Thursday, January 9, 2025

Aswanglaut

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Isang igat na iniihaw ni Luklak ang makaaagaw ng pansin sa mga aswang na naggagala sa bahaging iyon ng kagubatan. Ang katotohanan ay kapatid ng dalaga ang iniihaw niyang igat na siyang ipinanganak ng kanyang ina noon bago ito pumanaw. Inilibing ang kapatid sa pook na iyon at ngayon lamang binungkal ni Luklak upang gawing hapunan sa kadahilangang siya lamang ang nakaaalam. Matapos makipagtagisan ng talino sa mga halimaw ay malilinlang pa rin ito na bahagian sila kahit kaunti ng napakasarap na kinakain niya. Sila ay kanyang pagbibigyan habang hihikayatin naman siya ng mga ito na dilaan ang tira-tira na ibabalik nila sa kanya. Ito na ang simula ng pagbabago ng buhay ni Luklak sapagkat ito ang magiging dahilan ng kanyang pagiging aswang. Ilang araw ng sakit at karamdaman ang pagdurusahan ng dalaga hanggang tuluyang maging ganap ang kanyang pagbabagong-anyo. Ano nga ba ang naghihintay na tungkulin niya kapag siya ay naging bahagi na ng mga halimaw na kanyang kinaiinisan?

Friday, January 3, 2025

And the Breadwinner Is...

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Bambi Salvador (Vice Ganda) has been working as an OFW in Taiwan for more than a decade now. When his contract is not renewed due to unfavorable blood test results in his annual medical examination, he flies back home to Pampanga unannounced expecting his siblings to welcome him in their house which has supposedly been already renovated and celebrate his birthday at the same time. Not only have they forgotten his special day, he also arrives in the same old house he left 15 years ago sans the improvements where the money he has been sending all these years should have gone. When a case of mistaken identity leads everyone to believe that Bambi has died of a road accident, a representative from the company of his life insurance informs the family that they are indicated as his beneficiaries and are on their way to receiving 10 million pesos. However, Bambi is alive and well. Can they put aside their differences as a family to put on a good show for the money?

Thursday, January 2, 2025

My Future You

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A comet that shows up once every 15 years becomes a fixture to brighten up the night sky. Two young adults sign up for an account on a dating website and immediately match. Alex or “Lex” (Seth Fedelin) resides in Cebu while Karenina or “Karen” (Francine Diaz) hails from Marikina. After a day or two of chatting, they are sure that their rapport is not just an online thing, and the two decide to meet up. Lex books a flight to the capital and they agree to meet up at Luneta’s kilometer zero at exactly 7 PM. After two consecutive nights of trying, the two never meet. Soon they discover that they are living fifteen years apart. Lex is in 2009 while Karen is in 2024. Discovering the advantages of knowing someone in the past, Karen asks Lex a favor to change the future which is technically her present so that her family can be whole again.

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Espantaho

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Despite suffering from bouts of what looks like epilepsy, Monet (Judy Ann Santos) takes care of everything for her father’s funeral. The patriarch has succumbed to lung cancer and his first family cannot be contacted for whatever reason. Monet’s mother Rosa (Lorna Tolentino) is ever present yet does nothing but nag while her partner Jack (JC Santos) leaves her and the house at the behest of his legal wife. Only the house help and her son lend Monet any kind of necessary support. The first wife Adele (Chanda Romero) finally shows up shortly after the nine days of prayer and mourning have commenced with her two children, Monet’s half-siblings, in tow. They are only in town for obvious reasons, which is to sell the property her legal husband has left behind, including the very house Monet and her son are living in. As a mysterious landscape painting of a scarecrow finds itself inside the house, people begin to disappear.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

Uninvited

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Billionaire Guilly Vega (Aga Muhlach) throws himself a party in his massive mansion to celebrate not just his 55th year on Earth, but also to gloat at fate for outliving his father and grandfather, both of whom died young. His daughter Nicole (Nadine Lustre) hates him with a passion and relies on her boyfriend and their drug use to compensate for her unhappy childhood. Her mother Katrina (Mylene Dizon) differentiates herself from her husband’s crowd, funneling the dirty family money to charitable foundations she herself has organized. An unexpected guest arrives in the person of Eva Candelaria, who is actually Lilia Capistrano (Vilma Santos) pretending to be a socialite, supposedly one of the generous donors of Katrina’s foundation. Armed with nothing more than a plan, Lilia is out for revenge, because all the men responsible for her daughter’s death are attending that night, including the host himself. Will she succeed?

