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May Minamahal
English Title: Loving Someone
Year of Release: 1993
Director & Screenwriter: Jose Javier Reyes
Producer: Star Cinema
Cast: Aga Muhlach, Aiko Melendez, Boots Anson-Roa, Ronaldo Valdez, Claudine Barretto, Agot Isidro, Nikka Valencia, Aljon Jimenez, John Estrada, Bimbo Bautista, Liza Lorena, Marita Zobel, Ramil Rodriguez, Ogie Diaz, Gina Leviste, Ernie Zarate, Lulu Arietta, Fina Peralejo, Lailani Navarro, Patrick Riego de Dios, Melvin Viceral, Paolo Zobel, Ed Poon, Malou Crisologo, Terry Baylosis, George Lim, Angie Roy, Ed Murillo, Alma Lerma, Isko Moreno, Ma. Lourdes Araneta, Myla de Jesus, Michelle Suzarra, Rex Agoncillo, Patricia Ann Roque, Marisol Garcia, Ma. Elena Diño, John Villar, Chanda Espiritu, Fe Cabrera, Nelia Lapena, Anna S. Anastacio
Carlitos is starting out at an advertising agency, but one day his father suddenly dies of a heart attack. Since he’s the only son, his mother informs him that he’s now in charge of the family, including his three sisters. His mother discovers that her late husband had not been forward about the state of their finances, so that Carlos and his elder sister will have to work to support the studies of their siblings. His mother decides to sell a tract of land his father had been paying for, while Carlos finds a buyer for the family van, deciding to share the use of the car with his mother and sisters. While having lunch with his office mates at the company canteen, he meets Monica, who’s a working student. He finds her fascinating because of her lack of social pretension, and finds out she belongs to an all-male working-class family, with a father and brothers who’re fond of sports and flourish in a rough neighborhood. His mother, sisters, and family friends are all appalled by Monica’s lack of sophistication while Monica’s pressured by her father and brothers to make sure that Carlos to toughen up. Their differences lead to serious conflicts in their relationship.
May Minamahal was appreciated on its release as the film that initiated the then-arriving dominance of romantic comedies by having characters who spoke “colloquial, almost street-smart language” (Jerrick Josue David, “The Last Two Decades of Philippine Cinema,” Jeksterville, July 5, 2010, posted online). One would have expected that the proliferation of romcom entries made by some of the country’s best practitioners would have left such a sample biting the dust, but MM finds ways of remaining vital, even with its weaknesses displayed in starker relief than before. Its primary values are anchored on sharp performances and well-observed, documentary-adjacent scene constructions. Of greater consequence is the fond attention it lavishes on less-privileged personalities, a presence that would be reduced to domestic help or villainy for most of the first decade of the genre’s ascendancy. When the film strives for a conciliation of the two families’ class positions, is the point where a slippage occurs: the irony of having the lead male living among his mother and sisters, and the lead female with her father and brothers, further faces the danger of the argument being reduced to strictly gender-conflict terms. That is, the working-class family is mostly masculine while the bourgeois folk are mostly feminine, and since when have the two sides failed to find common ground in the normal scheme of things? There is of course satisfaction in the spectacle of men surrendering to female dictates, but Jose Javier Reyes is sharp enough to maintain ambivalence. The men, who after all are visited by their prospective in-laws in their own residence and neighborhood, can’t help but turn rowdy even at their best-behaved, and we have a glimpse of the mother forcing herself to smile. At this point it becomes obvious, for those concerned with local film tradition, that MM is extending a link with the long-ended Second Golden Age, as well as pointing to a future of a genre that has the capacity of fulfilling its audience’s demands for meaning and pleasure.
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Minsan May Isang Puso
English Title: Once There Was a Heart
Year of Release: 2001
Director & Screenwriter: Jose Javier Reyes
Producers: Regal Entertainment & Available Light
Cast: Ricky Davao, Jaclyn Jose, Carlo Aquino, Ana Capri, Simon Ibarra, Lui Manansala, Dekster Santos, Jiego Malvar, Dimples Romana, Marlito Ambrocio, Luz Imperial, Hope Matriano, Jaro Conde, Randolf Reyes, Val Trono, Gilleth Sandico, Nino Ignacio, Julie de Leon, Jeffrey Santos, Grace Villablanca, Tessie Villaram, Archie Cayetano, Adeth Alviar, Portia Bullecer, WRC Talents, Maru Talents Studio, Jequipros Talent Center
Simon runs a small bakery with two assistants, from which the working-class families of a neighborhood buy their breakfast buns (called pan de sal). One of these families is Emily’s, whose comatose husband has to be cared for by Boyet, her younger child, so that his elder sister can complete her studies and eventually help him return to school. Simon also maintains an exclusive arrangement with Melba, a sex professional, since he lost his family in an accident when the car he drove crashed and killed them. Simon catches one of his assistants pilfering the bakery till and dismisses her; when Boyet sees the “Help Wanted” sign, he applies for the job and endures Simon’s mean-spirited treatment in order to help his mother. Emily could not prevent her daughter from seeking comfort in her premarital relationship but winds up banishing her when she gets pregnant. As head of their respective households, Emily’s and Simon’s insistence on righteousness and independence get confronted by the realities of economic subsistence and their need for human connection.
