Kasal, kasali, kasalo

I have no idea why this movie won Judy Ann Santos a Best Actress award, and how this was rated "A" by the cinema board.

This year's MMFF movie lineup was so ho-hum compared to previous years'. Sadly, as reflected in the criteria by the award-giving body, up to 40% of the points were tied to the movie's box-office ticket sales so I suppose that mass appeal and commercialization had the edge over more thought-provoking films this year. It's sad that every year, the fate of Filipino films seem direr, when our talent pool should be so deep (but is it, truly?).

But back to Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, this movie was so shamelessly a moneymaker capitalizing on real-life betrothed couple Juday and Ryan Agoncillo. There was no story, just a litany of, again, stereotypical situations of the stages in the usual Pinoy couple's life (one rich, one poor of course) from planning the marriage to welcoming their first born.

Nothing original or memorable was added to the bored moviegoers' consciousness (again, why give this an "A" rating? it shames the other previous, obviously more superior movies receiving the same).

Ryan was totally upstaged by Juday, the bigger star and the better actor, which only served to bemoan the movie once more. Then again, just because they lack on screen magic doesn't necessarily mean they don't click in real-life, so let's just cross our fingers on that. The kilig-factor in previous Juday-Piolo starrers was their undeniable chemistry on screen, with both able to balance out each other's star power (despite real-life allegations of Piolo being gay).

Also, the treatment of Ryan's character's infidelity in the story was so blasé that I can't believe women's groups aren't bothering to pick up on this, winning the Gender Sensitivity award at that!