‘#WalangForever’ deserves all its accolades

We did not expect that “#WalangForever” will make us cry since we were expecting a rom-com, but we finished the movie with tears in our eyes. We first watched it at the press preview before the festival and we watched it again the other night. We ended up being touched by the movie again and yes, we cried again.

Dan Villegas, who won the 2014 MMFF best director trophy for “English Only Please,” presented a very beautiful love story about Ethan (Jericho Rosales) and Mia (Jennylyn Mercado) that touches the heart. For sure, many have watched it but we won’t be surprised if it gets a holdover engagement in a few more theaters even if the 2015 MMFF officially ended yesterday. “#Walang Forever” is the kind of love story you won’t get tired of watching over and over again.

The movie deserves all the awards it won at the recent festival – Best Picture, Best Story, Best Screenplay and Best Actress award for Jennylyn and Best Actor for Jericho. We don’t want to spoil your viewing pleasure in case you want to watch it so we won’t say the twist in the story. But we loved the movie so much and we admire the effortless and relaxed acting of Jen and Echo. They were so believable in their respective roles, you’d think they really have a relationship. They have good chemistry.

We recall in our interview with Echo after the premiere that he expressed surprise in the way the movie turned out. It was also the first time that he got to watch “#WalangForever” then and he liked what he saw. But he said then that he was not expecting to win the best actor award and was in fact rooting for John Lloyd Cruz for his excellent work in “Honor Thy Father.”

The collaborative effort of Direk Dan, Jen and Echo in discussing how they were going to attack the scenes worked to the film’s advantage. All three of them gave their input on how to make each scene work. No wonder, the viewers were hooked from start to finish. The movie will make you laugh, make you feel kilig, but towards the end, you will feel the tears rolling down your cheeks. Even if you don’t want to cry, you will cry without really trying because of the many touching scenes and the movie’s message about love and loving.

After watching “#WalangForever,” we were convinced it has the capacity to become a hit, especially with the word of mouth publicity on how beautiful the movie is. We believe the film will also be a strong contender when the awards season comes with Jen at Echo as strong contenders for top acting honors.

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The 41st Metro Manila Film Festival officially ended yesterday and today, the MMDA is supposed to make an official announcement about which film made it as the top grosser.

The top spot is being hotly contested by “Beauty and the Bestie,” starring Vice Ganda and Coco Martin and “My Bebe Love” featuring Vic Sotto, Ai Ai delas Alas and the popular tandem of Alden Richards and Maine Mendoza or AlDub.

The camp of Vice Ganda and director Wenn Deramas claimed that “Beauty and the Bestie” is the festival top-grosser based on the news report made by Mario Dumaual on TV Patrol. A similar report on GMA-7 said that “My Bebe Love is the top-grosser. So which is which?

If it is “Beauty and the Bestie,” Vice Ganda is the box office champion of the MMFF which he had been lording over for four years now.

If it is “My Bebe Love,” it means Vic and Ai Ai are the new box office darlings of the festival, together with Alden and Maine.

Only the MMDA and the festival committee can declare which is the real winner at the box office. Question is, will the MMDA be truthful in declaring the real box office champion? Hope there won’t be any controversy.

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Members of the entertainment press had the chance it meet Congressman Martin Romualdez who is running for senator in this year’s elections.

According to the Leyte representative, he believes in the big potential of the entertainment industry that is why he is willing to craft bills that would make showbiz vibrant and alive. He believes that the forms of entertainment like TV shows and the movies should be developed to make it an income-generating industry not only for its sector but also for the entire country. Romualdez loves watching movies as a form of relaxation.

Since he hails from Leyte that was damaged by Yolanda, he says there is a need to create an agency or department that will take care of the needs of the people during times of calamities like typhoons. The agency or department should have a ready budget, the official said, “hindi yung kung kailan may kalamidad saka ka lang maglalaan ng budget for the victims.”

He also expressed the need to have an agency that will be directly involved in addressing the problems and concerns of the calamity victims – an agency that will not keep the donations and allow it to rot or would not lift a hand or a finger to set aside a budget for the victims. If he gets elected as senator, this is one of the issues that he would like to be involved in.