screen presence of Shamaine Buencamino–whether it is taking clothes off the sampayan, peeling camotes, or leading rosary in the family’s bomb shelter–is arresting. Burning the photo of her G.I. suitor, playing drawn piano keys on the ground, indie suki Meryll Soriano actually throws convincing lines. I also had to google Ynna Asistio just for her cuteness and good singing. As the stepping up elderly son, even Jay Aquitania keeps up with the well-casted actor lineup not only with his obviously well-rehearsed Japanese but also with his mischievous antics. Bind this up with an expectedly sophisticated musical score (classical piano, kundiman, and Rosas Pandan!), with the realistic although austere avoiding-the-panoramic production design, and with a “music unites all” theme and you have a chest-tingling number.

But it’s just OK. I don’t think it was unfairly snobbed like what some articles insinuate. Compared to this one, 100 and Jay really deserved the awards for me. I’m more inclined to like a movie about a dying bitch (100) or a manipulative gay journalist (Jay) than an aaaw-inducing historical one. Don’t get me wrong; I fruitfully learned how Americanized and Japanized Philippines have already been in the past. But the filmmaker Paul Morales could only do so much with his historical material. It is about an upper class family, but its rebel son can’t take center stage. It’s entitled Concerto, it’s suppose to be mushy, it made me teary-eyed, but that’s about it for me. After all, if it is daring, it dares to be reconciliatory instead of fanning the flames of historical Phil-Jap tension. On the other hand, it’s most probably a better watch than A Very Special Love.

Images from Andre Cagawas, one of Concerto’s producers. Trailer and poster after the jump.

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Add a comment | Film Festivals, Indie, Movies

And now for a taste of regional music, here’s a review from Bicol Mail reporter Jonas Cabiles Soltes who is also our friend and a field correspondent for Philippine Daily Inquirer.

These are the times for breaking glass ceilings. Not so long ago, the thought of a black man with a real chance of commanding the world’s lone superpower was next to impossible. Now, Barack’s a rock star almost singing his way to being Dubya’s successor. Closer to home, glass ceilings are being broken too as Bicolano bands, real rock stars, breach the limits separating underground from mainstream with the release of MusikMax Bicol.

Produced by Rebolusyon Rekords of husband and wife Gerry and Mary Muñoz-Diwa in collaboration with Soundweavers Recording Studio, the compilation features 20 original songs from eight rising and prominent Bicolano bands that include Naga City’s Centerfold, Pentacle, Pandora’s Box, Idle Pitch, and Black Gulaman; and Legazpi City’s Pepsi Paloma Experiment, Stolenshots, and Buckyard Boyz.

MusikMax is a franchise conceptualized by Rebolusyon Rekords, based in Makati City, to give much-awaited breaks to original music coming from the different provinces and regions in the country.

With genres ranging from pop-rock and rock alternative to hard rock and hip-hop, the newly-released MusikMax Bicol, the first in the franchise, is far from being all the same, however. Only their singers being Bicolanos put the featured tracks on same ground.

Centerfold opens the album with X Song, one of the best songs in the record as it sounds almost like a REM if not for Van Navaro’s metallic female voice on the lead, and ends with hip hop carrier single Albay Song by Buckyard Boyz’, another of the record’s assets though it is hauntingly similar to and noticeably inspired by Black-Eyed Peas’ APL Song, which forgivably becomes overly anthemic in some parts.

Pyrotechnics (Track 4) by Pepsi Paloma Experiment also lifts the album with breezy rendition loosely comparable to disbanded Orange and Lemons’ style. Stolenshot’s Chocolate Brown Coffee (Track 16) and Movin’ To The Top (Track 17) which veer ska are welcome inclusions and should make good choices for road songs.

Popularity of hardcore and heavy metal genres seems on the wane now, with most of the top acts including foreign ones previously into these music types now reinventing themselves. But Pentacle’s and Pandora’s Box’s songs are still acceptable additions in the record though some may find them anachronistically included. To be fair, Pandora’s Box is a pioneer in the local rock act and should deserve homage, and hey, In Sepia (Track 9) is not bad.

Buckyard Boyz on the repertoire is among the record’s unfamiliar turn. (Imagine compiling Eminem and Josh Groban in the same album.)

Featured tracks range from sentimental and angst-driven voices to highflying pride-of-place overtures in the background of Bicol Region’s alternately bleak and rosy situation. In Albay Song, there’s even an allusion to the devastation wreaked by Super Typhoon Reming in Albay Province in 2006.

Although the record falters in some ways, it’s a good buy. The ground-breaking spirit that goes with it, best expressed by its handsome packaging, more than compensates what it lacks technically. After all, it’s Bicolano homegrown music at its most earnest, which could break glass ceilings at their highest.

