ONE film that we are excited to watch is Jerrold Tarog’s Heneral Luna, which opens in select cinemas on September 9.
We have always made time to watch Tarog’s movies since we caught Confessional, an entry to the 2007 CinemaOne Originals Film Festival. In particular, we were impressed with the “Punerarya” episode of the 2012 instalment of Shake, Rattle & Roll, and we reckon that his 2013 Cinemalaya film Sana Dati is one very polished and engaging work, and a personal favorite.
Now comes Heneral Luna, a project he started years ago, and cowrote with E.A. Rocha and Mark Francia. It stars the almost 50-year-old John Arcilla playing a thirtysomething historical figure as important but not as popular as Andres Bonifacio, Jose Rizal or Emilio Aguinaldo.
Just looking at the trailer and going through the names of the star-studded cast will give you an idea that this is a well-planned undertaking. Take these names: Art Acuña, Mon Confiado, Aaron Villaflor, Nonie Buencamino, Joem Bascon, Ronnie Lazaro, Jeffrey Quizon, Ketchup Eusebio, Alvin Anson, Lorenz Martinez and Leo Martinez.
Two women actors add luster to the almost all-male cast: Mylene Dizon, who takes on the short role of the title character’s love interest; and Bing Pimentel, who agreed to wear prosthetics and endure long hours of makeup in order to play mother to the general.
A week before its Philippine premiere, the film, which has been given an A-rating by the Cinema Evaluation Board, has already been made commercially available to Filipino film followers in special screenings held in New York, Washington, D.C.; Maryland, Los Angeles and San Francisco. There are talks of bringing the film to many more Filipino communities all over the world.
We heard that many schools are already making arrangements with the producers of the film, so that it can be screened to their students. This is a good sign that academe is plenty interested in the movie, and many students will be able to see the film and understand history in a different way.
There are also talks that the film might be the country’s entry to the 2016 Oscars for consideration in the foreign language category.
GOING GLOBAL
Patience is, indeed, a virtue that actress Mercedes Cabral believes in. And after almost 8 years in the acting business, 2015 is undoubtedly shaping up to be a very good year for the dusky beautiful actress.
A few months ago, Mercedes won her first major best actress plum at the World Premiere Film Festival (Filipino Cinema Category) for her quiet but strong performance in Alvin Yapan’s An Kubo sa Kawayanan.
She also showed class as an actress in Ralston Jover’s Da Dog Show, which we caught in the recent Cinemalaya Festival.
Another piece of good news is that Mercedes has been working on the daily morning drama Ningning on ABS-CBN for some weeks now. We remember a few years ago when Mercedes felt so bad after being publicly ridiculed by a network executive. She used that particular experience to work to her advantage and continued to focus on becoming an actress of top caliber.
She also headlined and got rave reviews in the Danish film Rosita and very soon, Mercedes will start working on the Swedish film, titled Tilt, by writer-director Samir Arabzdeh.
We are happy for Mercedes and her manager Shandi Bacolod for making very good strategic career choices. She’s beginning to reap the fruits of years of hard work, struggles and dedication as an actor. Mercedes Cabral is, indeed, going global.
TAKING BIG STEPS
Initially, we thought Anna Luna was a screen name. While growing up in the 1970s, two of the more popular evening dramas were Anna Liza and Flor de Luna, so we reckoned that whoever was managing this new actress might have combined the names of these two television characters for her onscreen moniker. We were wrong.
Her name is Anna, and Luna is her surname. For real. And lately, she has been making noise as a promising actress both in TV, theater and film.
A few months ago, Anna was in the cast of the box-office hit headlined by Piolo Pascual and Sarah Geronimo, The Break Up Playlist. She was also a regular fixture in the successful daytime teen drama Oh My G!
We also caught her in the highly acclaimed theater production of Arbol de Fuego, where she pitted talents with the likes of Angeli Bayani, Jake Macapagal, Bembol Roco and Cherie Gil.
Over the weekend, we saw Anna in the new Cinema One TV series Single/Single, and we’re just glad she is taking big steps to her dream of becoming a recognized actress.
Way to go, Anna Luna.