MS. EUGENE DOMINGO, ANG BABAE SA 2016 MMFF.
Among the full-length features that Lead shortlisted as furtively submitting entries to the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival, it is only the entralling Ang Babae sa Septic Tank #Forever Is Not Enough that made it to the Magic Eight.
Ms. Eugene Domingo’s only film for 2016, she reprises her 2011 blockbuster indie film with Kean Cipriano as Rainier and Cai Cortez as Jocelyn now with Khalil Ramos as Lennon plus the participation of special guest artists Joel Torre, Jericho Rosales and Agot Isidro with Joyce Bernal and Inigo Pascual in cameo roles.
Script is by Chris Martinez and direction by Marlon Rivera as produced by the Martinez Rivera Films and Quantum Films in association with TBA film.
ANTHONY DIAZ V’S BIGGEST BREAK.
The Philippine premiere of Filipino-American auteur Anthony Diaz V’s smashing debut feature Break on Saturday, November 19, at Cinema 3, Power Plant Mall in Rockwell will not be followed by screenings in the local commercial cineplex circuit.
As it aims to premiere first in Sundance Film Festival that works on first screening basis explains Anthony Diaz, the executive producer, who is the American-Saipanese father of lead actor-writer-director-editor Anthony Diaz V. “We’ll know by December if Break gets accepted by Sundance as founded by actor-director Robert Redford.”
As Diaz’s first step to bigger platforms, the prestige will of Sundance, the most prestigious film festival in the world, will result to global recognition. You see, more film buyers and distributors attend Sundance than any other film festival in the world. This will make Break more marketable in the world film market.
“This is actually my first full-length feature,” explains Diaz. “I’ve always been passionate with film since I was a kid. I would always have movie nights with my family or with my father. I was always interested in and wondering (about) the characters’ motivation and what they are in stories.
“I’ve done a lot of short films in college and high school and middle school. Break started out as short film entitled Lunch Break that I made when I was 17 with friends in Las Vegas. I do stories that are very controversial. I like to do stories that actually people are afraid to tell.”
With an English and Japanese-speaking actors, the cast is led by Diaz with Namihiko Omura, Kaede Ishizuka and Tohru Watanabe who acts as Johnny’s father in a special guest appearance. He presently plays an active role as a multi-talented actor and has a chairmanship with a popular Japanese TV program.
Asude from Watanabe, breaking their first international appearance as actor in a feature film are Ishizuka, Japanese rapper Ish-One, American rapper Crazy-T, Shinya Arai, Kai Yusaku, and Ayaka Sonoda.
Ish-One and Crazy-T infuse hip-hop into the movie soundtrack and collaborate on songs that can be heard throughout the film.
Produced by Kaizen Studios, production cost was under P1 million as the cast did not collect talent fees.
Blending American storytelling with Japanese cinema aesthetics with touches of hip-hop cum rap, Diaz plays Johnny, the central character who is confused, fierce but loving, a young American-Japanese with a cancer-stricken American mother and a Japanese father. They move from America to Japan to seek better medical attention for his mother. But she succumbs to the disease and dies. His father falls into depression and can’t take care of him as he has turned into a rebel.
The struggles of his character do not end there. He fails to adapt to Japanese culture. Everything being so strict and straight, his America upbringing interfere. Culture clash results that brings alienation and loneliness as he breaks the line with Tokyo’s underworld elements.
With a very Asian appeal, Break starts as an involving film about Tokyo as we know it and the storyline takes us to its inner streets and then to their bowels. The reverting storyline about identity, romance and acceptance proceeds and turns into an unpredictable tragedy.
Diaz fits the character as his features are a blend of American and Saipanese genes that resemble the Japanese traits. Very promising as an actor, his dramatic range sufficiently fulfills the needs of a debuting actor who is also his own director.
Cinematography and editing make Break a one shattering experience. The feature is testimony that Diaz knows his medium well. Producing a very visual two-hour film, he knows how to make the ordinary look different in a special way.
But Diaz’s biggest break no doubt is coming up with a flawless Hollywood style film that is world class.
MOTHER LILY, ANG BABAENG WALA SA 2016 MMFF.
Mother Lily Monteverde of Regal Entertainment entered Mano Po 7: Chinoy, a Richard Yap starrer, the seventh franchise of the engrossing Mano Po saga, in the 2016 MMFF. Attending the announcement of the Magic Eight of the reformatted filmfest, she just let it go when she found out it was not picked.
Despite her immense contribution to the success of the MMFF and its larger application, Philippine cinema, Mother Lily turns out to be its biggest woman missing this year.
The Vice Ganda-Coco Martin starrer, Super Parental Guardians, Vic Sotto’s Enteng Kabisote 10 and the Abangers, Ai Ai delas Alas’ Our Mighty Yaya and Vhong Navarro’s Mang Kepweng Returns also did not make it to the MMFF.
The AlDub (Alden Richards-Yaya Dub), LizQuen (Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil) and JaDine (James Reid-Nadine Lustre) entries are missing, too. So is Moonlight Over Baler starring Ellen Adarna, Vin Abrenica, Sophie Albert and Elizabeth Oropesa.
The Mano Po anthology that focuses on the ways and traditions of the Chinese-Filipino community has had six movies that includes Ako Legal Wife and Bahay Kubo (A Pinoy Mano Po). All are directed by Joel Lamangan except Mano Po 2 (2003), which was helmed by Erik Matti.
Mano Po is the most successful film series produced in the history of Philippine cinema, second only to the Shake, Rattle & Roll franchise, also produced by Mother Lily, which has a total of 15 films, each with three episodes. Shake, Rattle & Roll 7 in 2005 kicked off Mother Lily’s official participation to the 31st MMFF.
Co-headlined by Jean Garcia, Jake Cuenca, Janella Salvador, Kean Cipriano and Marlo Mortel as directed by Chinoy Ian Loreñas, Mano Po 7: Chinoy shows the struggles of the Chinese-Filipino from a male point of view. The first seven installments are centered on women and female subjects and issues.
Selected scenes were shot in no less than China.
Lead projects a festival-like event of unaccepted films before or after the 2016 MMFF that will challenge its gross receipts.
↧
Riveting all the way
↧