7 Comments | Albums, Music, Regional

Another Dibidi Ma’am, Dibidi Ser special.

Title: Smart People (2008)
Director: Noam Murro

How I Got My Hands on It: Friends gave it to me for my birthday, and they really impressed me with their DVD choices, probably from Dampa sa Libis where they have their suki TV series supplier. Knowing I’m a huge fan of Sideways (2004) and Ellen Page because of Hard Candy (2005), they knew I’d love this. They’ve also been branding me as this smart failure, so they probably figured I could relate to this one very well.

What the Hell: As my friends suspected, I actually liked it, only not as much as Sideways. The first reason is obvious: Ellen Page. Ever since her vengeful innocent girl role in Hard Candy, I knew I’d be stalking her movies. I’m a little confused with this role though. She’s a Young Republican, a Stanford passer, a right on sarcastic kid, very angsty, but she wears a Japanese schoolgirl skirt (at least in the poster). The characterizations are just difficult to align–one moment she’s smoking marijuana for the first time and the other she’s desperately kissing his dad’s adopted brother (Thomas Haden Church). Now, I’m more like Church’s character recently. If asked the Wanted question “What the fuck have you done lately?” I’d probably say something like “I watched a documentary about Helvetica.” while holding a bottle of Pale Pilsen. If there’s anything in it that reminded me of Sideways (as it’s made by the same producers), it’s not Church (who played the bestfriend in the latter movie) but Dennis Quaid playing this middle-aged douche professor who falls from the fence of a car impounding area. And nothing much. Although more cocky, Quaid’s character lacked the same vigour as Paul Giamatti’s. And the same judgment holds true even if I don’t compare. Oh, and there’s Sarah Jessica Parker too who wouldn’t even take off her bra for a love scene.

What I Really Think: There’s something about recent Canadian movies that I’ve seen, and I like it. They have this tone which isn’t quite Hollywood while they’re not indie either. Whatever it is, it’s still an expanding kind of moviemaking that’s not bombastic but thought-provoking, funny in a non-slapstick way but not smug at all, having premieres in venues like Sundance but usually showing up in local theatres too. Although Smart People doesn’t rank to my esteem for Sideways or the epic Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, I’d still ask friends to watch it. I feel no shame in keeping it for my DVD album which almost reeks like a grindhouse lineup anyway.

My Dibidi Ma’am, Dibidi Ser Rating: 3/5

Movie poster after the jump.

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4 Comments | Canadian, DVD's, Movies

So the Cinemalaya 2008 awards have already been given at CCP last Sunday. And we think there’s no better time to watch the film entries than next week when the festival moves to UP Film Center as Cinemalaya Plus. Although it’s a little late, you can choose more wisely which ones to see, the UP screenings have been traditionally cheaper, and (for us) it’s more accessible than CCP. Plus retrospectives for director Manual Conde and actress Anita Linda. Plus the recent years’ Best Picture winners. Plus an Adolf Alix premiere.

On top of our list is Best Picture Jay which also gave alleged sexual harasser Baron Geisler a jury nod for his leading role. For now, we’ll try to forget about his assholery at the Pinoy Big Brother house and concentrate more on the possibility of a Tabing Ilog matinee idol turned serious indie film thespian. After all, when it’s Baron playing producer Jay making a documentary on a murdered gay teacher Jay, it must be sick.

Side by side with Jay, we are not missing the Audience Choice winner 100. It is an intriguing film debut by the winning director Chris Martinez, and it stars two of our current favorite actresses–the foxy Best Actress Mylene Dizon and the hilarious Best Supporting actress Eugene Domingo. We’re expecting gut-wrenching catharsis as Mylene accomplishes the 100 things she wants to do before dying.

Tara Illenberger’s Brutus which stars Best Supporting Actor winner Yul Servo looks like an interesting and, not to mention, trendy choice for its depiction of “culture collisions in the context of environmental exploitation”. Review your little red journals now.

We’re probably seeing all short films which will be shown in just two sets anyway, but we’re watching out more closely for Best Short Film Andong from the maker of Orasyon which also won the same award in 2006. Then there’s jury-recognized My Pet (for its animation) and Angan-Angan (for tackling education issue in Mindanao). And Best Short Film Director Mark Reyes’ God Only Knows which was awarded as Audience Choice.

Check out the SCHEDULE after the jump.

