WRITER-DIRECTOR Joey Reyes is back with a four-part mini-series, “Secret Campus.” It assembles four of the top actresses on the Vivamax stable today: Azi Acosta, Angela Morena, Ataska and Angelica Hart. Is there really a chat site like “Secret Campus”?
“I saw the websites where students can post their most intimate feelings,” says Joey. “They write about their relationships na hindi nila mailalabas sa mainstream. So the stories here are based on their experiences.”
The first episode stars Azi as an orphan raised by her aunt who is now bedridden and wants her to quit school to be her personal caregiver.
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The second episode features Ataska as a sweet girl from Davao who studies in Manila. Feeling lonely with no family or friend around, she develops a crush on her professor that turns to obsession.
Angelica stars in episode 3. Coming from a broken family, she lives alone in Manila and supports herself by doing livestream videos until she is enticed into prostitution.
Angela in episode 4 finds it hard to adjust to college life and just keeps to herself. As she eats alone near the ladies’ room, she catches campus queen bee and her boyfriend having sex in the cubicle and for this, she’s severely punished but she gets back on them. Don’t miss all four episodes, starting August 27.
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Cavite Rep. Lani Mercado returned to acting in her husband Sen. Bong Revilla’s action-comedy “Walang Matigas na Pulis sa Matinik na Misis” and the reception from viewers was great.
“Nakakatuwa nga dahil maraming nakagusto ng episode that I did with Sen. Bato de la Rosa,” she says.
Did she miss acting? “Oh yes. My last series was ‘Strawberry Lane’ in 2014 pa. Siempre, iba na ang priorities ko as a public servant. Tapos, nandiyan pa ang family ko. But now, siguro, baka puede na kasi malalaki na rin ang mga anak namin. So baka puede nang maisingit na umarte uli.”
She will be a grandmother again as her son Jolo’s wife, Angelica Alita, is now anticipating. “Nakakatuwa nga, our family is growing.”
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‘The lead characters are very well delineated and you will really root for them, both imperfect people just like the rest of us.’
JC Santos and BELA PADILLA
Bela Padilla and JC Santos have done four dramas. This time, they do a romcom, “Wish You Were the One.”
Bela plays a girl from a broken family while JC is an only child with serious anger management issues. They meet at a same-sex wedding in Tagaytay where they have to pretend they are an engaged couple as their exes are there.
In the course of the wedding reception, they realize they compliment each other and maybe are meant to be together, even if they just met each other on that day. Normally, this kind of instant love affair will be difficult to buy but, to be fair to screenwriter Enrico Santos, he has a well-written script. The lead characters are very well delineated and you will really root for them, both imperfect people just like the rest of us.
Since the movies of the Bela-JC tandem always have an unhappy ending, there’s a tear-soaked sequence here that will meet such expectations of the audience.
The film works mainly because the two leads give winning performances. JC perfectly fits the role of the edgy, easily agitated, but very vulnerable Ellis. He matches Bela tear for tear and in her madcap scenes, like in their dancing sequence.
As for Bela, she is given the chance here to do comedy and she most certainly shines in all her comic scenes. She executes the rapid-fire delivery of her lines with an assured casualness and her comic delivery is just flawless. Don’t leave the theater right away as after the lachrymal ending, there is another happier conclusion during the closing credits.
