FULLY-CLOTHED KISSING ON A ROOFTOP: "Till I Met You" Starring JADINE

Frankly, the JaDine loveteam composed of James Reid & Nadine Lustre  should now start kissing without clothes. I've seen them kiss in their first film Diary ng Panget & they had clothes there too. All the big Pinoy young loveteams have been kissing lately but they were all wearing clothes. JaDine should set the trend, they were the first ones to kiss anyway.

LizQuen's FOREVERMORE now showing in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon & Kenya... Meanwhile, Liza releases the lyric video of latest single "Spark"

Forevermore was the first teleserye of the LizQuen loveteam composed of Enrique Gil & Liza Soberano and it easily became an international hit when it was first shown outside the country in Kazakhstan in 2015. After taking that country by storm, it started spreading its wings into the other continents. It is currently being shown in Nigeria, Ghana & Cameroon at My TV Africa & primetime at the Kenyan KTN TV (just as the teleserye of the other big Pinoy loveteam, KathNiel's Pangako Sa Yo, is also being shown in those places so it's a veritable fest of Pinoy young loveteams in West & East Africa these days).

Meanwhile, the second LizQuen hit 2016 teleserye, Dolce Amore, has started its international run at Kazakhstan & will soon hit Cambodia, Vietnam & Africa.

Meanwhile, Ms. Soberano found the time to record her latest single.

OFICIAL MOVIE TRAILER: Berlin Film Festival 2016 Best Film "ANG BABAENG HUMAYO" Directed by Lav Diaz, Starring Charo Santos-Concio & John Lloyd Cruz, showing in Manila on September 28

PANGAKO SA YO/THE PROMISE/LA PROMESA now showing in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania & Peru

The 2016 teleserye Pangako Sa Yo/ The Promise/ La Promesa is currently being shown in Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania @ Startimes Novela E1 & opens tomorrow, Thursday, in Peru in South America.

 It has already been shown in Kazakhstan, even when it hasn't completed its first-run showing in Manila early this year, where the Kathniel loveteam was voted in an online poll as the best-loved teleserial couple in that country.

Truy Tìm Công Lý / "Sana Bukas Pa Ang Kahapon" airs on Vietnam TodayTV

This Bea Alonzo-starrer is also currently being shown on Tanzanian & Samoan primetime.

Arci Muñoz' TELESERYE: "Magpahanggang Wakas" Starring ARCI MUÑOZ & JERICHO ROSALES

Arci Muñoz is the most clicked personality in our blog. She has come a long way from the sexy calendar girl we initially featured in the blog. Tomorrow her new primetime teleserye will begin.

Meanwhile in Peru... LA PROMESA Finally Showing September 22 @ 5:30 PM, Peruvian Time, Panamericana TV

The Kathniel movie Barcelona A Love Untold has just took the Philippine box-office by storm, but here comes the news that the last teleserye of the loveteam has finally been dubbed into Spanish and that La Promesa will finally be showing on Peruvian TV next week. Same timeslot as the trailblazing Puentes de Amor, the first Pinoy teleserye to be shown in Latin America.

Who's Afraid of the Typhoon? Come Hell or High Water, KATHNIEL's "BARCELONA A Love Untold" Is a Hit, Naturally!

The weather yesterday was raging, but apparently, weather wasn't enough reason to break the will of a determined fan. The country's top young loveteam just proved it is still the country's top loveteam at the box office.

TELESERYE, DRAMA, TELENOVELA: Like Japan, Mexico is a Big Foreign Investor in the Philippines but it doesn't require us to buy its telenovelas...

It was a comedy of errors of sorts these past few days. I came out of the hospital recovered from another illness, only to catch the nastiest Upper Respiratory Tract Infection I've ever had at home with the start of the ber months, complete with high-grade fever & incessant coughing. But in the end, I didn't expect the post announcing my sick leave would attract comments.

