‘Sid and Aya: Not a Love Story’ tampok ang unang pagtatambal nina ingdong Dantes at Anne Curtis

“Sino ba’ng hindi malungkot? Sino ba’ng hindi galit sa mundo? Lahat naman, ‘di ba? Lahat may kanya-kanyang sira sa utak. Depende na lang kung papa’no mo itatago.”

Ito ang maririnig mula kay Sid (Dingdong Dantes) sa umpisa ng trailer ng pinakabagong pelikula sa panulat at direksyon ni Irene Villamor at produksyon ng Viva Films at N2 Productions, na pinamagatang “Sid and Aya: Not a Love Story.”  

Ipapalabas ito sa mga sinehan simula Mayo 30.

A reunion and first big-screen team-up

“Hindi naman lahat ng may ‘I love you,’ love story na, e,” ang pagsasalaysay ni Sid sa huling bahagi ng trailer kung saan din maririnig ang kantang “’Di Na Muli” ni Janine Teñoso.

Tampok dito ang kauna-unahang pagtatambal nina Dingdong Dantes at Anne Curtis na dating nagkasama sa telebisyon sa ‘90s teen-oriented show ng GMA na “T.G.I.S.” kasama sina Antoinette Taus, Sunshine Dizon, Kim Delos Santos, Dino Guevarra, Maui Taylor, Polo Ravales, at iba pang teen stars noon.

Kasunod nito ay ang pagsasama rin ng dalawa sa 1999 teen romantic-comedy na “Honey My Love So Sweet” kasama ang kanilang T.G.I.S. batch.

Umiikot ang kwento kay Sid (Dantes) na isang insomniac at kung paanong makikilala niya at kukunin bilang confidante ang misteryosong si Aya (Curtis) para may makausap at makasama sa mga gabing hindi siya makatulog.

“I am lucky to have worked with this efficient, ingenious and talented skeletal 20 (plus)-man team of Sid and Aya. Ibang klase talaga ang Pinoy,” ang pagbabahagi naman ni Dingdong sa Instagram ukol sa kanyang karanasan sa produksyon.

Shooting in Japan

Ito rin ang unang beses para kay Dingdong na mag-shoot sa ibang bansa sa loob ng 20 taon nito sa industriya – kinunan ang ilang eksena ng pelikula sa Japan nitong Marso kasabay ng spring season. Unang beses naman para kay Anne na makita ang pag-usbong ng mga sakura sa Japan.

Ibinahagi ni Anne ang karanasan sa shooting experience sa Tokyo sa isang eksklusibong panayam ng Pinoy Gazette sa press preview ng Rockstar KTV and Resto, ang joint business venture nila ng kapwa “It’s Showtime” host na si Karylle.

“Our filming experience in Tokyo was really amazing. We came at a really good time – the snow had just gone. So we came at perfect timing, some of the cherry blossoms were just about to appear,” aniya.

Na-enjoy din ng Kapamilya host sa pagkain at iba’t ibang lugar sa bansa.

“The food was amazing. We got to visit a lot of places like the Tokyo Skytree at night na kami lang ang tao. So it really was just so beautiful. Yeah, we had an amazing time and we were able to shoot on locations that aren’t really like shot often. So abangan ninyo yung Shibuya Crossing namin, pang-Hollywood.”

Samantala, ibinahagi rin ni Anne ang kanyang excitement sa pagsali sa Tokyo Marathon. Kamakailan ay tumakbo siya sa London Marathon kung saan ang mga nalikom na donasyon ay ibibigay niya sa mga bata sa Marawi sa pamamagitan ng UNICEF Philippines.

“I’m gonna join the lottery this year. Sana by next year makapasok ako,” excited na pahayag ng aktres.

Japan naging paboritong destinasyon ng ilang Pinoy stars

Ni Florenda Corpuz

Kuha mula sa Instagram account ni Carmina Villarroel

TOKYO, Japan – Dumagsa ang mga artistang bumisita sa bansa noong Semana Santa para makapagbakasyon sa kanilang dream destination kasama ang kanilang pamilya at mga kaibigan.

Sinamantala ng Kapuso royal couple na sina Marian Rivera at Dingdong Dantes ang pagkakataon na pareho silang walang trabaho upang bisitahin ang ilang shopping districts sa Tokyo kabilang na ang Omotesando Hills. Nag-post din ang dalawa ng litrato sa kanilang Instagram accounts na kuha sa harap ng popular na ramen chain na Ippudo at Lindt Chocolat Café sa Ginza. Kasama rin sa kanilang pinasyalan ang man-made island na Odaiba.

