Love, according to Star Cinema

MANILA, Philippines - Star Cinema is perhaps the only company in this country that has figured out a way to create the feeling of love and mass produce it. The studio behind such sappy titles as It Takes a Man and a Woman, You Changed My Life and A Very Special Love, is also the biggest local film studio — an empire built on mush.

One can imagine a certain buzz at the Star Cinema offices as Valentine’s approaches, and there was when we visited last week. The studio is at the height of promotions for its Valentine’s release, the Piolo Pascual and Toni Gonzaga starrer Starting Over Again, which is directed by Olivia M. Lamasan and written by Carmi G. Raymundo. “It’s a movie about ex-lovers who meet again,” Piolo tells us as he slumps on a chair, waiting for this Supreme photo shoot to be set up. Toni comes in a few minutes later, and we ask her why Filipinos would love to watch a movie like theirs. “Filipinos are hopeless romantics,” she says.

Filipinos are hopeless romantics. It seems that for Star Cinema, the the box office pull of romance films has roots in the cultural make-up of the nation. “We are emotional as a people,” director Olivia Lamasan tells Supreme over coffee later that day. (We sat down with her and writer Carmi Raymundo after our interview with Piolo and Toni.) Filipinos see movies, Lamasan says, because “We want hyper emotions — we want to laugh, we want to cry, we want to fall in love.”

“And kilig,” Raymundo says. “Audiences always say there has to be kilig — and not just kilig, but ‘kilig na kilig na kilig.’”

‘Kilig na mapapatili’

Now, there are few words perhaps that are more Filipino than kilig. It’s a word that doesn’t have a direct translation in English — “excited,” “thrilled,” and “tickled pink” don’t come close. Kilig is a pure feeling, a wave of happiness that comes from deep inside our bodies. We feel it with our first crush, our first kiss, our first love; we can feel it at 16 years old and at 70.

It’s also Star Cinema’s secret ingredient.

“We have a term for it at Star — the ‘Levels of Kilig’,” says Lamasan. “There’s ‘kilig na nagdadala ng ngiti’ (‘kilig that brings a smile’), ‘kilig na nagdadala ng kiliti,’ (‘kilig that tickles’) and ‘kilig na mapapatili’ (‘kilig that brings a scream of joy’).”

“We ask this at exit interviews, when the research department interviews people as they exit the movie houses,” Raymundo reveals. Lamasan explains, “You know a film is a blockbuster hit when (the surveys say that) your romance, comedy, or drama has ‘kilig na napapatili’.”

“Is there a formula for kilig?” we ask.

“Yeah.” Lamasan answers with a pause. “It’s in the story, it’s in the characters, it’s in how you mount the scenes. And of course it’s very important that the actors have chemistry.” This is another ingredient in Star Cinema’s formula.

All about chemistry

“Chemistry” is a word we kept hearing in our conversation with Piolo and Toni. Piolo said, “good chemistry” was an element in a good film, while Toni cited chemistry as her basis for liking a movie she watches.

Whether there’s a spark between Piolo and Toni is something audiences will see when they troop to theaters next week. But Star Cinema builds projects on this concept — for them, casting lead actors involves chemistry trials on national TV.

The tandem of John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo, for example, began not with their blockbuster 2008 film A Very Special Love, but with a guesting on the ABS-CBN drama series, Maalaala Mo Kaya, shares Lamasan. Star Cinema head Malou Santos saw the chemistry between the two actors, and even though Sarah was only known for her singing back then, a project was commissioned for the two.

For Piolo and Toni, their lab test began over 13 years ago, on the set of a soft drink commercial. Piolo was the endorser of the brand, and a then-unknown Toni had a coveted speaking role with a memorable line that goes, “I love you, Piolo!”

Role of a lifetime

“I was first on the set because they needed to take some shots of me, and as we were shooting, I just heard, ‘Piolo Pascual is here’,” Toni says. “At the time, I was just auditioning — auditioning a lot. So, of course, I knew about Piolo Pascual. When you’re around a big celebrity, you don’t know how to feel, so I just became quiet.”

“I remember seeing Toni. She was in pigtails. She was so young and so focused,” says Piolo.

“But the part wasn’t originally mine. They gave me the part the day before,” Toni remembers.

“It was meant for you. Can you imagine?” Piolo asks Toni, as we sit across from them.

“No, I didn’t have dreams of becoming a movie star,” Toni answers. She turns to us: “I wanted to be recognized as a singer. I started singing in lounges. I remember, once, I was singing at the Hyatt Hotel’s Kalesa Bar. Piolo was there and all the guests were talking about him. This was before the commercial.”

“Do you remember that? Kalesa Bar?” she asks Piolo.

Piolo just laughs.

“You were there! You ate there!” Toni says.

Creating love

With this exchange, the lines between reel and real were blurring before us — two actors’ shared pasts have lead to a silver screen story. We press our subjects about this, the subject of art imitating life or life imitating art.

“Art imitates life. We use lines we hear in reality in our movies. For instance, in this movie, it was a collaborative movie, so there were a lot of lines I used from my own life,” Piolo says.

Raymundo, meanwhile, talked to us about how reality influences her work. “I’m heavy on observation. Friends, relatives, kwentuhan,” she says. “To this day, I’m happy I don’t have a car. I don’t drive because when I commute, I pick up so much stuff. I ride the jeep, the taxi, the bus. I enjoy the commute every morning and every evening because that’s how I hear people.”

Real life, it seems, is the third ingredient in Star Cinema’s formula for romance. Filipinos want to see themselves on screen, Lamasan says. “Our audience is very high on relatability and character identification. When they see themselves (on screen), that’s when they say, ‘Ang ganda ng movie.’ (‘The movie is so nice’).”

Star Cinema is a company with contradictions — they tell stories based on emotions and empathy, and then make films based on cold, calculating market research. But the studio has produced nine out of the 10 highest grossing films in Philippine box office history. It seems that there really is gold to be found in mush, and they’ve hit pay dirt.

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Tweet the author @PepeDiokno.