Wednesday, July 27, 2016

PINOY TELESERYE @ TV3 MALAYSIA: "Kailangan Ko'y Ikaw"

TV3 is the leading free-to-air TV in Malaysia, & it is known for its soap operas mainly from the big three Malay countries of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. This 2013 ABS-CBN teleserye is the third Pinoy series this year, following two GMA teleseryes since January: Magkano ang Pag-ibig Mo? and The Borrowed Wife.


Saturday, July 23, 2016

No Box-Office Figures for the Philippines @ Boxofficemojo: A Mini-Puzzle

By now, all the people with a little bit of IQ must have figured out almost everything, be it in politics or showbiz, follows a narrative buttressed by propaganda. It's almost laughable when one realizes how much is unreal from what we read. But there should be enough truth somewhere to make the narrative work (more & more people are catching up, so enough truth must be injected or mainstream propaganda, international or local, will suffer, as what is generally happening now, be it in politics or showbiz).

The old adage: Follow the money, you'll likely be closer to the truth. Boxofficemojo had this reputation as providing supposedly independent box office figures. But it has been sparing in 2016, in fact it published only in February this year. Last year, it was more consistent, & it was noticeable that the few Pinoy films released came out as the top-drawer for more weeks than in previous years. Then when the Metro-Manila Film Fest 2015 came around, when only Pinoy films were shown, it suddenly disappeared altogether, denying us the chance to see the figures in dollar terms of what were the gross box-office takes of the top-grossers. It didn't want to show the real figures (that is, if they were even real)?

It returned last February for a couple of weeks but stopped altogether after that. The Philippines is one of the top markets for Hollywood movies worldwide so it is really puzzling that it has been left out, especially at a time when the Pinoy film industry is resurgent, releasing far more films compared last year.

At a time when the Pinoy film industry seems to be showing signs of a nascent new Golden Age, we need all the reference to bolster our calculations. We also need to be reassured that there isn't basis for the wayward propaganda speculations behind the disappearance of the figures for the Philippines.

2016

2015

Thursday, July 21, 2016

SO HOW IS ELNELLA DOING? They just had a duet in a London Barrio Fiesta

So how is the newest of the Big 4 young love teams in the Philippines doing? They not only had topped the world Twitter count when their first teleserye came out. They also found the time to sing a duet in front of their fans in London. Now we have a loveteam where both members are actually very good singers.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Pinoy Teleseryes @ KTN KENYA: "FOREVERMORE" Starring LIZQUEN & "CARMELA" Starring Marian Rivera & Alden Richards


So the international hit Forevermore is now showing at KTN Kenya, primetime at 6-6.59 pm Eastern African Time on weekdays. The hot teleserye of the Lizquen loveteam of Enrique Gil & Liza Soberano was already shown via cable throughout Africa on StarTimes late last year but the Kenyan masses will now have the opportunity to watch it on free TV.

The other telenovela being shown at KTN is also another Pinoy teleserye, the Marian Rivera & Alden Richards starrer Carmela which is a reissue having been shown at primetime by the same station last year. It can be watched now at 9 AM Eastern African Time, KTN.



SEXY IS BACK! BUT BACKROW BLUES?: Coleman, Arci, Jessy @ ur "EXTRA SERVICE"

No doubt about it, Pinoy showbiz is regaining its glory days. Not only has the number of films being shot considerably increased but even the genres being offered have diversified. The backbone was the highly-successful Rom-com which understandably mostly pulled the fairer sex (and their hapless boyfriends) to flock the cinema. Now, it's the turn of the boys to be wooed by the film producers (and that means, the barkada will likely come along, and hopefully they will pull all their gf's with them).

Unfortunately, the back row of the balcony has long disappeared. Who ever thought the vaunted modern but cramped multiplexes could be so killjoy?


Monday, July 18, 2016

IGNACIO DE LOYOLA: Filmed in Spain with Spanish Actors, made by Filipinos

The Philippines is touching base with its Hispanic roots. Pinoy super loveteam Kathniel just filmed their recent movie When in Barcelona in ... where else, Barcelona. Pinoy teleseryes & films were being discovered by our long-lost  Spanish-speaking brothers (despite the sabotage done by insecure dark forces who apparently fear that the Hispanics would discover their Asian-Hispanic brothers who looked  not like the Asian version of the dark forces themselves). And now, a Filipino crew filmed a Pinoy Jesuit production about the Spanish Marano who founded the Jesuit order, using Spanish actors led by Andreas Muñoz.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Soft Hispanic

LVN stars Lourdes Medel & Bernard Bonnin
The biggest reason why ordinary Pinoys held back in claiming a Hispanic gene somewhere in their ancestry was their not quite aristocratic economic status. They were afraid to be mocked why they were hobnobbing with the hoi-polloi instead of rubbing elbows with the country's elite. But the world has so evolved that the big majority of contemporary hybrids were already born among the working classes, particularly the OFW's. That has freed the majority of Filipinos in many parts of the archipelago who hesitated for long to claim the bloodline that even after a few generations was giving them the unique Asian-Hispanic sex appeal. Not a fake mestisong bangus after all. It's the real thing.

