Ploning vs. Juday: A Cross-Section

While we have analyzed Juday as Ploning in Ploning the Movie, I’d like to discuss a cross-section of Ploning the character vs. Juday the Actress in this post. I was inspired by PinoyCentric.com’s blog post about Juday saying that Ploning is so different from the real-world character of Juday herself.

I just got overwhelmed with all the info I absorbed from Pep.ph about Juday, and I want to share a few observations about the similarities in Ploning the character and Juday the person:

• They are both very grounded. In the movie, Ploning is a no-bull lady who gets to the issue and works at a problem quietly. Juday, in real life, has patiently waited for her tax evasion case to be resolved, without the usual hysterics that some others in showbiz resort to.
• Both are surrounded by people puzzled about issues in their lives who resort to gossip in order to speculate about the truth, but they manage to skirt the issue anyway.
• Both answer people’s inquisitive questions concisely and with the truth.
• Ploning is crafty, in a quiet way, just as Juday is quite strategic in her decisions, as I’ve noticed. She recently turned down TAPE, Inc.’s offer for her to host the Eat, Bulaga! noontime show. I think this is pretty strategic, because if you’ve noticed, Juday had been opting to go for more mature, seasoned and meaty roles since 2003.
• Both have a certain kind of finesse in dealing with the people around them. I believe this owes to the fact that Juday has had to learn how to surmount intrigue, take things in stride, and just deal with it like a lady. As for Ploning, when we see her character in the movie, she is already in a state wherein she is capable of actually handling the people around her with a maturity that we rarely see in real life. I would imagine that European monarchs/Queens were taught to act like Ploning. As for Juday, she is definitely more three-dimensional, with her galawgaw moments, but she still deals with the press with a queenly veneer, as far as I’ve read.

Well, both dress pretty well, too. :p


As for the differences, I only see how Juday is a lot more vibrant and more down to earth and willing to show people her spots and freckles. Remember the homebody comments she made? She is more like one of the bourgeoisie than Ploning is, and yet, Ploning is much like a Queen who stepped down from her carriage in order to soil her hands and empathize with her people.

Much like Ploning, Juday is surrounded by people who love her. Direk Dante is a testament to how lovable she is; loyalty like his for Juday is rather rare nowadays. Only people who give much love elicit much love from others also.

Both Juday and Ploning’s strength lie in the fact that they are people who give of themselves for others. They are both marked by their generosity, down-to-earth-ness, and their humility.

I now know the reason why Juday’s fans like her, and like her a lot. :)

Ploning the Movie: The Aftershocks

It seemed to me that this week was a week of silence for me, regarding Ploning the Movie. Much like a calm before a storm, to me, this week was just a week of coasting regarding blogging about the movie here. I didn't know what else to write on, I thought that whatever I would say would be useless, as premiere night was just days away anyway. So I chose to just coast. Let everyone else be busy, I shall wait till I see the movie till I have my say.

Though there were things that we planned to do, but as people’s schedules were just crazy, I was content to wait for tonight. The night that I would finally behold the movie I was speculating so intently about.

And you know what?

For everything I had gone through behind the scenes of this movie, for everything that led up to the moment that I watched even the final credits roll, all those were well worth my so-called troubles.

On the day that I had written a word of encouragement for the Ploning cast and crew, half-praying what I wrote, I knew that this film was significant to God, that’s why mountains were placed at its path. Tonight, as I bawled my way through the last scenes... I finally understood why.

It was not just the hauntingly beautiful acting of Juday. It was not her serenity. It was not her radiant face. Not her eyes that communicated even through the mere lowering of the eyelids.

It was not even Gina Pareño’s tour de force scene to end all scenes that paralleled “Walang Himala” of Nora Aunor that would have you praising God for creating minds like Direk Dante Nico Garcia’s, BJ Lingan’s, Jourdan Sebastian’s, or Guia Gonzales’. Or even creating an actress like Ms. Gina Pareño.

It’s a quiet scene that had me bawling through to the end.

Hint: It involves a red blouse on Ploning, and a white dress that she once wore.

As I watched that scene, I cannot help but feel like her. I cannot help but feel like I had shortchanged myself all those years, by doing as she did, all through the movie...