The neorealist impulse was definitely old-hat, half a century old by the time the millennium rolled around. Yet effective local samples were hard to come by, partly because celluloid films were difficult to maintain and also because the adoption of the Hollywood practice of reserving social-realist products for awards competitions often resulted in works that did not address mass viewers as well as they impressed prestige gatekeepers. Jose Javier Reyes’s declaration that he concocted Minsan May Isang Puso as his tribute to Lino Brocka, who beat his own path to creating crowd-pleasing social dramas even at the cost of critical revulsion, helps explain how this particular sample has managed to endure since its release. The characters in the narrative attempt to attain fairly ordinary ambitions, but financial realities keep proscribing the limits within which they must function. Yet to their surprise, as well as ours, it is their exploration of these constraints that enables them to break out selectively, with sufficient consideration for others who might be affected by their decisions. The film benefits greatly from topnotch delivery by all members in the cast and reminds us never to take for granted performers who accept difficult and unglamorous roles for the sheer purpose of fulfilling their potential: no one could have seen that Jaclyn Jose and Ricky Davao would be leaving too early, but that only makes of MMIP an outing that deserves to be cherished beyond its already laudable terms.
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Kung Ako Na Lang Sana
English Translation: If It Had Only Been Me
English Title: Without You Through the Years
Year of Release: 2003
Director & Screenwriter: Jose Javier Reyes
(Based on the concept by Mary Rose Colindres, Emmanuel Dela Cruz, Theodore Boborol, Dennis Teodosio, Guia Gonzales, Tammy Bejerano)
Producer: Star Cinema Productions
Cast: Sharon Cuneta, Aga Muhlach, Christine Bersola, Mickey Ferriols, Dominic Ochoa, Jennifer Sevilla, Shintaro Valdez, Patrick Guzman, Gabe Mercado, Reggie Curley, Chat Silayan-Bailon, Butz Aquino, Banaue Miclat, Raul Montesa, Lollie Mara, Bing Davao, Gilleth Sandico, Carme Sanchez, Olivialyn Richard, Enid Reyes, Mico Aytona, Adrian Albert, Pauleen Luna, Pia Wurtzbach, Oliver Aquino, Aaron Concepcion, Mike George, Jojit Lorenzo, Shiela Valderrama, Sandra Rebancos, Monalisa Bernardo, Tanya del Rosario, Zharrine Carbonel, Angelica Ferrer, Ricky Baizas, Artemio Abad, Albert Guinto, Tazi Arish, Edgar Sandalo, Chiqui del Carmen, Jeffrey Relopez
Emmy has been so preoccupied with providing for her family as well as her more needful friends that she never found time for romance. When Vince, a friend from college, is disowned by his successful father because of his irresponsibility, he turns to Emmy, yet continues to falter. But only he, among Emmy’s friends, treats her as an equal, rather than his superior. When each of them arrives at the point where their relationships force them to confront their maturity, they begin to joke about winding up with each other.
Occasionally a genre piece fulfills its functions so well that it works despite its conventions and predictability. Any serious film observer would be able to anticipate that Kung Ako Na Lang Sana will be uncovering its lead characters’ compatibility with each other and bring them to a point where their differences, not just with each other but also with their family and friends, will be resolved in a climactic reunion party. Yet the film works, mainly because it never takes these elements for granted. It provides careful motivations and character consistency even in the smallest roles, and makes its few coincidences dramatically credible. Central to its success is the fact that Sharon Cuneta and Aga Muhlach had been careful in cultivating their wholesome and responsible personas, and had both reached a performance peak when they worked together, generating sparks that neither of them was able to realize with any previous screen partner. The ease with which they essay complicated roles—apparently drawn in part from their real-life conditions—would make the most jaded rom-com viewer root for them to remain together, if only for the satisfaction of watching them trade a whole lot more lines and gestures with each other.
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