The most hilarious was the part where somebody wrote about "the villains getting away " while I was on sick leave. While it was really interesting to write about the shenanigans of the villains when they occured, the truth is I don't really think about them especially now that I've discovered their whole game is just propaganda fiction. I never really took them seriously even before & it was only when I discovered the sabotage on Jadine in 2014 (see Scandals at the sidebar) that I even bothered to check them up. And instead of being impressed, I discovered instead their lack of popularity almost everywhere except in some areas of Mongoloid East Asia. Simply, they are nowhere as popular as their propaganda drivel. The truth is I had great laughs because it was a con game that was very expensive & extensive but after a decade, it is obvious they are not really getting popular, they are fast receding almost everywhere including in the Philippines. They can always invest in more propaganda. If you noticed, there are suddenly minor celebrities, newspaper write-ups & even bloggers suddenly busy working for them, signs they are actively stemming the fatal tide (not to mention the release of films, low-rating teleseryes & even a filmed concert of unknowns, designed to pretend whatever popularity. Perception management, that is). But they have been doing those for the last decade and they have not really prevented their slide from consciousness. Mercenary Pinoys are part of the territory, but in the end, one really can't fight one's natural looks. When people see the sleight-of-hand, the magic is gone.

The big nagging question, of course, is how did they have the gall to sabotage Pinoys who are clearly overshadowing  them in that most important requisite for a star- looks? (See Tales of SABOTAGE at the sidebar)

Part of the recent efforts to stem the tide of irreversible oblivion was something  I thought  was very curious: in a certain local business show that I watched, there was suddenly a disclaimer that the South Koreans are big investors in the country and that they send many tourists to the country. There were other guest foreign businessmen of different nationalities who invested in the Philippines but why was the South Koreans singled out for a disclaimer? Considering the wide inroads of South Korean propaganda in the country, this was not an innocent disclaimer. Were we expected to just grin and bear it just because they have investments? Why, how big are those investments anyway?

Why do the Japanese with far bigger investments don't find the need to sabotage us? I love the films of Takashi Miike but Japanese series are not slammed down our throats. The Mexicans, who have poured the largest foreign direct investment in the last three years, don't require us to buy their telenovelas, the true competition of teleserye worldwide?

Let me do my disclaimers too. All my writeups about the scandals were done (written & uploaded from) on a Korean-made smartphone but  whose screen cracked just today when I dropped it. I wrote this post on the cracked screen. All my articles will soon be done on a different un-Korean brand the new model of which will arrive in the Philippine market soon. One of my three Kazakh friends who I befriended on a trip to Kazakhstan was a Korean ethnic (there are 100,000 Kazakh Koreans, Koreans thrown by the Soviets into Kazakhstan) but he identified more with Russians, and  speak Russian like a native. Sergei himself researched and gave me an honest overview of the Central Asian Asiatic film scene devoid of the nationalistic undertones among Asiatics, like a true Russian intellectual would. He is one of the three who gives me the regular heads-up of the Central Asian scene (the other two are a native Kazakh & a blonde Kazakh Russian).

TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL 2016: Ma Rosa/ Ang Babaeng Humayo

The country's top two Indie directors, Lav Diaz & Brillante Mendoza, represent the Philippines in the Toronto Film Festival 2016.

Ma Rosa already made history at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival with the Best Actress win of Jaclyn Jose.

Ang Babaeng Humayo just recently won the Best Film at the just-concluded Venice Film Festival 2016.

GRAND SLAM: After winning the Lion D'oro with "Ang Babaeng Humayo", another Pinoy film "Pamilya Ordinaryo" wins the Audience Vote @ the 13th Edition of Venice Days Section of the Venice Film Festival 2016

With the double win of Lav Diaz' "Ang Babaeng Humayo" & Eduardo Roy Junior's "Pamilya Ordinaryo" in the Venice Film Festival 2016, there's no doubt the Pinoy film industry is flying high.

LION D'ORO, BEST FILM @ VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2016: "Ang Babaeng Humayo" Directed by LAV DIAZ

This is good news. It just came at the right time when I got confirmation I can now end my sick leave, I am well.

The Philippines is well. This is just one more proof its entertainment industry is one of its worldwide strengths. It should be nurtured, it will go a long way in dissipating the lingering inferiority complex of a population still in uneven development.