What did she do? Why did I feel like her?

Watch the movie.

I know that all of us would realize that we are much like her, too.

But I’ll wait till it shows nationwide till I give away the full annotations of the symbolisms and even the Cliff’s Notes of Ploning the Movie.

But I'll have mercy and I'll give another hint: It involves her father's faithful and devoted washing of a white dress that she once wore, and his wish to have her wear it at his death.

Why had I bawled?

Sigh. I shall have to wait till a significant number of yous watch the film and we discuss what it's all about. The comments are now open for lively discussion, for those who had attended the press premiere. :p When it premieres in theaters nationwide on the 30th, y'allz can post comments here and I'll try to keep up with yous. :p

...And even if I gave that factoid away, I will never do justice to the movie with my feeble attempts at capturing it verbally, because a written synopsis would never do justice to a movie with the glory of Ploning. It was magical to see Cuyo in such vibrance. There are some digitally-manipulated scenes that were a wonder to watch. Meryll Soriano, Mylene Dizon, Ces Quesada, Eugene Domingo, Tessie Tomas, even Ketchup Eusebio and Boodge Fernandez were all amazing too. Even if a writer wrote everything that happened in the movie, it will never be the same as watching "Ploning" unfold before you.



And yet, through the glory of the sceneries, through the amazing performances of the cast, and even though Ms. Gina has her "big moment," truly, the star of this film is Juday.

You will be amazed at her subtlety, her finesse, her... Entrancing gentleness.

Indeed, Juday has grown up. After watching the film, I would love to meet her more than ever. And yet, I am content that even for an hour and a half or so, I had beheld her, encapsulated in a memorial that truly brings glory to God, in more ways than one.


To watch out for:

Ketchup Eusebio’s hilarious performance
Boodge Fernandez’s washboard abs
Cedric Amit’s endearing acting as Digo
Philippine Cinema’s greats in cameo performances
Jourdan Sebastian, and even Direk Dante Garcia’s cameo appearances


Go, grab your honey, your hubby, or your wifey, your best friend, your mom, your tita, your ninang, grab a Krispy Kreme *wink*, and you’ll see what I mean. :p

Keeping Grounded in the Philippines' Tinseltown

When you are a superstar in Philippine Cinema, would you go the path of keeping your big-screen gloss and porcelain perfection, or would you, when you get home, kick off your shoes, put your feet up on your expensive coffee table, and read your favorite girly or macho magazine?

I am amazed at how Juday had self-effacingly joked that “nag-iipon siya ng libag,” (she was collecting dirt and dead skin cells), in discussing how she stays grounded in the crazy, shimmery, world of showbusiness.

If you are not familiar with the way things are in the Philippines’ local tinseltown, then you hadn’t seen stardom in one of its most exalted. The Philippines’ version of Hollywood is a place where stars may well lose themselves in the pomp and splendor of their own glory. A star hasn’t reach his/her acme if he/she does not have a billboard hanging high on EDSA, the main highway of our country. An actor is merely a “starlet” if he/she does not have groupies following him/her around, a designer who creates clothes specifically for him/her, and if he/she could go around in the local malls without security people and assistants and even wet nurses (mga yaya). Amidst all this fawning, this pampering, who would not lose him/herself?

Good that Juday had not allowed all the trappings of showbiz to steal her very identity. Through touching base with true friends like Ploning’s director Dante Nico Garcia, she has remained true to herself: a down-to-earth homebody who likes cooking and soaking up her home’s airconditioning and even not bathing.

It touches my heart to have read producer Guia Gonzales’ repost of PEP’s coverage of the dramatic way in how Direk Dante Garcia had finally been able to break it to Juday that she’s starring in his first movie.

With the real-life lines:

Juday: Anong pelikula ito?

Direk Dante Garcia: Yung pelikulang kinukuwento ko sa ‘yo seven years ago.

Juday: Bakit ako ang huling nakaalam?
Direk Dante Garcia: Gusto ko kasi tanggapin mo yung pelikula dahil maganda—hindi dahil kaibigan mo ako.

Though Direk Dante’s plea was for Juday to accept the project for its excellence and not for the mere fact of friendship, through this conversation, I now fully understand how Juday was able to stay grounded in this too-shiny-it’s-deceptive world of showbiz: gems of friends like him.

