MANILA, Philippines — Piolo Pascual digs deep into his psyche in Paul Soriano's "Real Life Fiction" with Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Epy Quizon.
The actor stars as Paco, a celebrated actor with an illustrious career who decides to write, direct, and star in a film that will "inevitably bring him closer to his own demise before revealing that his truth may be far from what he has become," a logline for the film goes.
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"There's a voice in my head, constant whispers. Isn't it a little too late for that?" says Paco in the movie's trailer. "You knew all this time but you had to wait for me to find out when."
The trailer repeatedly shows clips of Paco waking up, in an elevator, walking up stairs, and balancing on a building rooftop.
Paco pitches his planned movie is about existence, something he claims was taken away from him.
Jasmine then appears in the trailer as Paula, Paco's on- and off-screen muse who only further blurs the lines between what's real and what isn't.
"I become the characters that I play, I feel what they feel... 'til there's nothing left," Paco says as the title card appears over him naked in the sand.
The trailer ends with Paco facing the mirror while washing his hands, but when he departs, his reflection remains.
Epy stars as Paco's manager while filmmaker Lav Diaz makes a special appearance as an eclectic pawnshop owner.
Shot during the height of the pandemic, the R-16 "Real Life Fiction" releases exclusively in SM Cinemas nationwide beginning August 28. — Video from Black Cap Pictures' YouTube channel
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