Category: Philippine

Close to you

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Close To You - Philippine Tagalog Movie DVD (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Romantic Drama, Philippine, 2006

Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
John Lloyd Cruz ... Manuel
Bea Alonzo ... Marian
Sam Milby ... Lance

Story:
Manuel and Marian have been best friends since childhood. Secretly Manuel has always loved Marian in the romantic sense, but he conceals it well and often make silly comment about Marian. On the other hand, Marian always has a big crush on Lance who is her childhood friend and hero. Lance is now one of the biggest racing pop star. How would this love triangle get resolved?...

My review:
Though the story is a bit old-fashion, it is still quite entertaining (in the old fashion sense of course). So it is not bad at all if you want some clean fun laugh.

L' Enfer (Hell)

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L'Enfer (Bof) (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Drama, France, 2005

Director: Danis Tanovic

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:

Emmanuelle B?art ... Sophie
Karin Viard ... C?line
Marie Gillain ... Anne
Guillaume Canet ... S?bastien
Jacques Gamblin ... Pierre
Story:
Three sisters live separate lives and all have their own problems. Sophie's husband is having an affair, Celine is approached by a man and she is not sure about his intention, Anne is in love with a married man - her professor who has a wife and a daughter. Their mother is paralysed after an accident that also caused the death of their father who was accused of a terrible crime...

My review:
Clearly a disfunc family. Sadly even when their mother learned about the truth, she still has no regret of her wrong accusation of a gross understanding, as a result, the family is broken and the daughters have suffered since. A sad movie and one doesn't feel good watching it.

"Hell" is supposedly to be one of stories that Krzysztof Kieslowski wanted to make, namely, "Heaven", "Earth" and "Hell".

Through out the movie there are signs of Kieslowski, such as the old lady pushing a bottle into the recycling bin (such scene also appeared in Blue, White, Red and Double life of Veronica).

You are the one


Filipino Philippine Tagalog DVD You Are The One (buy from Amazon)

Romantic Comedy, Philippine, 2006

Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Toni Gonzaga ... Sally Malasmas
Sam Milby ... Will Derby/Vernard Garcia

Story:
Sally lives and works in Manila while her parents and elder sister live in USA. Her family wants her to join them in USA, she is not so sure but she applies anyway because her mother is not well and needed to be taken care of. At the US embassay, her application was rejected by the US officer Will, who is young and handsome. While she has a crush on this young man, she also hates him for rejecting her application. She has her chance of revenge, Will was adopted by US parents and he needs to look up some information on his biological parents, he ends up at the department where Sally works and she plays tricks on him at first. Eventually, she actually goes out of her way to help him and the two of them starts on a journey to look for Will's real parents and romance is in the air, but things are never so smooth as it first seems...

My review:
I got this DVD as a gift from a friend in Philippines. It is very funny and entertaining, old fashion clean fun (well, most of the time anyway), with a warm touch.