Finally, Rakenrol on the big screen

MANILA, Philippines - After five years and thousand of fans on Facebook clamoring for its release, the story of the greatest Filipino rock ’n roll band you’ve never heard of has finally hit the big screen via Rakenrol, which opened in theaters yesterday.

Directed by Quark Henares, Rakenrol has already received acclaim overseas, having been screened in the Udine Film Festival in Italy and the Asia Pacific Film Festival in Los Angeles. The movie has also been invited to be screened at several international filmfests in Hawaii, Goterborg, San Diego and New York.

Most recently, it was the closing film of the 2011 Cinemalaya Film Festival, where it played to a star-studded, SRO crowd at the CCP Main Theater.

Rakenrol then continued to live up to its name and made this year’s Cinemalaya one for the ages by throwing a concert at the Harbour Square at the CCP, with big name bands like Itchyworms, Ciudad, Taken By Cars and Pedicab performing to a jampacked crowd.

Even years before its release, Rakenrol, which stars Diether Ocampo as hunky rock star Jacci Rocha, Glaiza de Castro as the aspiring frontwoman of Hapipaks and Jason Abalos as her bestfriend and the band’s songwriter, has already developed a loyal group of followers that have been eagerly waiting for the film to open nationwide.

The official Facebook page alone has gathered nearly 7,000 “likes” with all of its members excited over the movie’s final release date.

Rakenrol is the brainchild of Quark and Diego Castillo, who are considered stalwarts in the local rock scene. Quark is the frontman of the band Us-2 Evil-0, while Diego is the guitarist of Sandwich.

The story revolves around Irene (Glaiza) and Odie (Jason) as bestfriends brought together by their common love for rock ’n roll. Odie falls in love with Irene and helps fulfill her dreams of forming a band. They eventually recruit an ex-punk-turned-barista named Mo (Ketchup Eusebio) and the school bully Junfour (Alwyn Uytingco), thus, the band Hapipaks was born.

As the band goes on the difficult path to finding its place in the music industry, Irene is wooed by her “all-time supercrush,” the famous rock star Jacci (Diether), and the one thing that brought her and Odie together might end up destroying them. The supporting characters add color and humor to the film, with Ramon Bautista as the music video director Flame Tigerblüden, Ricardo Cepeda as a samurai marketing guru, Jun Sabayton as Mo’s artist roommate and Matet de Leon.

Rakenrol is produced by Regal Entertainment, Furball Production and Reality Entertainment in association with PostManila.