As far as showbiz is concerned, we are one of the region's stalwarts...

A MAJOR WORLD SOAP PRODUCER: List of Pinoy Teleseryes Being Shown in Africa

Pinoy teleseryes & Latin American telenovelas have had a tight competition over the African soap market since the 2000 version of Pangako Sa Yo took the continent by storm more than a decade ago. Pinoy teleseryes never looked back and have become primetime staples in the continent's major markets like Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, etc. The competition has grown tighter through the years, made livelier by the resurgence of Indian & Turkish telenovelas, but it was good the Pinoys have already developed a lasting connection to its African audience and continue to be appreciated by them, like in many parts of the world. The challenge is for Pinoy producers to up the ante and be up to the task of being one of the major international forces in world telenovelas.

Here is a list of the teleseryes being shown in Africa, as culled from a Facebook group of African fans of Teleseryes.

1. Be Careful With My Heart- Nigeria, Ghana & Cameroon @ My TV Africa

2. Forevermore- Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon @ My TV Africa; Kenya @ KTN

3. Tomorrow Belongs To Me/ Sana Bukas Pa Ang Kahapon- Tanzania @ Star TV

4. Doble Kara/ Identical Twins- Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania @ Startimes Novela E1

5. Pangako Sa Yo/ The Promise/ Assurance- Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda & Tanzania @ Startimes Novela E1

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2016 Main Competition: "ANG BABAENG HUMAYO" Starring CHARO SANTOS-CONCIO & JOHN LLOYD CRUZ, Directed by LAV DIAZ

The only Asian representative in the Main Competition of the Venice Film Festival 2016.

Теңімсің/ JUST THE WAY YOU ARE shown on Kazakhstan 31Kanal

I'm still on sick leave but I don't want to disappoint a Kazakh fan who alerted me on this great news.

The teleserye DOLCE AMORE is currently being shown on 31Kanal Kazakhstan to great raves but the popularity of the Pinoy loveteam Lizquen composed of Enrique Gil & Liza Soberano means the fans craved for more. So they just got to show the first hit movie of the hit loveteam, Just The Way You Are.

Sick Leave

I'll be on leave for a week. I just came from the hospital...

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL 2016, 13th Edition of Venice Days section: "Pamilya Ordinaryo"

The Philippines is the only Asian representative in the Main Competition of the 2016 Venice Film Festival with Lav Diaz' Ang Babaeng Humayo, but there's another Pinoy film featured in the Venice Days section, the winner of this year's Cinemalaya Film Festival, Eduardo Roy Jr.'s Pamilya Ordinaryo.

Audience Share, Philippine TV: A Few Curiosities

The table below was done by Kantar. We can see here that ABS-CBN dominates overwhelmingly nationwide though GMA still hasn't lost its foothold in the national capital region. This reflects on the TV ratings churned out by both Kantar & Agb Nielsen, both multinational rating agencies,  on a regular basis where some nationally-popular programs supposedly turned out to be less popular in Manila, the nation's capital. A curiosity which at many times made me incredulous because some of those alleged popular programs in Manila, where I live, I practically didn't know anyone watching them, nor did I even get a drift they existed at all. Does this mean the inertia of habit, or allergy to remote control, is the dominant factor in loyalty to television channels in Manila?

Is this state of things too convenient? Exclusive channel loyalty, really?

 I consider myself a "post-TV" person- I multitask & surf more the internet than watch TV but if ever I'm seated before the tube, I would more often than not be juggling through many channels, not to mention I still would be holding my smartphone or a tablet & many times, I have the laptop opened on my lap. An open channel may not even mean anything- like a doctor friend has a TV in his clinic waiting room & the channel was never changed since it was installed. I asked him what's the channel & he didn't know. But the thousands of patients & their companions who have waited in that room through the years must have thought that was his favorite channel. But the truth is, he never watches TV, he was too busy making money.

