‘Bahay Kubo’: big on the casting, not-so-big on the delivery

For this column, I continue with my MMFF bets review. I started with Shake, Rattle, and Roll 9 (Regal Films). Next, I wrote about Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo (ABS-CBN Film Productions). Now, it’s about Bahay Kubo (by Regal Films).

Any movie with Maricel Soriano in it would be a definite contender for a film festival—or so I thought when I made my list of movies to watch during the Metro Manila Film Festival. Maricel, after all, is still one of the most credible and talented actresses around. And while I have no idea what this title actually means, she is still the Diamond Star, and you don’t get a media title for nothing.

Dubbed as “a Pinoy Mano Po,” Bahay Kubo (directed by Joel Lamangan) follows the story of Eden, who lives in a picturesque, guess what, bahay kubo by some babbling brook in the province. Her life changes—and how!—when her own adoptive mother Ida (Gloria Romero) brings home a baby for her to adopt. Ida tells her a baby always brings good luck, and that she herself has had a string of good fortune since she decided to adopt Eden.

For some reason only producer Mother Lily Monteverde knows as the person credited for the story, one child becomes seven, of whom six just spring out from nowhere, with one, Rose (Shaina Magdayao), as the only biological child.

The adopted six are portrayed by the most lucrative young faces on film and TV these days: Marian Rivera (best known these days for her lead role in Marimar) is Lily, Yasmien Kurdi (who headed the TV remake of the classic Pasan ko ang Daigdig) is Dhalia, Jiro Manio (who broke into the scene with Magnifico) is Junior, Isabella de Leon (who was in the Vic Sotto sitcom Daddy di do du) is Violet, Sam Bumatay (who was in Mulawin) is Daisy, and Rita Iringan (last seen in the hit series Asian Treasures) is Jasmine. It’s a commercial casting coup, and unabashedly so.

Eden’s life does change soon after she adopts Lily. Not only does a string of babies follow, she also finds love through a figurative and literal blind date, Perry (Eric Quizon), an architect. Where character and story development is concerned, he is only blind for a weak punch line and an architect for no reason at all. He reappears with vision restored, starts a family with her, makes them rich and brings the whole family to the city, and then disappears off to the land of investment scams, only to reappear again later for the story book ending.

The main weakness of Bahay Kubo is that it started with a convincing though preposterous scenario, but then meanders into some dramatic scenes conveniently set up to please the actors and actresses’ fans at some points, and some dramatic scenes that don’t even belong in a film that begins so comically and proposes such a delightfully absurd situation as this one does.

To illustrate, the opening scene is Regal Films comedy at its finest: Eden wakes up early in the morning, greets her precious plants, and then chases some pigs away from her vegetables, with Maricel squawking as only Taray can. As the film progresses, her children leave her one by one to find themselves. Eden lights a candle each for the child that goes away, silently weeping her anguish away, and it’s like Maricel Regal Drama Special all over again.

What makes this film more or less worth the ticket price is the cast. Gloria Romero is always luminous, no matter how silly the role. This one is no exception. Maricel Soriano, of course, is reliably competent. She carries the whole film through the bumps and holes in its unfolding. Eugene Domingo, who won the MMFF 2007 Best Supporting Actress award for her performance, is consistently good all throughout. Maricel and Eugene’s chemistry sparkles, even if at times they’re both too loud.

The young stars also have their moments, but not all of them manage to shine, mostly because there are just too many of them. The standouts are Jiro Manio, who seems to have learned fast what it is like to internalize a role, and Yasmien Kurdi, who appears to have a bright future in comedy.

All in all, Bahay Kubo isn’t the “Pinoy Mano Po” it was touted to be. While that particular film franchise also leaves a lot to be said about it, there’s no denying it did make a mark among viewers. This one is just good for a laugh or two.

Then again, I supposed you could say that Bahay Kubo is indeed a “Pinoy Mano Po” for all the Regal reasons, as it is exactly the kind of dramatic comedy you can expect from the MMFF.

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