RHIAN Ramos is back in a new teleserye, “Artikulo 247,” that now airs on GMA. She plays the lead role of Jane Ortega. “I love my role as a young career woman who made the mistake of falling in love with a married man, Victor Silayan as Alfred,” she says. “I thought he’s separated from his wife Claire, portrayed by Kris Bernal. It turns out she wants to reconcile with him, but ayaw na ni Victor kasi si Kris ang unang nangaliwa. Our love triangle becomes very messy, ending up in murder.”
Kris attacks Rhian but it’s Victor who she gets to stab and kill. For this, she’s sentenced to prison but she invokes Artikulo 247 of the revised penal code, which says anyone who kills or harm his or her spouse who’s caught cheating cannot be imprisoned but just punished by destierro or exile to another place.
Rhian then meets Benjamin Alves as Noah Borromeo, who is heartbroken as his girlfriend just died. They become close as they console each other. Rhian later meets Ben’s brother, Mike Herras as Elijah, and she is so shocked when she meets Mike’s girlfriend, Kris who now sports a new identity and a new name, Carmen.
She and Kris have many fight scenes. “Yes, very demanding scenes ‘yung mga away namin as it’s very physical. Nagkasakitan talaga kami. But it can’t be helped kasi ayaw naming dayain and after each scene, we quickly check on each other and say sorry.”
The show is directed by Joron Lee Monroy who Rhian had worked with before in “Truly Madly Deeply” in “I Can See You,” where she played the role of a killer that is now the role of Kris Bernal in “Artikulo 247.”
***
Bianca Umali celebrated her 22nd birthday on March 2 and her social media accounts were flooded with warm greetings, with the best greeting coming from her boyfriend, Ruru Madrid, who calls her his moon while he is her sun. Earlier, there were reports that they’ve called it quits but, apparently, this is simply not true, as evidenced by their latest Instagram photos showing them together as Bianca celebrates her birthday and wishing her with “the sweetest of birthdays.”
Obviously, they heeded the advice of well-meaning friends and of GMA to lie low about the real score in their relationship since they’re not being pushed as a love team. They currently have different teleseryes that they’re taping now. Ruru is busy with his action-adventure fantasy series, “Lolong.”
Bianca, in turn, topbills the new “Mano Po Legacy” series titled “Her Big Boss,” which replaces “The Family Fortune” with Barbie Forteza that ended recently. A co-production between GMA-7 and Regal Entertainment, Bianca will have new leading men in her teleserye, Ken Chan and Kelvin Miranda.
She will also soon be seen in the HBO series, “Half Worlds,” directed by Mikhail Red, as Alex, a young girl who is half-human and half-encanto. She will be tasked to find the original source of a rare plant that will heal the Encantos and eradicate their hunger for human flesh.
***
‘But the bar was set high by Mac Alejandre’s very audacious “Silip sa Apoy” with its stars Angeli Khang, Sid Lucero and Paolo Gumabao doing nude love scenes that leave very little to the imagination.’
We heard that Vivamax movies noted for their explicit sex scenes have been told to tone it down. This move will be a game changer as Vivamax subscribers have come to expect the most salacious scenes in their releases.
The films of director Roman Perez Jr. “Taya,” “Siklo” and “Hugas” all became number one in the streaming channel because of their unabashed nudity. But the bar was set high by Mac Alejandre’s very audacious “Silip sa Apoy” with its stars Angeli Khang, Sid Lucero and Paolo Gumabao doing nude love scenes that leave very little to the imagination.
Angeli is really quite brazen and she has a scene where she is shown ironing clothes without a stitch on, while Paolo is shown caressing his own organ while peeping on Angeli and Sid as they pound each other in bed. After Angeli’s “Silip,” the next movies are no longer as daring. In “The Wife,” the love scenes of Diego Loyzaga with both Louise de los Reyes and Cara Gonzales are quite tame.
In fairness to writer-director Denise O’Hara, the basic story of “The Wife” is quite intriguing. It’s about a wife and her husband’s mistress who start as enemies but later become the best of friends when they both have no choice but to become caregivers of the dying husband.
If this were done during the time of the love triangle dramas in the ‘70s, this would be an ideal vehicle for the formidable triumvirate of Lolita Rodriguez, Eddie Rodriguez and Marlene Dauden. But now, as made by Vivamax, there is absolutely no dramatic chemistry between Louise, Diego and Cara. The sex scenes were obviously obligated since this is a Vivamax release, but it does look so tepid compared to their other past films.
Other recent releases that viewers met with not much enthusiasm are “Eva” by Jeffrey Hidalgo, “Palitan” and “Sisid” by Brillante Mendoza, “Reroute” by Lawrence Fajardo, “Kinsenas Katapusan” by GB Sampedro.
“Eva” is full of nudity but strangely, the sex scenes don’t really come out as sensuously erotic. We think it’s because it has weak male leads that one writer says “parehong walang gaanong appeal.” We hope Vivamax would develop more attractive leading men. It’s good viewers have accepted Sean de Guzman and Vince Rillon even if they’re both petite. They need tall and more well-built actors who are willing to match the shamelessness of their sexy leading ladies.
