ShareThisRamon “Bong” Revilla, Vic Sotto, Ai-ai delas Alas, Marian Rivera, Eugene Domingo – they are featured in this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival.
Add to that the real and reel husband and wife team of Ryan Agoncillo and Judy Ann Santos and expect the festival to be a riot.
Yes, Ryan and Juday have teamed up for the movie “My Househusband: Ikaw Na!” of OctoArts Films.
And with their performances in the movie, they are considered shoo-in for the top awards and are expected to slug it out in the box office race.
Juday and Ryan also teamed up with comedy actress Eugene Domingo under the direction of Jose Javier Reyes.
This early, the movie is considered a strong candidate for the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress trophies.
According to the movie’s drumbeaters, Ryan and Juday’s roles become realistic in their hands since they can relate to their characters in many aspects. Like married couple Mia and Rod, the lead characters in the movie, Judy Ann and Ryan, know exactly what its like to raise kids, to balance career and family life, to stay best friends even after tying the knot, and to be clear on priorities and keep sense of humor especially through thick and thin.
“Househusband” director Joey Reyes revealed that Juday and Ryan kept it “real” and that aside from their well-polished skills in acting, their portrayals have that extra something, “an almost instinctive element.”
Ryan is a revelation in the movie, he said. And he knows whereof he speaks. Direk Joey, after all, also directed Ryan in “Kutob” in 2006 where the actor-TV host was nominated at the FAP Awards for Best Supporting Actor.
As if the winning tandem of Ryan and Judy Ann isn’t enough, ace comedienne Eugene Domingo thickens the plot as Aida, a mistress who lives next door and eventually ends up as Rod’s BFF. Eugene finds it refreshing that the comedic style she was made to bring into the film is neither over the top nor subdued but “just right.”
Though she had starred in one film after the other this year, Eugene said she is glad to have added “My Househusband: Ikaw Na!” to her resume because it is the first time she plays a character who is best friends with a straight male. “Ibang-iba ang point of view dahil dun ang since I have very few straight male friends in real life, playing Aida was very refreshing and challenging.”
Indeed, given her track record and the way she speaks fondly of her role, her co-actors and the film, “My Househusband: Ikaw Na!” just might put another trophy on Eugene’s shelf.
Direk Joey has won awards from the Gawad Urian, Filipino Star Awards for Movies and in past MMFF. Many of his works such as “May Minamahal,” “Bakit Labis Kitang Mahal,” and “Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo” and “Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo” (which starred Judy and Ryan) are considered modern classics and going by the gut feel,” My Househusband: Ikaw Na!” could lengthen that list.
Of all the entries in this year’s Metro Manila filmfet, “My Houshusband: Ikaw Na!” is most timely; about a married couple who has a non-traditional set up in which the husband takes care of the kids and in manning the house while the wife looks after putting food on the table. Along the way, situations arise that test the arrangement and their relationship. “Many men today are ‘househusbands’ either by choice or circumstance and in this film, we show the hilarious side of it,” said Direk Joey whose vision of the film was so clear to him that shooting the scenes were often a swift and smooth affair.