SOAP OPERA Gala Night - Cinema One Originals - 10NOV2014

Cinema One Originals 2014 Film Entry `Soap Opera' had its premiere at 1900H, Cinema 1, Trinoma. `Soap Opera' is directed by Remton Siega Zuasola.



Producer Bianca Balbuena

Cast, Crew, and Fans of `SOAP OPERA'

Cast & Crew of SOAP OPERA

Soap Opera

 

From the mind of  John T/hfolkner

 

Here in the Philippines, Soap Operas are used as a means for escape from a life that is far from picture perfect. In this film, the distinctions between fiction and reality are blurred together and the result is quite effective.

Noel and Liza are both trying to make ends meet, but a very sick child makes that almost impossible. Liza manages to snag a rich foreigner, Ben, as a partner. Ben honestly just wants to start a family with his new Filipina girlfriend, but Liza has the inconvenient problem of already having a husband in Noel. A parade of lies and deception ensues. It ends up as well as you'd think. Or does it?

Meanwhile, in soap opera land, the ongoing saga of Amor and her life in a small island is dramatized nightly. People watch the stars of the show with rapt attention and relish. Also, a boy from the slums becomes a superhero...

Soap Opera weaves fiction and reality into a very interesting concept. As the relationships between Liza, Noel, Ben and their son get increasingly complicated, scenes from the Soap Opera are shown alongside them, paralleling their own lives. Perhaps some of the decisions made by Noel and Liza reflect their how they view their lives - filtered through the saccharine melodrama in soaps. But the artifice of that reality breaks down during the third act, which needed a lot more space than it was given.

There are a lot of very humorous moments (the fact that I shared the cinema with a number of young enthusiastic moviegoers helps) and some really sad moments as well. But such is life - filled with moments both happy and sad.

I liked Soap Opera, whose clean execution and sympathetic characters charmed me. The rushed resolution to the film is a bit of a problem but does not detract from the rest of the film as a whole.