HEAVEN Peralejo got rave reviews for her performance as the sugar baby who fights for her life in the thriller “Nanahimik ang Gabi.” She now has a follow-up project with Viva One, “The Rain in España,” a ten-episode mini-series to start streaming on May 1. This is based on the hit University series of novels on Wattpad written by Gwy Saludes.
This early, those who have read the book are asking how faithful they are to the original novel. “We remained generally faithful to the book, but we have to change some details kasi iba naman ang binabasa mo lang sa book sa napapanood mo on the screen,” she said.
“But ‘yung essence, ‘yung strength ng character ni Luna as a woman, nandun pa rin ‘yun.”
Heaven as Luna in the story is an architecture student in UST. She has feelings for an Ateneo student, Kalix Martinez, who comes from a family of doctors but now wants to be a lawyer. He is played by Marco Gallo. Heaven and Marco have already worked together as housemates in “Pinoy Big Brother.”
Together, they will go through various emotional experiences in this coming-of-age story, journeying into adulthood with a keen sense of adventure. They will be going steady but break up later, then meet again some years after when they’re already both working professionals, with Kalix being hired as legal consultant in the company where Heaven works.
Their love story has so many “kilig” moments that will surely make viewers fall in love. Don’t miss it on Viva One this May 1.
***
The actor stars with Ryza Cenon in a movie that talks about being in love with the same person through different lifetimes.
Xian Lim is paired for the first time with Ryza Cenon in “Sa Muli,” a film about reincarnation where he plays three characters. He is Victor in the 1900s, Nicolas in the 1950s and Pep in the present time.
In each of these periods, he falls in love with the same woman: Aurora in the 1900s, Belen in the 1950s and Elly in modern times. All of them are played by Ryza Cenon. So how is it working with Ryza?
“Si Ryza, very focused sa work niya,” he says. “Game face lagi siya. Ako, makulit. Joke-joke ako, para light lang. But her being a serious actress helped us a lot in getting our respective characters easily.”
Does he believe in reincarnation? “I do. Wala namang masama kasi anything is possible, ‘di ba? And may friends ako who also believe in reincarnation.”
Is it true that “KimXi” fans, supporters of his love team with Kim Chiu, do not approve of his being paired with Ryza? “No, they’re very supportive nga. The fans know naman that we are both taken na. There’s also no use to link Ryza and I just to help promote the movie. The movie will stand by itself kasi maganda talaga siya, so panoorin nyo na agad when it opens in theaters nationwide on April 26.”
***
Regal Entertainment produced the big hit BL (boys’ love) series, “Ben X Jim” with Jerome Ponce and Teejay Marquez. They now come up with a new BL series with a new batch of fresh faces, “The Day I Loved You,” directed by Easy Ferrer who also did “Ben X Jim.”
“Ben X Jim” is topbilled by Tommy Alejandrino, who won last year’s Cinemalaya Film Festival best actor award for “The Baseball Player,” where he played the title role, a young Muslim teenager caught in the war in Mindanao.
Like Elijah Canlas, he studied at the Philippine High School for the Arts. Elijah was one year ahead of him. He started as a theater actor in school then he did the acclaimed play “Nay, May Dala Akong Pansit,” at the CCP.
He has also finished two other new films for director Adolf Alix, “Pieta” and “Acetylene Love” and for Jay Altarejos, he did “Finding Daddy Blake,” which is also about boys’ love.
He is now shooting the historical film, “Gomburza,” produced by Ateneo’s Jesuit Communications.
In “The Day I Loved You,” he plays Nikko, who experiences first love with his classmate. As his partner, they imported Asian heartthrob Raynold Tan from Singapore as Eli. His shows are hits in Viu Singapore and Mediacorp Network and he has millions of followers on Tiktok where he’s known as @raytyr. This starts streaming on Regal’s Youtube channel tomorrow, April 26.