Everyone needs a friend. But if you can have friends who will stay with you through success and even through failure, then surely, like Juday, even when success catches up with you and takes you high up into the air, you will be able to stay humble and grounded.

Whatever realm you are in, relationships and love will be the only things that would ground you. I pray Juday would never stop walking in humility, and I pray that friends like Direk Dante will be hers forever. In a world such as hers, where smoke and mirrors abound, it pays to have oases of reality, like true friendships, to keep your heart pumping human blood.

ON THE SET: "Ploning" in Cuyo, Palawan

by: Jocelyn Dimaculangan
pep.ph

Ploning fever has hit the sleepy town of Cuyo, Palawan. There are two logos of Ploning painted on stage of the town plaza. The oblong-shaped logo bears the name Ploning, prompting tourists to wonder who or what is Ploning.

It turns out that Ploning refers to the movie starring Judy Ann Santos as the town beauty who is torn between keeping two promises: to look for her first love Tomas or stay in Cuyo for the young boy Rodrigo who relies heavily on her motherly care.

PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) was able to visit the set of Ploning in Cuyo, Palawan, to see Judy Ann, Mylene Dizon, Gina Pareño, Meryll Soriano, Ces Quesada, Jojit Lorenzo, Joel Saracho, and Crispin Pineda in action. Documenting the filming process was Judy Ann's boyfriend Ryan Agoncillo. PEP went behind the scenes for an inside peek into how film outfit Panoramanila Pictures shot this period film in the hometown of director Dante Garcia.

Direk Ga, as Dante is often called, was born and lived in Cuyo until Grade 6. He transferred to Manila to study high school and, eventually, he enrolled in Theater Arts in San Sebastian College.

He based this movie on certain people from Cuyo and his childhood haunts became the setting of this full-length film that is expected to open in theaters nationwide on April 30. Dikek Ga co-wrote the screenplay with Benjamin Lingan and it is estimated that 40 percent of the movie will be spoken in the Cuyonon language.

There is an unfinished pier on the island of Cuyo that serves as the waiting place of Ploning (Juday). Intigban beach is where Ploning and Rodrigo (played by first-time actor Cedric Amit) walk hand in hand.

The basketball court of Igabas served as the place where Rodrigo and Celeste (played by Mylene Dizon instead of Iza Calzado) meet for the first time. The esposada (bridal shower) of one of the characters is set in Emilod and took three nights to shoot.

The producers built a cemetery from scratch in a part of the town called Republic of Cuyo to serve as the setting for a key scene in the movie. They even decided to keep the cemetery intact so that tourists can visit the place and locals can narrate how Judy Ann Santos once shot her scenes there.

Even though Panoramanila Pictures Co. is still a fledgling company (it was established only in 2007), it took great pains to ensure the authenticity of this period film set in Cuyo during the 1980s. Unique practices of Cuyo will also be shown in the movie Ploning. The female characters of the movie will be demonstrating the process of making cashew nut brittle, a delicacy of the province. Judy Ann and Gina will also be harvesting salt from an asinan. Ati-atihan groups will also perform in celebration of the town fiesta, which is held annually on August 27.

Ploning, played by Judy Ann, is the town beauty who waits patiently for the return of her beloved Tomas (whose identity remains a secret). He went to Manila to work but ten years later, Ploning still holds on to his promise that he will return for her. At 29 years old, she is already considered an old maid by rural standards but she still holds on the memory of her great love.

Aside from being the dream project of Direk Ga and Judy Ann, Ploning also allows four great comediennes to establish themselves in the drama genre. Gina Pareño, Eugene Domingo, Ces Quesada, and Tessie Tomas will make viewers cry as they showcase the various kinds of women who live in Cuyo.

As Tessie puts it: "Hindi ba weird na lahat kami komedyante tapos drama ang pelikula?" To this, Direk Ga answered, "Weird pero bago. Hindi ba nakaka-excite to see Juday na nasa gitna ng mga komedyanteng lumuluha samatalang siya pinipigilan niya ang luha niya."

Ploning is scheduled to open in theaters nationwide on April 30.