Unconventional role
for Sharon Cuneta
Posted: 10:40 PM (Manila Time) | Aug. 29, 2003
By Rica Arevalo
Inquirer News Service
WATCH out for Unitel Pictures' "Crying Ladies" before the year ends. Mark Meily directs from a screenplay (originally titled "Bayan Luha") that won third prize at the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature two years ago.
I met Meily, a successful TV commercial director, about a decade ago when he became my professor in cinematography. He would bring our class to his shoots and assign us to be clappers or video assistants. For our finals, he let us shoot scenes using a 35mm Panaflex or a Mitchell film camera. Although we never saw the rushes (the magazine could have been empty), he made us experience "real" shooting.
Surprisingly, after not seeing each other for years, he invited me to see the rough cut of "Crying Ladies." He wanted to hear what the youth has to say about his first feature film. Jokingly, he wanted me to grade him. Our roles were reversed.
The term "crying ladies" refers to women being hired to shed tears at funeral wakes. But this film is more than just that. Sharon Cuneta deviates from her traditional wife-y roles. Cunetas' character has served a term in prison for estafa and is struggling to gain custody of her son from her ex-husband (Ricky Davao). She is a gambler, liar and dreamer. From the beginning, the image of the stereotypical Filipino mother is forgotten.
Eric Quizon plays the eldest son of a Chinese father who has just passed away. Upon the request of his mother, he hires Sharon to cry at his father's wake and funeral. Cuneta, desperate for money, accepts the job and contacts her friends Angel Aquino and Hilda Koronel.
Aquino works for a religious foundation and keeps making the same mistake in her life, much to the dismay of the priest played by Johnny Delgado. Koronel's character, on the other hand, is a has-been actress whose biggest triumph was her having been part of the movie, "Darna and The Giants."
The film is witty, upbeat and unpredictable. We see a different Sharon Cuneta and we are glad she accepted the role. And as for Meily, we give him high mark for a job well done.
Let's hope "Crying Ladies" survives the box office competition in the December filmfest, so that more films like this will be produced.