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2 Comments | Film Festivals, Indie

It’s hard to describe our excitement when we scored a ticket to FHM Philippines‘ 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2008 party at World Trade Center last Thursday night. That meant we could see the country’s hottest celebrities in the flesh. Even with the no-show of ABS-CBN’s Angel Locsin and Angelica Panganiban, it was the bomb. What most caught our fancy though is how just about any sponsor could be made sexy for such an event. Here are the (we kid!) evidence:

Premiere Condoms

There’s no question some condom has got to sponsor the event and, in our opinion, they got the best models of the night. Although it’s peculiar that women had to model for the brand, we wouldn’t want it the other way either.

RRJ

No, wait. That’s not RRJ the Kitty Girls are wearing? Sorry. But really, people look at fashion brands as a mark of attractiveness (or sexiness), so there’s no problem with RRJ at all. We’re just wondering if the stuff their models wore are actually available at their shops.

San Mig Light

Now, this is why we need advertising people. Because beer, with its association to beer belly, isn’t that sexy. Oh, they added “Light”! And when you’re tipsy already, it’s hard not to love Alyssa Alano’s sexy accent? And Mystica’s (that’s not her?) split routine.

Master

If to smoothen one’s zit face, it’s easy to bring out the sexy from a young man’s astringent. Stick some toy cars on the models’ bras, and you have a Freudian fantasy incarnate.

Samba

We still find it hard to think corned beef as sexy, but with the word “Brazilian” on their brand, Mardi Gras flashes in our mind instantly. These guys just know how to get away with it. What we don’t know is how Pinoys will react if some of those in the runway are trannies too.

Surbex

Taking aside that this multivitamins brand sounds like “cervix” or “sure sex”, making it sexy is sort of a challenge. We think that explains their wide use of nipple tape.

Citizen

We really don’t know what to do with timepiece in an FHM event. That better be a watch on the model’s wrist, or we’ll assume there’s a sexual fetish for hearing “tictactictac”.

There you go, pervs folks. We hope you learned how to sexualize any brand. And we better see Meralco, PLDT, 555 Sardines and what have you on the FHM 100 sponsors list next year. Click HERE for more pics!

3 Comments | Events, Magazines

Blame us for being too young, but when we saw Mamma Mia!, we thought MILFS and DOLM (dirty old leading men). But don’t trust us. We didn’t even catch it in the cinema, and the live streaming video we watched through the Internets was 30% darker, had 50% crappier audio, and was thousand times smaller than the big screen. We didn’t even have dates, so that makes us douche reviewers. But anyway, this isn’t about us. This is about the movie our moms would probably see for a nostalgia date with our dads, if any. We’re sensitive about broken family issues, you know?

After all, it’s about this girl (Amanda Seyfried) who invites three possible dads during her wedding. And we don’t think her mom’s a slut, not at all. Meryl Streep will bring The Devil if you do. What happens is they sing. Thank you for the music that made us forget about any plot whatsoever. And they dance in trannylicious drag queen costumes. Over and over. If you’re a huge ABBA fan, the whole frenzy would give you a high. But if you’re expecting some Bond flair, be ready to get pierced through your eardrums.

What we’re saying is go see it with your mom. Chances are she’ll buy its soundtrack and you’ll be waking up to ABBA in the morning. It will put her in a good mood so you get less nagging and maybe you could get some oversleep allowance too. If the craze goes on, she’ll take some ballroom class and, if she’s single, maybe bring home a new dad too. Just don’t expect too much. You see, Mamma Mia! used to be just a song.

2 Comments | Movies

First in our Dibidi Ma’am, Dibidi Ser segment

Title: Tony Takitani (2005)
Director: Jun Ichikawa

Where We Got It: We were with our friend Faith who was looking for her weekend-filler TV series in DVD when we found this gem along Carriedo. And Haruki Murakami freaks that we are, we couldn’t say pass on this purchase. 50 bucks for a good copy–not bad although a little upscale considering the common pricing (30-40 bucks) in the area we found it. But we don’t say no to Murakami. Never.

What the Hell? Well, Murakami’s a Japanese guy. And you know how fucked up their brains are sort of differently-wired from ours. We could talk about almost all his books published in English, so why pass up on a movie adaptation of a short story we dearly loved? You could read it here, by the way. We’re much willing to see it like curling on the couch with our cat. We don’t have one, but we just said that to sound like a Murakami story. Although we’re also afraid we would curse the movie for days even if it’s really “simple”. A self-exilee trombone-player’s son, this middle-aged advertising illustrator named Tony Takitani (after an American officer) falls in love with a twenty-something fashionista. They get married, but her penchant for brand like Valentino, Missoni, Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Ferragamo, Armani, Cerruti, and Gianfranco Ferré becomes alarmingly abnormal. So Tony asks her to return some clothes she bought. Then she dies in an accident. His dad dies too, so Tony says “Huhuhu.” No, not even.

