Direk Joey wears many hats

MANILA, Philippines - Director Jose Javier Reyes is turning 60 on Oct. 21. A man who wears many hats, he has been in show business more than half of his life. He is a glib TV personality who has appeared in such shows as Juicy, Showbiz Police and Talentadong Pinoy. He also acts and was last seen doing comedy with Ogie Alcasid in Boy Pickup and Shalala in Echoserang Frog.

He’s likewise a blogger who writes witty essays in his blog, Choking on my Adobo. He’s a college professor at La Salle and the College of St. Benilde teaching filmmaking courses. He’s a member of the Cinemalaya screening committee and board of jurors, who swears that this year’s batch of Cinemalaya entries is the best so far. And as if that’s not enough, he’s now also the editor of the showbiz magazine, Inside Showbiz.

But for us, he will always be better known as a filmmaker. He has made about 70 movies and has won Best Screenplay and Best Director awards for films as varied as Oro, Plata, Mata, Pahiram ng Isang Umaga, May Minamahal, Makati Girls and Katas ng Saudi. He also did horror flicks like Regal Shocker, Malikmata, Spirit of the Glass, Matakot sa Karma and Kutob (for which he won a Best Director award). But we like him best for his romantic movies, like May Minamahal, Kung Ako na Lang Sana, the Judy Ann Santos-Ryan Agoncillo films Kasal, Kasalo, Kasali, Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo and My Househusband.

One of our personal favorites is the endearing Radio Romance (1996), involving several love stories of people from various social strata that has yet to be duplicated by anyone. It even antedated the similarly themed Hollywood romantic film also with intertwining love stories, Love Actually.

Now, Joey comes up with a new movie about love and its intricacies, Somebody to Love, revolving on nine major characters whose lives crisscross each other. It is opening in theaters on Aug. 20 as Mother Lily’s special birthday presentation. Carla Abellana plays the creative director of an advertising agency who meets Matteo Guidicelli, a real estate magnate, who’s attracted to her but is already bedding Isabelle Daza, a Hong Kong-based hotelier, whenever she’s in Manila.

Jason Abalos is Carla’s OFW best friend who feels insecure upon learning that she’s getting cozy with Matteo.

Matteo’s sister, Maricar Reyes, is the abused wife of David Chua, who’s having an affair with a former beauty queen, Nathalie Hart (the former Princess Snell). Maricar has also problems with their mom who hasn’t revealed to her the truth that their dad left them because he’s gay.

Iza Calzado is the best friend of Isabelle. She’s a TV talk show host who always wants to be talked about in public and cooks up a relationship with a popular athlete (Alex Castro) for publicity purposes. But she later dumps upon learning that being linked to him is not helping her career at all.

Kiray Celis is a secretary who believes she’s very beautiful and is forever hitting on office mate Manuel Chua, who’s the boyfriend of the gay Vince de Jesus. She believes her beauty can turn Manuel into a real man.

Ella Cruz is the production assistant of Iza, who’s in love with a hunky gym instructor, Albie Casiño, whose sideline is bedding sex-starved matronas.

Also in the cast are Jaclyn Jose as the mom of Matteo and Maricar; Jackielou Blanco as the mom of Carla; and Beauty Gonzalez as Kiray’s best friend.

Somebody to Love is also direk Joey’s comeback film with Regal. “My last Regal movie was Monster’s Mom six years ago,” he says. “It’s always nice to work for Mother Lily as she’s the type of producer who trusts you completely as a filmmaker. She doesn’t meddle with the script. Ito, I told her I’ll use a lot of split screens to help forward the story at okay lang sa kanya. Kasi, nine different stories ito and with such a big cast, kung iisa-isahin mo, aabutin ng five hours ang movie. But thank God for today’s technology, with the help of split screens, you can make the narrative move faster. I’d also like to thank the whole cast for being very cooperative. Most of them, ngayon ko lang nakatrabaho but they’re all very professional and made my work easier. The language we use in the film is very now, with plenty of four-letter words which they all deliver with aplomb. Sabi ko nga, baka ma-R 18 kami, not because of the sexy love scenes, but because of the raw language used by the characters.”

Even before this is shown, Joey has already started shooting a horror flick, Dilim, about a haunted dorm in the university belt, topbilled by Kylie Padilla, Rayver Cruz, Rafael Rosell, Nathalie Hart and Joross Gamboa. “This is a different kind of horror flick kasi the ghost appears even during the day, hindi sa gabi lang,” he says.

But his biggest and most anticipated project is Chinoy, which will be for 2015, about the lives of several Fil-Chinese young people today and he’s tapping the services of some of the good-looking candidates in the recently-concluded Mr. and Miss Chinatown who Regal wants to sign into a contract.