As far as the avid fans of Taiwan’s Fab Four – Jerry Yan, Vanness Wu, Ken Zhu and Vic Zhou – are concerned, the question of the hour is not who FPJ’s running-mate would be (is she the one?) but whether or not the F4 (Flower 4) guys are coming for a concert on Dec. 26, Friday (a day after Christmas), or not.
The answer is yes, they’re coming – "Definitely," according to the people behind the much-awaited concert. I’m referring to the Taiwanese producer, DaiBei Productions and its new partner, Susan Lim’s group, which also produced the concert last September starring two of the F4 guys, Ken Zhu and Vanness Wu. A few weeks later, Jerry Yan came to drumbeat for Bench of which he’s a new image model and, again, three weeks later for a concert with Vic Zhou.
Yesterday, The STAR and other papers bannered the "cancellation" of the F4 Dec. 26 concert. It was a misunderstanding resulting from the breaking of ties between DaiBei Productions and East West Global Entertainment (headed by Chito Cabalu) which was behind the recent staging of the Mariah Carey concert and the MTV Summit 2004 both at the Fort Open Field in Taguig City.
East West backed out of the F4 concert after, according to Cabalu, DaiBei Productions failed to comply with certain requirements, including security requirements at the venue, also at The Fort, and the release of a certain amount for the hiring of bodyguards and ushers for the concert, and for the sound system, stage, barricades, chairs and portalets.
That was all that was canceled – the contract between East West and DaiBei, but the concert will go on as scheduled, now with Susan Lim’s group as DaiBei’s new partner.
"The new venue is the PCS Sports Arena (the old ULTRA)," assured somebody from Susan Lim’s group. "Tuloy na tuloy ang concert. Walang atrasan."
It’s the first time all four guys are performing together here, and possibly their last. The F4 fever has reached its peak and I’m sure that after the Dec. 26 concert, their popularity – and novelty – will die down. That’s what happened to Thalia/Marimar a few years ago, remember? The third time Thalia came back, she wasn’t as well-received as she was the first and second time. Well, you know, familiarity breeds...
Still and all, tickets to the F4 Live Happy New Year 2004 concert are selling like low-priced cellphone "loads," with the ones costing P20,000 and P15,000 mostly reserved by about 500 fans from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Indonesia. Other tickets are priced at P10,000, P8,000, P7,500, P5,000, P3,000, P2,500, P1,500 and P600.
People who watched the movie stayed glued on the screen for four hours and 30 minutes, the movie’s final running time (trimmed down from more than five hours), including such bigwigs at the movie’s premiere as President GMA, Vice President Tito Guingona, Senate President Frank Drilon, former First Lady Imelda Marcos, Sen. Ramon Revilla and son-in-law Sen. Robert Jaworski, and other government officials who were all praises for the movie.
Sen. Ramon, who starred in six Carlo Caparas movies, tapped Carlo and said, "This is the best true-to-life movie you’ve done" (Ramon’s son Bong Revilla’s first three movies were all directed by Carlo).
According to Donna, doing the Chavit Singson movie, budgetted at P80 million, was like doing three movies because of the length of shooting (eight months). But it was all worth it.
After the Chavit bioflick, Donna and Carlo received offers to do similar projects, but they begged off.
"We deserve a break," said Donna. "The Chavit movie was the hardest to do. We need to rest muna."
The purpose of Marvin’s (first) visit to Singapore is not just to rest but to visit his friend and "MU" (Mutual Understanding) mate Adele Koh, who represented Singapore in the recent Miss Earth contest in Manila.
Adele , 22, is a student and stands 5’6" tall. She has a 33-24-33 figure.
Is he so in love with her that he has to fly to Singapore to be with her?
"I won’t say `in love’ because we are not yet into a serious relationship," said Marvin, who is in the cast of Malikmata, Canary Films’ 2003 Metro Filmfest entry. "We are only into the getting-to-know-you-better stage."
Marvin admitted that Miss Singapore visited him at his bachelor’s pad but she never slept there (would you believe !?!). In Singapore, Marvin will stay in a hotel and, I’m sure, Miss Singapore will gladly act as his tour guide.