Monday, December 30, 2024

The Kingdom

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Kalayaan is a Southeast Asian country that was never colonized by a foreign power and ruled by a monarchy led by Lakan Makisig Nandula (Vic Sotto), a descendant of historical figure Lakandula. The eldest child and heir to the throne Magat Bagwis (Sid Lucero) is temperamental and is more interested in pleasure than duty. The older daughter Dayang Matimyas (Cristine Reyes) is responsible and reaches out to critics of the royal family wanting to prove them wrong, but is not on good terms with her father because of a mistake she made in the past. The youngest daughter Dayang Lualhati (Sue Ramirez) is the king’s favorite and betrothed to the prince of Thailand for a royal union of the two kingdoms. When Lualhati is kidnapped on her wedding day, she is rescued by lowly farmer Sulo (Piolo Pascual), a Tinatwa or outcast who has an axe to grind with the king for the death of his father. Will he deliver the princess from harm or lean more on revenge?

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Green Bones

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Rookie criminology graduate Xavier Gonzaga (Ruru Madrid) is assigned to the penal colony of San Fabian. His sister was murdered when they were young and he is still trying, in vain, to get justice 10 years down the line. His first impression of his new workplace comes as a surprise, seeing murderers and criminals living a rather peaceful life of rehabilitation in a gated community with a gorgeous view of a cliff overlooking the sea. There he meets a deaf/mute inmate everyone calls Crazy Dom (Dennis Trillo). Once notorious for petty street crimes, Domingo Zamora has been in prison for a decade now after being charged with his sister’s murder. He also admits to killing his own niece and claims to have dumped the body in a river, the remains never to be recovered. Xavier’s acquired hate of murderers automatically spills over to Dom, who he discovers later not to be deaf/mute at all and with an escape plan despite his name being on a list of potential parole grants.

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Topakk

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Miguel Vergara (Arjo Atayde) used to be part of an elite force of the Armed Forces of the Philippines but has since left the force after suffering from a horrendous loss of his entire battalion while hunting rebels in the dense forests of the south. Watching his best friend Leon (Enchong Dee) almost beheaded and dying in his arms with a lacerated throat, he tries to trace the whereabouts of the deceased’s family long after the tragic episode but they want nothing to do with him when he finally does, blaming him for their misfortune. Weng Diwata (Julia Montes) gets entangled in a web of local drug syndicates when her brother Bogs (Kokoy de Santos) gets in trouble for petty theft. Figuring in a clash between drug lords and police tasked with extrajudicial killings led by Romero (Sid Lucero), the siblings are the sole witnesses of the local government’s involvement and manage to flee to a nearby warehouse whose security personnel happens to be Miguel, who is suffering from PTSD.

Friday, December 27, 2024

Hold Me Close

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Woody (Carlo Aquino) has been globetrotting for a while trying to find a forever home before finally coming to Karatsu, a small city along the coast of Saga on the island of Kyushu. Moving in with his luggage and a globe, he heads out to explore the city. He comes across a stall selling squid which is manned by a trio of siblings. Tantan (Jairus Aquino) and Botbot (Migo Valid) are overprotective of their big sister Lynlyn (Julia Barretto) who, after a freak accident in the woods involving a yokai, has gained the ability of getting flashes that allow her to gauge whether a person will bring her happiness or pain just by touching them. While Woody originally registers as neutral and then positive, a few days of spending time together leads to a negative reading for Lynlyn, who gives her new love interest three chances of regaining his good vibes so they can continue with their budding relationship.

Thursday, December 26, 2024

Strange Frequencies: Taiwan Killer Hospital

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A Caucasian couple explores the abandoned Xinglin General Hospital in Tainan which is considered to be the most haunted place in Taiwan. The joking around suddenly takes a turn for the worse when the guy disappears and his partner is later found dead after jumping off an upper floor window. The story goes viral and becomes a marketing idea for a group of Filipino celebrities looking for a new gig. Actors Enrique Gil (Enrique Gil) and Jane de Leon (Jane de Leon) form their own crew which includes fellow actors Rob Gomez (Rob Gomez) and Alexa Miro (Alexa Miro), online content creators Raf Pineda (Raf Pineda) and Zarckaroo (Ryan Azurin), as well as beauty queen MJ Lastimosa (MJ Lastimosa). The job is simple. All seven of them will fly to Taiwan where a local guide will sneak them into the building without a permit, live stream the whole thing, and hit 3,000,000 concurrent live views for a hefty payout. Unbeknownst to them, something supernatural and sinister is awaiting their arrival.

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