Laurice's love drama challenges MMFF comedic faves

MANILA, Philippines - After five years of absence from directing, Laurice Guillen is out with a film that may bring memories of her first entry into directing. Star Cinema’s I Love You, Goodbye (ILYG) is a love drama, just like Kasal, her ground-breaking first film with Christopher de Leon, Hilda Koronel, Jay Ilagan, Chanda Romero, was a love story. In 1980, Trigon Films, after having acquired the property from Agrix which had closed, released the film to great box-office and critical acclaim. Laurice has often been cited for the confidence and self-assurance normally absent in one on her first outing.

I Love You, Goodbye, Star Cinema’s entry to the 35th Metro Manila Film Festival is also a love drama but one to which director Guillen brings her long experience through the years, and deeper understanding of the male and female psyche. We ask her if the poster blurb on Kasal then, “Is the One You Love, the One you Marry“ could also be true in the case of ILYG? She answers in the affirmative, pointing out that both involve a choice. The stars of ILYG are Angelica Panganiban in her very first lead role, Derek Ramsay, Gabby Concepcion, Kim Chiu.

 In the selection of eight movies to officially compete in the MMFF, Star Cinema is taking a brave step of fielding a drama picture against perennial favorites during the holidays which are comedies, child-friendly films, new versions of past franchises like Mano Po, Vic Sotto comedies, Shake Rattle & Roll, Panday, and a brand new Dolphy picture. Neither is the casting top heavy with big stars. There is no Piolo Pascual, Bea Alonzo, John Lloyd Cruz, Sarah Geronimo. There are instead dependable actors who may bring the production cost down somewhat, who may not have as heavy a schedule to cause compromises, and who in the long run may have more grit and passion in them to prove themselves to all and sundry. And of course, there is Laurice Guillen.

Laurice Guillen, like any director in the ‘80s went through a checkered career characterized by ups and downs, material that came from komiks and radio (which she admits were the most saleable) to originals, to personal favorites. We ask her which of these are her personal favorites and quickly she identifies Salome, Init sa Magdamag, Santa Santita and Tanging Yaman.

Her Viva and Seiko projects were sleek and well done, but it was in her cutting-edge adventures, mostly to the dark recesses of a women‘s sexuality that she seemed to have a sensibility uniquely her own. Her most controversial dark films are Salome and Init sa Magdamag. Naturally, the film buffs were excited by these projects. About Init, critic Noel Bote Vera raved, “It is possibly the finest erotic film ever made in the Philippines, without a single nude scene. It is about a woman‘s right to everything, including the right to be self-destructive. A masterpiece by three women — Laurice Guillen, (writer) Raquel Villavicencio and Lorna Tolentino.“

Salome, written by Ricky Lee and starring Gina Alajar as Salome, Johnny Delgado as her husband, and Dennis Roldan as the lover, is often said to be inspired by Akira Kurosawa‘s Rashomon. But, writes film buff Oggs, “While Kurosawa was interested in the multi-faceted aspect of truth, Guillen is more interested in the power play of the genders. It presents the central female character as a chameleon of sorts, ready to use, to attack, to even distort the truth, to maintain that de factor seat of power men consciously and mistakenly refer to as a weakness.“

Angelica is teenager Malen in Laurice‘s Santa Santita, who plays a sensualist, living in with Mike (Jericho Rosales) who subsists by guiding tourists, sometimes sleeping with them for the right price. Malen‘s mother Hilda Koronel is a prayer woman who prays for others, and when she dies Malen takes over. To her surprise, the prayers she recites start coming true. The film is saying that God works in such ways that even the least pious can be redeemed.

Laurice and family went on a sabbatical away from movies and work and the city to reflect on a newly discovered conversion. This was a move that surprised not a few, who even wondered if she and husband Johnny had lost their bearings. They, in fact, left to find their bearings. Upon their return after some years, she did Tanging Yaman (2000), which she is quoted as saying was her way “of sharing with my audience what God has done in our lives in all these years that I haven‘t been making movies,“ and ran away with trophies from all award-giving bodies.

Now that Laurice and Johnny (before he passed away) were once again in the thick of mundane activities with their children pursuing careers in music and film, director Laurice involved herself in the organization of Cinemalaya, an international festival for independent digital filmmakers in 2005. Cinemalaya is now well established, and Laurice is back to take the reigns of directing once again in I Love You Goodbye.

The public is curious how she can now happily fuse spirituality with her innate interest in the female psyche. She is happy with her cast and with the outcome of the final product. She concedes ILYG would possibly be the second film for people watching during the holidays, after they had brought the children and family to the blockbusters.

The entries now jostling one another for the box-office have also generally conceded the awards to go to I Love You, Goodbye. While they divide the market, ILYG reigns alone in the drama category. Isn‘t there a quotation that states “United we stand, divided we fall?“

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