What We Really Think: To be honest, we still say pass on our judgment. But allow us to justify. First, we don’t really like comparing movie adaptations with their source media. It’s better to take them independently, but we know that we’ll end up comparing anyway. We’re confused, for example, if we want dialogue or just say OK to the narration and occasional lines blurted out by the actors. Second, we seriously love Tony Takitani not only for its off-beat characters but also for its context. We do not see this kind of character background until Murakami’s The Wind-up Bird Chronicle which is probably still his best work to date. Third, we’re afraid it was just the Ryuichi Sakamoto scoring that hypnotized us into finishing it. Quasi-sleepy attention is the term. Fourth, the visuals really got the Murakami mood–fleeting because of the continuous movement, silent because of the very shallow focusing, muted because of the predominantly grey palette, sometimes horrible and excruciating because of the lighting (not so sexy in this particular case). It could be two things: the adaptation is faithful (which is a problematic criterion) or too safe it is boring.

Our Dibidi Ma’am, Dibidi Ser Rating: 3/5

2 Comments | DVD's, Japanese, Movies

We hope that the Fight Club members are taking their first rule seriously. Coz it looks like director Timur Bekmambetov heard about them. Wanted was awesome, fine. And we actually don’t think it’s The Matrix-y. C’mon, that rug-weaving plot was so tongue-in-cheek. What a silly excuse for gore. Although that’s not to say we didn’t love the Made in Russia car stunts and bullet-curving action that just set a new bar for this type of movies.

Our problem is that It’s Fight Club-by. And Fight Club is a dangerous cult movie to mess up with. The young bachelor who seems to have everything (job, house, partner) but is just too lost (i.e. un-Googable) in a post-war, post-capitalist hyperreal world: check. The resort to harnessing and using extreme physical and psychical abilities to be The Man: check. The full control over the deeply-realized power of this superdude: check. How to go beyond that? FAIL.

Is that the movie’s open edge for a sequel? Not an excuse. In the light of Fight Club, it becomes just cute. This Wesley Gibson (James McAvoy) guy, watch him from wormy to brawny. He can be part of Fight Club. Oh, and have a peek at pretty Fox’s (Angelina Jolie) ass too. “What the fuck have you done lately?” becomes a “Hey, remember Fight Club? It’s our little secret.”

If you’re a Fight Club fanatic, we’re warning you. But if you just love cars flipping over without getting damaged or you want to see Morgan Freeman as non-god saying “Oh, fuck.” or curving un-stray bullets turn you on or you’re so broke you wanna see how to ride the train without a ticket, go see it. Now if you’ll excuse us, we just have to draw a paraffin bath.

[Also, an NSFW pic after the jump. Believe us; it's hard to find it. Better just watch the movie.]

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1 Comment | Movies

Like us, you probably don’t know what Eiga Sai means either but will most likely think of Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1950) if you hear about the ongoing Japanese Film Festival at Shangri-La. Well, it’s not in the selections, but if you liked it, consider Kenji Uchida’s A Stranger of Mine (2005). Here’s why you could relate to it taking aside that your life isn’t subtitled. WARNING: spoilers ahead.

1. Given the fact that you’re contemplating on watching it, you’re probably
a. bored
b. boring
c. both
and that’s exactly what the character Miyata is–a bored/ boring salaryman. But not until he gathers the guts to ask for a girl’s number and performs the World’s Most Awkward Gene Kelly routine without the rain, in which event he becomes
d. cooler than everybody else

2. Just like Kanda who uses his private detective skills to check on his bestfriend Miyata’s ex-girlfriend, you’re
a. wearing low-neck shirts. All the time
b. afraid of messing with the Yakuza
c. always after some money
c. a sneaky bitch/ bastard for your bestfriend.
Remember your Friendster setting which allows you to pry on your stalking victims without showing up on their profiles?

3. At one point or another, you’ll be like Maki who needs a place to stay out of nowhere, and to find one maybe you’ll have to
a. pack your entire house in a bag
b. eat with accommodating strangers
c. bow/ nod in agreement more than necessary
d. give a wrong number if they ask for it

4. You’re another Ayumi who just want some money. And to have it, you
a. dump your poor boyfriend
b. date a Yakuza boss
c. steal money from the Yakuza
d. put your undies in a briefcase and tell the Yakuza it has the money you stole

5. Or you are a Yakuza boss, but during a recession you
a. find it hard to pay your bills and your goons
b. make fake bundles of money for show
c. fool a detective to work for you free of charge
d. lose your girlfriend who betrays you for money you don’t even really have

All these you find out in the famous Rashomon fashion of alternating perspective. And really, if you find yourself answering the multiple choice questions above, see this Japanese movie adventure. You never know what people can do. Check out the festival schedule HERE.

Add a comment | Film Festivals, Japanese, Movies