BY now, the whole nation has already tasted the fishy side of Marian Rivera in Mars Ravelo’s Dyesebel, her new prime-time telefantasya on GMA that premiered Monday night. For sure, everybody wants more of her. If Marimar introduced her to the Filipino audiences and sent her nascent career through the roof, Dyesebel will surely fortify her No. 1 status in the prime-time slot. “I don’t want to expect. All of us in the production only want to make it good so that TV viewers will love Dyesebel. We only aspire to make them happy,” she told the BusinessMirror during the recent press launch at the Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza in Pasay City.

For first-timers, Dyesebel is simply about a mermaid who falls in love with a human being. It’s not unlike that classic The Little Mermaid, only this time everything happens in the Philippine countryside. And instead of a prince, our kind of mermaid falls for a rich guy. So there’s the usual soap-operatic premise of poor girl-meets-rich-boy, only in Dyesebel’s case, she’s a poor mermaid. The challenge is to make things work between them. She is given a chance to have human feet instead of a fish tail, but at a steep price.

Dyesebel was originally a story written for komiks, once the most popular form of entertainment in the Philippines way back when television, much more the Internet and YouTube, were just, well, something out of fantasyland or science fiction.

MINUS THE FISH TAIL Marian Rivera returns to primetime TV as the classic heroine Dyesebel. --Photographed by GELBERT APLAL OF ROUGESTUDIO

Komiks then were the national pasttime, and Dyesebel was a series that lasted for more than a year. The series was so popular that it was elevated into legendary proportions. As part of Filipino pop culture, Dyesebel the mermaid became and remains as popular as Darna (another Ravelo creation), the sexy superheroine who can fly and possesses strong superpowers like America’s Wonder Woman.

From the 1950s up to the mid-’90s, there were lots of film versions of Dyesebel. The first Dyesebel was Edna Luna (1953) opposite Rogelio de la Rosa and directed by the late National Artist for Film Gerardo de Leon. Ravelo actually wrote a sequel, Anak ni Dyesebel, which was also made into a film in 1963, with a certain Eva Montes in the lead role, named Alona. 

It was followed in 1973 (Dyesebel at ang Mahiwagang Kabibe) with Vilma Santos in the title role, directed by Emmanuel H. Borlaza.

In 1978 there was the commanding Sisid, Dyesebel, Sisid, starring Alma Moreno. As a trivia, this was considered the weirdest version, lasting three hours. Dyesebel was born to a rich family, while Fredo was a certified womanizer. All throughout the film, she was on land, sitting on a wheelchair with her lower extremities covered. It also had an adult theme, given the milieu in which it was made. One critic said it was the driest Dyesebel ever.

No wonder it was only in 1990 when another Dyesebel was made, starring Alice Dixon. This Dyesebel had the first real underwater scenes. It is believed to have been more inspired by the Hollywood flick Splash, starring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah, than the Ravelo story.

In 1996 there was the Charlene Gonzalez version. Again for trivia addicts, this film also had Judy Ann Santos as the little Dyesebel and Carmina Villaroel as the teenage Dyesebel.

For a short period on television, Ara Mina also played Dyesebel in a special appearance in another Mars Ravelo classic, Darna, a hit series on GMA in 2005.

With all these behind her, does the present Dyesebel feel any pressure?

“It can’t be helped that the comparisons will be there. It’s OK with me, as long as while people are watching the new version, they’re all happy. I can’t say who is my favorite Dyesebel, because I haven’t seen all of them. I got a chance to watch the one with Alice Dixon and I was amazed because she was very beautiful and she was so good swimming with that heavy fishtail,” Marian said, her eyes sparkling at the recollection.

And then there are the intrigues. A tabloid columnist-editor asked her if she was aware that the role was first offered to Anne Curtis, a Kapamilya talent, and that ABS-CBN is also preparing a major production to “topple” Dyesebel. The words used were: “They will forget how to swim upon seeing our telefantasya.”

“I’m not aware. I don’t know where that came from. I’m so busy swimming underwater,” she said, giggling. “Our focus is to swim. I know we can’t please everyone. What’s important is the people will love and trust us. I am very much thankful to GMA that this role was given to me. I’ve never been so blessed.”

She went on sharing those moments she had difficulty underwater, like the times when the undercurrent was so strong for her to act. There was also that moment when, in sheer exhaustion, she broke into uncontrollable sobs asking director Joyce Bernal when her character would acquire legs and feet.

“Yes, that happened. I asked her, ‘Kailan ako magiging tao?’ Kasi sobrang hirap talaga. There was also another shoot in Coron, Palawan, when the undercurrent was again unbelievable. I went up on land and excused myself to cry for a few minutes. But that was it. Kailangan ko lang ilabas, mag-emote. When I finally did the underwater scenes, I was so glad when I saw the playback on TV. They were so beautiful.”

Naturally, she was guided by scuba divers. To keep her at ease underwater, they brought her further down, about 40 feet, to see the corals, colorful fishes and anything beautiful that moves. Once she became at home down there, everything went on smoothly, almost naturally.

Because of that, she looks forward to the days when they’re going to shoot underwater again somewhere in Batangas and Pangasinan. Dyesebel is projected to run for six months. 

All in all, she described her role as “pilya (naughty). I am the naughty Dyesebel. That’s my answer to your question a while ago. Direk Joyce gave me the freedom to improvise. I have lines that aren’t on the script. That’s why I love this role a lot and working with people like Direk Joyce.”

Joyce Bernal, also in a naughty mood, described Marian as “tarantada ’yan eh. Mabait at masunuring bata s’ya. May ibubuga bilang artista. Pero tarantada ’yan.”

With tarantada, she could only mean a lovable mermaid.

And nothing fishy there.

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