 In a previous article I mentioned a book by French anthropologists Jagor, Fëdor, et al. (1870). "The Former Philippines Through Foreign Eyes",Blackwood’s magazine for August, 1818, It has an account of conditions in Manila and the Philippines from data given by an English merchant who left the Islands in 1798 after twenty years’ residence in which he accumulated a fortune.

 “Your first question, with respect to the Spanish population, must refer to native Spaniards only; as their numerous descendants, through all the variety of half-castes, would include one third at least of the whole population of Luconia (i.e., Luzon–A. C.)

 “The castes bearing a mixture of the Spanish blood are in Luconia alone at least 200,000. The Sangleys, or Chinese descendants, are upwards of 20,000, and Indians, who call themselves the original Tagalas, about 340,000, making a total population in that island of about 600,000 souls. What may be the respective numbers in the other Philippine Islands I never had any opportunity of learning.”

If 1/3 of Luzon were mestizos even then (in 1798), where are those genes now? Remember: only 2 centuries have passed by in 1798, they still had a century to improve their score before they left in 1898. If in the 1800's (200 years after they arrived), there were already 30% of the population of Luzon who were hybrids, how much more when the Spaniards left 100 years later?

The truth was, there was widespread hybridization: the mechanics was simple really. In Iberian (Portuguese & Spanish) colonial societies, cross-breeding among the races was the norm, unlike the British colonial societies where the British hybrid was treated as belonging to a lesser hierarchial caste (just read James Clavell's novel, Taipan). Cross-breeding in Spanish Philippines was not accidental, it was encouraged. Actually, it was an unstated colonial policy. Ultimately, they realized blood was thicker than water if they wanted to retain the loyalty of the natives.

This is the reason for the leyenda negra propaganda which was used to wean the Filipinos away from its supposed Hispanic mooring as the Philippines was pulled towards the Anglo-Saxon orbit by successive colonizations. Maneuvers which I think were useless because it was enough to  infuse  newer layers to the Pinoy culture without having to denigrate previous ones (our enforced indifference to our Hispanic past led us to neglect treasures like the Intramuros so tourists are now complaining there is nothing cultural to see in Manila, unlike our Asian neighbors who nurture the totality of their heritage. Unless you consider squatters in Intramuros as cultural spots, that is).

We often read there were only few Spaniards who came here. Why, do we really need many to infuse new blood in a population? Ok, let's look at the practical mechanics of Iberian hybridization:

Consider the case of a Manuel Medel who came to the Philippines from Spain in 1912 (Spanish immigration to the Philippines didn't stop with the American regime). Manuel founded a copra plantation in present-day Jose Abad Santos (Trinidad then), Davao Occidental where he had an estimated 200 legitimate & illegitimate children, one of the legitimates was the famous LVN actress Lourdes Medel. That was in the provinces you say? Well, in the cities, how about Lou Salvador who arrived from Spain in the 1930's & sired more than 50 children, many of whom became some of our sexier stars (now we  know why Maja Salvador  is sexy like her aunt Alona Alegre). Out of the East-West bloodline of Pinoys  was forged a querida system which is  still a badge of honor among the well-off classes despite the supposed to be famous religiosity of the population (notwithstanding even the  trendy political correctness pretensions of a few, I must say). In fact, a querida was not even needed all the time. Once, a mestizo governor had to sleep over in a barrio & one day the wife of the owner of the hut became pregnant. A mestizo boy was born and he became a Philippine senator,

They were not the exception, the ones who came here when it was still a colony of Spain must have been more gung-ho. In the 1800's, there were only 600,000 people in Luzon. It appears now, 200,000 hybrids might even be a conservative estimate. Theoretically, a mere 1,000 Spanish Guardia civil personnel could have produced that in a generation, but we are made to believe now that it took  6 generations to produce 200,000 hybrids out of a 600,000 population. How about the civil servants & migrants, they were only praying the Rosary? If for example there were 20,000 of them in 300 years, they could have theoretically produced 4,000,000 in a generation. Even if they were half lazy, they could still have theoretically hybridized the colony many times over (the limiting factor was probably the availability of beautiful girls: the ugly ones remained untouched while the beautiful ones were beautified further, and those are now most likely the forebears of our present beauty queens).

