If you think 80-year-old actors should sit back, relax, and watch younger actors take the limelight, you’re mistaken.
Remember George Burns of American cinema who bounced back on the silver screen after a long hiatus in the hit movie The Sunshine Boys in 1975? He was 79 years old then, but made several movies more, including the iconic Oh, God! in which he played “god’ in 1977 (he was 81 then) and two more Oh, God! films (Oh, God Book II, 1980, and Oh, God! You Devil, 1984.)
Burns did more movies apart from those God movies until 1994 when he was cast as Milt Lackey in Mel Smith’s Radioland Murders, two years before he turned a century man and finally bid cinema and the world goodbye.
Dolphy and Eddie Garcia are Philippine movie’s more popular octogenarians and they are in a movie together—Nobody, nobody but.. Juan!—an entry to the forthcoming Metro Manila Film Festival. They play a pre-war comedy team on the vaudeville stage but separated by war. Juan ends up in the US, while Eddie stayed on in the Philippines.
This is Dolphy’s biggest project yet after the release of his autobiography Hindi Ko Ito Narating Mag-isa and the phenomenal worldwide concert tour held in connection with the said bio. This new comedy is also Dolphy’s first after more than a year. He was in 2008’s Dobol Trobol with Eat Bulaga host and comedian Vic Sotto.
The Metro Manila Film Festival is “home” to many Dolphy hits, some of which are the acclaimed comedy-drama Markova Comfort Gay (for which he won a Best Actor Award at the 2001 Brussels International Film Festival), the environmental comedy Home Alone da Riber, the family picture Wanted Perfect Father, the magical fantasy Espadang Patpat (for which Dolphy received an MMFF Best Actor trophy), the epic Once Upon A Time, among others.
Directed by Dolphy’s son Eric Quizon, and written by Bibeth Orteza, the movie is about a Filipino in the United States of America—Juan (Dolphy)—who lives in a senior citizens’ home run by his son (played by Eric) and daughter-in-law (played by G Toengi). Juan’s favorite past-time is watching Wowowee on The Filipino Channel. However, he does not watch the show just for entertainment’s sake. Aside from wanting to connect with the Philippines that he dearly misses, Juan is lonesome for his first love Aida whom he lost touch with during the Japanese Occupation of Manila.
Wowowee is Juan’s way of coping with homesickness and reliving the beloved past.
This grand love story/comedy/heartwarming family story spans 1940s to the present. It takes place in the United States and the Philippines. “Juan” is undoubtedly Dolphy’s biggest and most star-studded Metro Mnila filmfest offering.
With Comedy King Dolphy are Pokwang, Eugene Domingo, and Gloria Romero and Garcia who may be more known as dramatic stars but they are also comedians in their own right. With a story inspired by the top-rating noontime show Wowowee, how can host-funnyman Willie Revillame not be part of it? And he is! Willie is said to be so honored to be in this Dolohy movie that he adjusted his schedule so he could shoot.
KC Concepcion and Swatch
KC Concepcion is World Food Program ambassador, and she is committed to helping poor Filipino children in alleviating their hunger.
So, with the help of Virgie Ramos, who holds the franchise to distribute Swatch in the Philippines, KC Cares. Swatch Shares was born.
The partnership between Sharon Cuneta and Gabby Concepcion’s daughter and Swatch celebrates the Swiss watch brand in the Philippines.
According to KC, it only costs P10 to feed a hungry child for a day.
With KC Cares. Swatch Shares, each of the watches bought from the Swatch Fall/Winter 2009 Collection will feed a child for an entire month.
KC says, “People always ask me what’s more important for me. My humanitarian work or my life in fashion, movies, music or TV, and I always say— why choose one if they can all work together, hand in hand? I am so thankful to Tita Virgie and Swatch for being real troopers in helping us fight child hunger in our country! Every 6 seconds a child dies of hunger, but with the help of Swatch, each second is a chance for us to feed and save a child.”
myFoursome on the Web
If you’re not a PLDTDSL subscriber yet, better be as soon as you can, or you’ll miss out on the latest showbiz buzz in cyberspace. Four popular newspaper showbiz columnists—Dolly Anne Carvajal of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Shirley Pizarro of Manila Bulletin, Ricky Lo of Philippine Star and myself—are in a show called myFoursome, which pldtdsl subscribers can access via www.pldtdslwatchpad.com. New episodes are uploaded and can be seen on myView, Watchpad’s channel dedicated to locally- produced shows by the DSL group.
The show isn’t the kind of stuff you see on local TV channels. This is, as somebody who has seen the episodes said, a breakthrough in local talk shows.
These are four people who decided to meet up and start talking on any topic in show business. The show is unstructured, but is heavy on showbiz stuff.
Tomorrow, we have Brillante “Dante” Mendoza, who was this year’s Best Director at the Cannes International Film Festival for Kinatay. We talked to him about how he comes about with his movies.
Mendoza is grateful to PLDTDSL Watchpad for allowing its subscribers to watch his movies, including the latest Lola, for free.
Lola was shown at the Venice Film Festival last September.
Korean stars in Manila
Hosted by Korea Communications and organized by Korea Internet and Security Agency, the Korea-Philippine TV Content Showcase & Media Forum will be held in Hyatt Hotel Manila from Nov. 30 to Dec 1.
Kim Jun, a member of idol group T-Max and one of F4 in the popular drama Boys Over Flowers, will join the opening ceremony of the event on Nov 30. There will be authograph signing after lunch.
Meanwhile, capping the Korean cultural festival is a KPop Concert at 5 p.m. today at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. The concert will feature performances by famous Korean pop groups SHINee, Mighty Mouth and Winterplay.
SHINee is a contemporary R&B South Korean boy band who made their debut in 2008 with their hit song “Replay” and composed of Onew, Jonghyun, Key, Minho, and Taemin. The group won music awards including Best Newcomer Artist in the 18th Seoul Music Awards. Winterplay is a group that mixes several musical genres like pop, jazz, blues and bossa nova to create a unique relaxed sound and is composed of vocalist Moon Hye-won, and her band Lee Joo-han (trumpet), Choi Woo-joon (guitar), and So Eun-kyu (contrabass). Mighty Mouth is a rap duo well-known for collaborating with famous celebrities like Sun-Ye of Wondergirls and Yoon Eun-hye of Coffee Prince fame and composed of rappers 237 and Shorty j.
Nina at Hard Rock Café
Tonight, Nina, the first and only female recording artist here in the country to receive a diamond record award for her Nina Live! CD (Warner Music Philippines), is the featured performer at the Hard Rock Café in Makati.
Fans can look forward to an intimate evening of beautiful music as Nina dishes out her hit songs and some of today’s chart-toppers and party anthems.
Pop band Drizzle performs after Nina’s special set. Other featured artists at HRC are balladeer Art Manuntag and show band Silk tomorrow, rock band Zoo on Nov. 29, and pop band 3rd Avenue on Nov. 30. These shows are in line with HRC’s music for life campaign which aims to bring topnotch artists closer and more accessible to music lovers.
Life and Style features Laoag
QTV11’s Life and Style with Gandang Ricky Reyes goes to Laoag City, Sunday at 10 a.m.
Host-producer Ricky Reyes and friends visit the old churches in the Northern Philippines. The group also samples the various Ilocano delicacies and goes to scenic and picturesque Laoag tourist spots.
On “Glitters,” segment host Linabelle Villarica is interviewed by Ricky regarding her experience as a TV host as well as her plans for Bulacan.
“Great Hair Day” ushers in the latest hairstyle and makeup for busy women.