 But it's true, many people are a creation of their habits. The remote control is one of the de rigueur gadgets but a lot of people would rather brave a dodgy program than change the channel. I wrote before of my mother who never changed her channel through the decades & it took my recent intervention to pull her out of the inertia of her habits & discover a new world. Now she's stuck in her new channel because she still won't bother with the remote control. But is the Manila viewing public mostly seniors who never got comfortable with the remote control?

Personally, I consider the table below as just a guide. Statistics is not an exact science, how could an arbitrary sample ever be worthy to represent the truth of the whole market. Moreover, it doesn't capture the true whole market considering the millions of hits generated by the 10 million Filipino diaspora on the online viewing outlets (they have a big buying power because of the big remittance money that drives up the national consumption power). Ratings serve more the advertisers, just so they have an idea where they are sinking their money into.

But real popularity?

I have mentioned before of the inconsistencies of the ratings to reality. For example, a loveteam which was supposed to have rated higher on TV in Manila was practically unknown in Manila while the one who was supposed to have rated lower filled the Araneta Coliseum in Manila with their concert. Or another had a box-office hit films afterwards, in Manila and beyond while the supposedly high-rater has faded into oblivion.

THE SWEETEST WEDDING: "Dolce Amore" Finale Starring LIZQUEN & IAN VENERACION as Priest

Well, one can not gorge on sweets forever or the calories would pile up. The hit teleserye Dolce Amore has finally shunned the calories and packed up after 6 months.

It is still being shown in Kazakhstan.
зрителям из Казахстана и России, это финал. не смотреть видео, если вы не хотите потерять саспенс в финал.

LATIN ASIAN TELESERYE: Meanwhile in Latin America... They are still dubbing LA PROMESA?

I have to admit I am a fan of the Mexican dubbers who did the Spanish version of Bridges of Love (Puentes de Amor). I was so fascinated by the Spanish Latino version that I actually finished watching Puentes de Amor from beginning to end in one of the Spanish-speaking sites which included Puentes de Amor as one of the telenovelas offered in their sites, a first for an Asian telenovela. This should give a hint to those marketing Pinoy teleseryes: Teleseryes are Asian but they are more- they are also  Latin Asian, able to pull both the Asians & Latins because both can see themselves in a Pinoy teleserye. I think, Puentes de Amor made a splash in Peru to heights not ever scaled by the South Korean dramas which have entered the market years earlier because the diversified Peruvian society could see something of themselves reflected by what they saw in the Pinoy teleserye unlike in other purely Asian dramas. The new label will also lessen the insecurity of certain Asians who tend to commit sabotage if they felt they were overshadowed in the Asian tag.

Up until the appearance of Puentes de Amor in Peru, the Asian dramas, mostly from South Korea, languished for nearly a decade at the bottom of the charts dominated by telenovelas from Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Turkey & even Greece. It might be a big mystery how they still bothered to show  South Korean dramas for nearly 10 years despite being perennially in the bottom of the Peruvian TV ratings (free like those being shown free in the Internet?) but the unexpected success of the first Pinoy teleserye in Peru definitely lifted the profile of the other Asian dramas. Strangely, that stoke the insecurity of the usual suspects instead. Another Pinoy teleserye was already bought, Pangako Sa Yo (La Promesa) but for some mystifying reason, the usual "avid" South Korean "fans" went on another sabotage campaign which has become common lately against the resurgent Pinoy stars & films in many parts of the world by apparently the same suspects (read the links below; read also  Tales of SABOTAGE in the sidebar, where many of the cases of sabotage done on the resurgent Pinoys were annotated).

La Promesa didn't replace Puentes de Amor, but it turned out it's not because of the sabotage. As of August 25, the dubbers were still busy dubbing La Promesa. Hector Cuevas Ireta below has just dubbed Egoy (the character of Grae Fernandez) in La Promesa.

As I said, I am a fan of  the Mexican dubbers...

Read about the sabotage on La Promesa in Peru

 1. 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!!!)

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

3. Meanwhile, in Peru... LA PROMESA, Muy Pronto?

OFFICIAL TRAILER: "BARCELONA A Love Untold" Starring KATHNIEL

FULL TELESERYE TRAILER: "Till I Met You" Starring JaDine