 Next time when you go to a barrio in a town with a crumbling Spanish church, don't wonder why an old farmer woman had Latin silhouettes despite being burned by the sun (which is normal because the Philippines is located in the equatorial latitudes). She is not pure Malay & her deep kayumanggi can be easily cleared by skin peeling and sunblock. I can identify many like her in my frequent out of town trips. I can identify one selling vegetables somewhere.

 Their grandma had a secret which was not a secret anymore.


Read also
Pinays are Again Declared the Sexiest And Hottest Girls in Asia... Naturally

New KATHNIEL film: WHEN IN BARCELONA

... and you guessed it right, it was filmed in Barcelona, Spain.


Thursday, July 14, 2016

Pinoy Teleserye FOREVERMORE Starring LIZQUEN next on KTN Kenya

The international hit Forevermore is continuing its winning streak after it first took Kazakhstan by storm last year. It has already been shown on cable throughout Africa by StarTimes but it will be shown on free TV for the millions of masses on KTN as replacement for another Pinoy teleserye Losing Heaven which is on its last 5 episodes.

I expect it to be on primetime, like the other Pinoy teleseryes shown on KTN before.


"Бақытты болғым келеді" / DOLCE AMORE Starring LIZQUEN soon on 31KANAL Kazakhstan


The Kathniel loveteam of Pinoy teen stars Daniel Padilla & Kathryn Bernardo was Best-Loved Teleserial couple for 2016 in Kazakhstan in a recent online poll by the Kazakh TV station 31Kanal by virtue of their hit teleserye Pangako Sa Yo. But here comes the new teleserye Dolce Amore of another super loveteam from the Philippines, Lizquen of Enrique Gil & Liza Soberano, who turned out to be the best-loved loveteam in 2015 in Kazakhstan by virtue of their hit teleserye Forevermore

Cute Pinoys are flying high. Natural beauty, real beauty all the way.

Спасибо, казахстан!


Thursday, July 7, 2016

SWEET CALORIES OF LOVE: "Dolce Amore" starring Enrique Gil & Liza Soberano

UPDATE: Please read the comments, the discussion is interesting- about the use of movie idols in social engineering, and an enlightening account on how the Golden Age of Philippine movies from 1970-90 ended



The caterer of the teleserye Dolce Amore is obviously very good. Both the leading stars are gaining weight. I wonder if that was the message behind the title- sweet love has lots of calories.

Va bene... Lo sai...

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

ONLINE POLL IN KAZAKHSTAN: KATHNIEL is the Most Loved Teleserial Pair

Here is another example why the Bad Guys who love to sabotage Pinoy teen stars fear them. The Cute Pinoys are really making waves everywhere where their teleseryes are shown. It is genuine popularity, not the fake manufactured one which relies on propaganda, dirty tricks & sabotage.

In Kazakhstan, there was an online poll today: the literal translation of the question in Russian was Which among the pairs in our teleserials (being shown in Kazakstan) do you love best? The other series came from India, Turkey & Russia.

Pangako Sa Yo is not only slated to be shown in Peru. It is also currently being shown simultaneously in many countries in Africa & Kazakhstan. In Kazakhstan, the Kathniel loveteam of Pinoy teen stars Daniel Padilla & Kathryn Bernardo has so created a storm that in that online poll by the Kazakh station 31Kanal as to which was the hottest pair among the stars of the various teleserials being shown there, Kathniel easily topped the poll lopsidedly, copping 66.4% of the votes.

We should not forget, another top Pinoy teen loveteam, the Lizquen pair of Enrique Gil & Liza Soberano, was named as the loveliest pair in the world by local fans when the teleserye Forevermore was shown there last year.

No wonder the Bad Guys are seething with envy & can't stop sabotaging.

The Winner: Angelo & Yna
Daniel Padilla plays Angelo &
Kathryn Bernardo plays Yna
in
PANGAKO SA YO/
THE PROMISE/
LA PROMESA

Source of Online Poll: 31Kanal, Kazakhstan

READ MORE ABOUT THE SABOTAGE ON KATHNIEL & other Pinoy stars:

1.LA PROMESA" in PERU: KATHNIEL is coming to Peru & the "Popular Kunwari" are at War

2. SABOTAGE OF PINOY TELESERYES IN PERU: Now we know why they are bitter & cruel (as if they weren't used to the lowest ratings. VERY "POPULAR KUNWARI" INDEED!!!)

