Will Vilma, Boyet win in this year’s MMFF?

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‘Will history repeat itself for Vilma and Boyet in their film fest entry this coming December?’

CHRISTOPHER DE LEON and VILMA SANTOS

THE endearing love team of Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon are back on the big screen in “When I Met You in Tokyo” and they’re so glad it qualified as an official entry in the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) this Christmas Day.

Their last film together was “Mano Po 3: My Love” in 2004. It was also an entry in the MMFF that year. It won so many awards, including best picture, best actress for Ate Vi and best actor for Boyet de Leon.

“Mano Po 3” was filmed in Bangkok, Thailand. This time, their reunion movie is shot on location in Japan. Will history repeat itself for Vilma and Boyet in their film fest entry this coming December?

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“It’s all up to the judges,” said Ate Vi. “As of now, we’re just happy that we made it as an official entry sa MMFF. This is a simple love story with a good script that also touches on the lives of OFWs. It offers a lot of good insights and lessons about relationships and how it is to be an OFW.”

She is turning 70 years old (she’s the youngest-looking septuagenarian we know) on November 3. What is her birthday wish?

“It’s not just for myself, it’s for the whole film industry. We all know mahina ang mga sinehan so ang wish ko, mababaan sana ang bayad sa movie tickets, kasi yung P400 now, masyadong mahal for an ordinary wage earner. Kahit for three years man lang, para maibalik ang panonood ng mga tao sa sinehan at maibalik ang sigla ng local film industry.”

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Lovi Poe is so thankful to have a very understanding husband like Montgromery “Monty” Blencowe. “A few days after our August wedding in England, I left him to go back to work immediately and we haven’t seen each other since then,” she says. “Hopefully, I might get to see him in L.A. during the Christmas break.”

It’s an open book that she has had many boyfriends before. So what makes Monty stand out from all the rest?

“It’s hard to explain, but the fact that he’s the one I chose to marry says a lot. I’m so proud of him and all his accomplishments as a scientist. Even my mother and my sister, they like him.”

Any plans to have a baby soon?

“None yet. We’re still getting used to the idea of being married and right now, we’re much more focused on our work and just being together. So starting our own family would have to wait.”

Lovi had a special lunch with the press as the jewelry line she is endorsing, Imono, is launching its holiday collection for the coming Yuletide season. Its owner-designer, Goldy Hing, expressed her admiration for Lovi as a singer and an actress.

“Her talent has really grown a lot since she joined showbiz and she’s one of our finest celebrities today,” says Goldy. “We really made the right choice in selecting her as our brand ambassador.”

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We are glad the last two local films shown in cinemas did well at the tills: “Five Breakups and a Romance” and “A Very Good Girl.”

In “Five Breakups,” both Alden Richards and Julia Montes deliver first-rate performances as the dysfunctional lovers in a story that is a sensitive examination of a painful relationship that didn’t work.

Suckers for the obligatory happy ending will surely be disappointed, but viewers who enjoy “mapanakit” movies with heartbreaking endings, like the past works of Villamor, will no doubt relish all the copious tears effortlessly shed by Alden and Julia in this heartbreaker.

Villamor’s script is so well written that we really get to care and sympathize with her characters. The same cannot be said of “A Very Good Girl.” Whereas “Five Breakups” is grounded in the reality of failed relationships, “Good Girl” is an escapist revenge fantasy that is not convincingly realized. They really spent much for its pricey production values, but the revenge story reminds us of similarly themed local movies like “Nuuk” and “Untrue” where Aga Muhlach and Cristine Reyes both go to an extremely great extent to carry out their very elaborate vengeance scheme that only the gullible would buy.

Also, pardon us when we say that Dolly de Leon is miscast in the role of a filthy rich woman. She just fails to project the grandiosity and imperiousness that the role requires.

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A very rich woman will also surely attend quickly to her overlapping (sungki) lower teeth and consult an orthodontist to straighten them. Everyone who also saw the movie was saying the late Cherie Gil would have been much more credible in such a role. Dolly is certainly much better off playing the toilet cleaner in “Triangle of Sadness” and as the poor dying mother in “Keys to the Heart.”

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