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The Metro Manila Film Festival has a history of controversies. This year's edition, its 37th, has been no different, as a number of complaints followed the choices made by the Metro Manila festival's 11-member jury, which included a bus driver, a teacher, a student, and a housewife. Topmost among those, reports the inquirer.net, were negative comments about the omission from the roster of nominees of two people involved in the making of the feminist period drama Rosario: actor-turned-director Albert Martinez and, especially, star Jennylyn Mercado (photo). Director Wenn V. Deramas and lead actress Ai-Ai delas Alas won in their respective categories for the comedy Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last Na 'To) at a ceremony held last Sunday evening. The other Best Actress nominees were Marian Rivera for Super Inday and the Golden Bibe and Carla Abellana for the omnibus horror film Shake, Rattle and Roll Xii. Another controversy...

Toplining popular Filipino players Ramon 'Bong' Revilla and Vic Sotto, Tony Reyes' Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote was the top box-office grosser on the first day of the 2010/2011 Metro Manila Film Festival, according to philstar.com. Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote took in P31m ($705k) on Dec. 25. It was followed by the Ai-Ai delas Alas comedy Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last Na 'To!), which swept the Metro Manila Film Festival awards. Directed by Wenn V. Deramas, the third installment in the Ang Tanging Ina Mo series earned P20m ($455k). In third place was the Kris Aquino horror vehicle Dalaw with P12.5m ($284k), followed by another horror effort, Shake, Rattle & Roll Xii, with P11.8m ($268k), and the 3D animated feature RPG: Metanoia with P5.1m ($116k). At no. 6, Super Inday and the Golden Bibe, starring Marian Rivera and John Lapus, collected P4.7 million ($107k...

Directed by Wenn V. Deramas and starring comedienne Ai-Ai delas Alas, Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last Na 'To) topped the 2010/2011 Metro Manila Film Festival Awards. The third and reportedly last feature in the Ang Tanging Ina Mo comedy series, Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last Na 'To) won a total of eight awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (delas Alas), Best Supporting Actress (Eugene Domingo), and Best Screenplay (Mel del Rosario). [List of 2011 Metro Manila Film Festival winners.] In Ang Tanging Ina Mo (Last Na 'To), delas Alas plays a woman who, following a freak accident (she falls off a roof), is told she has only about eight months to live. After slapping her doctor, she goes nearly nuts when she starts having visions of her ex-husbands. And how will she tell the sad news to her children? Upon accepting her Best Actress award, Ai-Ai delas Alas joked that [...]...

Metro Manila Film Festival Awards: Comedy Rules Best Picture: Ang Tanging Ina Mo, (Last Na 'To!) 2nd Best Picture: Rosario 3rd Best Picture: RPG Metanoia Best Director: Wenn V. Deramas, Ang Tanging Ina Mo, (Last Na 'To!) Best Actress: Ai-Ai delas Alas, Ang Tanging Ina Mo, (Last Na 'To!) Best Actor: Dolphy, Father Jejemon Best Supporting Actress: Eugene Domingo, Ang Tanging Ina Mo, (Last Na 'To!) Best Supporting Actor: Dolphy, Rosario Best Screenplay: Mel del Rosario, Ang Tanging Ina Mo, (Last Na 'To!) Best Cinematography: Carlo Mendoza, Rosario Best Editing: John Wong, Rosario Best Musical Score: Jesse Lasatem, Ang Tanging Ina Mo, (Last Na 'To!) Best Theme Song: "Kaya Ko", RPG Metanoia Best Production Design: Joel Luna and Miki Hahn, Rosario Best Sound Recording: Ambient Media, RPG Metanoia and Ditoy Aguila, Super Inday and the Golden Bibe Best Visual Effects: Rico Gutierrez and Co., Si Agimat at si Enteng Kabisote...

The story of Laurice Guillen's Sa'yo Lamang is hardly new. An imperfect but seemingly stable family disintegrates into chaos as one by one, the family members figure serious conflicts and secrets, whether from the past or the present, conveniently unravel, threatening the sheen of normalcy that has sustained the family through the years. From Jeffrey Jeturian's low-budgeted but elegantly staged Sana Pag-ibig Na (Enter Love, 1998), to Wenn Deramas' lowbrow yet unpretentiously enjoyable Ang Tanging Ina (The Only Mother, 2003), to Joel Lamangan's middling and intolerably weepy Filipinas (2003), to Brillante Mendoza's highbrow and provocatively stirring Serbis (Service, 2008), the Filipino family has been exposed, crumbling in the midst of dire needs or expanding generation gaps or the simple passage of time.

 

The family, considered as an invaluable social element, is a persisting Filipino need. In the absence of it, a typical Filipino, in his desire to find personal comfort...

All it took was a solar eclipse and five-car collision atop the Magnetic Hill for the souls of five individuals --- the virginal bride-to-be (Angelica Panganiban), her histrionically litigious godmother (Eugene Domingo), her ringbearer's destitute nanny (Tuesday Vargas), her husband-to-be's amorous grandfather (Jaime Fabregas), and her gay beautician (John Lapuz) --- to switch bodies. With the bride-to-be's soul transferring to the godmother's body; the godmother's soul transferring to the nanny's body; the nanny's soul transferring to the grandfather's body; the grandfather's soul transferring to the beautician's body; and the beautician's soul transferring to the bride-to-be's body, the dream beach wedding turns into a hilarious riot, where long-dormant passions are awakened, sexual fantasies are fulfilled, economic alleviation is achieved, and a chance at love is obtained.

 

Let us get it out of the way. Chris Martinez's Here Comes the Bride is top-notch entertainment. Martinez was able to come up with...