All is not lost on GMA, Pinoy Teleserye can only fly higher? ENCANTADIA trailer

 I wrote a rather frank comment on a certain self-defeating propensity of GMA the other day, but that was not meant to cut off a limb of the Pinoy teleserye-making machine. The South Korean barnacles are so washed-up, they are imploding anyway (like in Peru, they clung whichever which way despite being unwanted just to maintain the propaganda fiction of Korean wave though they were so unpopular they have had the lowest ratings for nearly a decade in a field of Peruvian, Mexican, Colombian, Turkish & lately Filipino telenovelas). GMA should get rid of them pronto, they will just bite it at the back the moment insecurity sets in. I am still hoping that GMA gets its act together & produces good teleseryes like it used to, that will only be for the good of Pinoy teleseryes in the long run. It actually has under its sleeves popular international hits like the Marian Rivera starrers.

 It used to excel in fantaseryes. Let's see if its fortunes will pick up with this one so it doesn't have to kowtow to insecure snakes who bites at the back the first moment envy sets in.

 

Read also:

GMA should have more class... Seeking Solace from Foreign Washed-Ups will only sink it deeper (Support from a Laos will just make it laos)

GMA should have more class... Seeking Solace from Foreign Washed-Ups will only sink it deeper (Support from a Laos will just make it laos)

We know GMA has been in the doldrums for a long time. It's more optimal to have competition in the local broadcast industry because competition forces everybody to come up with better products. I was hoping it could regain its footing & put up a fight. Though I could imagine it was humiliating to be beaten black & blue in the ratings almost everyday especially in an industry which treats ratings as its Bible. But I have to admit it's really hard to put much weight on the AGB Nielsen tales considering its hard to  explain its obvious lack of  correspondence to reality. Just one noteworthy example, I remember the alleged ratings of a teleserye of its young loveteam was even higher than that of a rival team in Metro Manila but you'll be hard put to explain why they were relatively unknown even in Manila. Nobody bothered to take advantage commercially on their "popularity" as if there was nothing there. But the "less popular" competition became practically superstars.

I could imagine GMA needed a "karamay". But at a time when this blog has just documented the latest among a series of sabotage incidents on Pinoy stars involving South Korean fingerprints, I find it objectionable to read (in the comments section of my post on the latest sabotage) that it still allows itself to be used by the washed-up South Koreans and will be releasing "3 Koreanovelas" next week. As if it's celebrating that a Pinoy teleserye, admittedly by its rival Abs-Cbn, has just been sabotaged successfully.

There's no doubt that the propaganda fiction of Korea Wave has fizzled out  throughout the world. It is being kept alive by the likes of GMA who still innocently echo its propaganda while the South Koreans treat the more star material Pinoys as threats that should be neutralized in order that the propaganda fiction stays alive (Read Tales of Sabotage at the sidebar). GMA remained in the doldrums despite their association anyway, it just reinforced its image as a weak producer that it had to seek the support of a foreign washed-up that is trashing the locals to stay alive. So is GMA keeping them alive locally just so it could sabotage not only its rival but Pinoy teleserye?

Pinoy teleseryes are flying high internationally, it's performing better commercially than the South Korean or other Asian dramas in many parts of the world, and it doesn't matter if it's GMA or ABSCBN.  If Pinoys were really wiser, teleseryes should have been treated as a national strength & protected so it gets stronger. They should defend it & vaccinate themselves from an obvious competitor who consider them as threats & doesn't balk on doing sabotage on them as they embrace. The continued presence of this competitor only perpetuates the inferiority complex that shouldn't be there anymore, it only corrodes the standards that Pinoy should finally start being proud of.

If GMA can't produce viable teleseryes anymore, instead of coddling a virus that seeks destruction, wouldn't it be more practical that its owners just sell to somebody who knows how to defend & fortify national strengths like the teleserye?

Below are comments I extracted from my post on the latest sabotage incident. (Please refrain from commenting below, I don't want a network war. It's enough we read the extracts below).