Hindi rin nagpahuli sa pagbabakasyon ang magaling na aktres na si Iza Calzado at non-showbiz boyfriend nito na si Ben Wintle na namasyal sa Tsukiji Market, Tokyo Imperial Palace Gardens at Ginza. Nagtungo rin ang dalawa kasama ang ilang mga kaibigan sa Kyoto kung saan binisita nila ang ilang popular na temple at shrines tulad ng Fushimi Inari Shrine, Kiyomizu-dera Temple at Kinkaku-ji.

Tuwang tuwa naman na nakahabol sa cherry blossom season ang big band crooner na si Richard Poon kasama ang asawang aktres na si Maricar Reyes. Nag-flower viewing ang dalawa sa Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens. Nagtungo rin sila sa Odaiba upang personal na masilayan ang RX-78-2 na estatwa ni Gundam na may taas na 18 metro. Nag-enjoy din ang mag-asawa sa kanilang mga train rides at pagkain ng mga streetfood sa Ameyoko Market sa Ueno.

Nagbakasyon din sa bansa ang Kapamilya host na si Carmina Villaroel kasama ang asawa nitong si Zoren Legaspi at mga anak na sina Mavey at Casey. Nagtungo ang buong pamilya sa Tokyo Disneyland at Tokyo DisneySea. Binisita rin nila ang estatwa ni Hachiko sa Shibuya. Tuwang tuwa rin ang mag-anak na makakita ng cherry blossom sa Shinjuku Gyoen National Gardens at Mt. Fuji.

Samantala, namataan din ang komedyanteng si Roderick Paulate kasama ang pamilya at mga kaibigan sa Hakone at Mt. Fuji. Dumating din sa bansa ang pamosong litratista na si Raymund Isaac na namasyal sa ilang lugar sa Kyoto at Osaka. 

Panalo ang akting ni DingDong sa 'Dance of the Steel Bars'

Ni Mario Bautista

We recently saw the premiere night of GMA Films’ “Dance of the Steel Bars” at SM Megamall and we’re not surprised directors Cesar Apolinario and Marnie Manicad got lots of congratulatory greetings after the screening as the film is really worth watching. The film is co-produced by GMA Films with a foreign movie company, Portfolio Films and it's going to be shown worldwide.

Dingdong Dantes delivers a solid performance as Mando, a dance instructor who gets imprisoned for frustrated homicide after he hits a gay dancer who took a pass on him and the gay hit his head on the wall. He's better here than in his award-winning presentations in the mainstream horror film “Segunda Mano” and the sudsy drama “One More Try.”

Filmed inside the Cebu detention and rehabilitation center that got famous for the Cebu Dancing Inmates whose dance performances were a big hit on Youtube, the directors were able to weave a pretty engaging drama story about how all the dancing started. The main conflict is provided by the two villains in the movie: Gabe Mercado as the deputy warden who orders the killing of the present warden (Roy Alvarez) and his chief henchman, Thou Reyes. Gabe expects that he’ll be appointed as the new warden but an outsider was tasked to take over, Ricky Davao.

Ricky wants to institute reforms in the corrupt prison complex and one of them is to give the inmates a physical fitness program through dancing. He appoints a gay inmate to lead this, Joey Paras, who is eventually aided by Dingdong. But the villains try to thwart all his good intentions all the time.

The whole story is told from the point of Frank (Patrick Bergin), a retired fireman from the U.S. who gets married to a Filipina. He’s a basic do-gooder but when he tries to help a teenager stabbed by a gang of thugs, he gets accused of murder instead and ends up in prison. He becomes callous and jaded and is no longer interested in helping others.

Eventually, he relents. He finds a lawyer to help free a female prisoner (Kathleen Hermosa), a nurse who’s wrongly imprisoned because she refused giving sexual favors to a doctor in the hospital she used to work for. The film’s valid message is that even if life doesn’t treat you well and some people become mean and cruel, you should continue to do good because there’s Divine Justice that will eventually make things right again.

The whole cast delivers very fine performances: from Mercado and Reyes as the scheming villains, Mon Confiado as the prison doormat who falls in love with Kathleen, Joey Paras as the gay who pretends to his foreigner pen pal that he’s really a girl (and gets promptly rejected when they meet face to face), Bergin as the narrator who cannot totally forsake his heart of gold, and of course, Dingdong Dantes who gets a big round of applause in his breakdown scene in the bathroom after he learns that his father died while he is in jail. 

You can see they filmed it on a limited budget, but still, the direction is generally superior and technical credits are quite above average. They made the film a crowd-pleaser, not only with the dance sequences but with the way the bad guys subsequently got the comeuppance that they do deserve.

This is really a prison movie with a lot of heart. Presented with English subtitles, we have no doubt this can easily be marketed abroad. But we think it would have been a bigger come on if they started right away with a production number showing the dancing inmates to open the movie, and then Frank as narrator tells the audience how it originated. Then the movie ends again with another big dance number, since it’s really the dancing of the Cebu inmates that inspired the production of this movie. That would have been the most rousing manner that they could have started and concluded the film.