Please read also the following articles as backgrounder to this post:

 1. SABOTAGE OF PINOY TELESERYE "LA PROMESA" SUCCEEDS: "Puentes de Amor" ends & it will be replaced not by "La Promesa" but by a re-issued, previously low-rater South Korean drama in an apparent schedule-grab

2. LA PROMESA" in PERU: KATHNIEL is coming to Peru & the "Popular Kunwari" are at War

 3. SABOTAGE OF PINOY TELESERYES IN PERU: Now we know why they are bitter & cruel (as if they weren't used to the lowest ratings. VERY "POPULAR KUNWARI" INDEED!!!)

TELESERYE TRAILER: "Till I Met U" starring JADINE

The emails containing video contributions/recommendations from my friends so cluttered my inbox during  my vacation that I missed this one. Better late than never. This means, no rigodons of the loveteams yet. Anyway, another teleserye from one of the Big 4 young loveteams of the country is a welcome thing. The more, the merrier.

Jadine was the first Pinoy loveteam to be sabotaged by the Bad Guys when the 2014 movie Diary Ng Panget overwhelmed everybody in the pirate Asiatic film community. The exposure ended with a reverse psychology effect which forced the Bad Guys to publicize the Jadine loveteam instead. So Jadine is now the most constant Pinoy presence in the outwardly pirate (but actually) propaganda sites (where they get representative popular  artists from other Asian countries but they flood the sites with South Korean films hoping that when one visits a Jadine film, they get bogged down to watch the numerous South Korean films, contributing to the fictitious narrative of the popularity of the South Korean wave. The overwhelming presence of the South Korean films also give the subliminal message that add to their contrived narrative of popularity. Unfortunately for them, these pirate sites are marginal in the scheme of things. Meanwhile, in the actual world, they get very low ratings.

Jadine is safe FOR NOW from the Bad guys so the Bad Guys are hitting on other Pinoy loveteams like Kathniel. Read Tales of Sabotage at the Sidebar for the details.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

CUTE PINAY & PINOY MONITOR: Bianca Umali is Blooming Nicely, So is Ruru Madrid

When I first saw Bianca Umali last year, she was part of a loveteam & somehow her personality didn't come thru. A year hence & I saw the clip below: she has definitely metamorphosed. I realized she could be a Kathryn Bernardo/Julia Barreto mix in some angles. I checked the other loveteam of GMA & it turned out the boy, Ruru Madrid,  has definitely "molted" too in a hunky way &  I thought, if paired with somebody as appealing as Bianca, their loveteam could give the Big 4 young loveteams of the country a run for their money. I wonder if GMA had no intention of shuffling its young loveteams. A Bianca-Ruru could turn it Big 5, the sexy one among the bunch.

 The more cute love teams, the merrier.


Ruru Madrid
Rubia, Biru


FINALLY: Pinoy Action with BRANDON VERA & ANNE CURTIS


This one really got my attention. Finally a Pinoy action movie. Featuring famous Filipino-American MMA fighter Brandon Vera. Now finally the Philippines has an answer to Thailand's Tony Jaa & Indonesia's Iko Uwais. Directed by Erik Matti, no less.

As a bonus, cute Anne Curtis is the co-star.


PINOY TELESERYE IN MALAYSIA: 6 Teleseryes on Astrobella- MY DESTINY, SANA'Y WALA NANG WAKAS, JENNA, IMORTAL, CHILDREN IN MY HEART, ADARNA


Every now & then, we check the teleserye scene in a particular part of the world. In Malaysia, Astrobella has 6 teleseryes being shown daily, 4 from GMA & 2 from Abs-Cbn.

Kinda curious that there are more GMA teleseryes being shown in Southeast Asia though ABSCBN shows sell more in other geographical areas. Does that mean both broadcast companies don't necessarily compete with each other outside the country and actually complement each other in offering what suits in a particular geographical market?

My Destiny- GMA
Sanay Wala Nang Wakas- ABSCBN
Jenna- GMA
Imortal- ABS-CBN
Children in my Heart- GMA
Adarna- GMA




NO SEX SCANDAL YET: Sexy Jessy Mendiola

Let's take a break from our sabotage/nutcracking. I must admit this was the first time that local actress Jessy Mendiola  caught my attention. But the moment I read the screaming title of the email of my friend (he's hetero) in capital letters- YOU MUST POST THIS!-  I knew there must be something. You see, that was the first time he emailed a contribution for this blog. So I opened it and I readily agreed.  I don't usually follow the lists conducted by local magazines but apparently she is the new FHM Sexiest woman of the year. I must admit she's packing where it counts.

Wooh, I have another addition to my sex scandal wishlist...