Angel Locsin is newest star producer

In the local movie industry, not a few actors tried their hands in producing movies. There was Amalia Fuentes with AM Productions, Fernando Poe Jr., with FPJ Productions, Dolphy and his RVQ Productions, among many others.

Yet, not everyone who went into production became as successful as these three. And not a few regretted having lost their shirt and ended up being deep in debt.

Now, Angel Locsin has decided to go into producing movies. No, she's not going solo in it but in partnership with her longtime manager Becky Aguila. Together, they formed Eagle Eye Entertainment Productions Inc. and Angels is the company's first major venture.

The movie, a trilogy, is opening today in theaters across the archipelago.

Angel stars in the first story titled "Angel of Mine," which Gina Alajar directed from the screenplay by TV tearjerker writer Gina Marissa Tagasa.

Interestingly, Angel plays a feisty police reporter who also becomes a surrogate mother to an orphaned girl, the daughter of her yaya (wet nurse).

Last Monday, the movie was premiered to a cheering crowd of fans at SM Megamall Cinema 10. Unfortunately, Angel Locsin couldn't leave the set of a movie she is shooting for another movie production. Her fans were disappointed, but Jennylyn Mercado's fans were in their elements shrieking each time the name of their favorite star was mentioned during the pre-screening short program.

Jennylyn and Patrick star in the second story called "Angel of Love" where the two lovebirds play their real selves. In contrast to the more melodramatic "Angel of Mine," this is lighter in treatment. TV director Mark Reyes helmed the second of the trilogy from, again, Gina Marissa Tagasa's screenplay.

Marvin Agustin, rumored suitor of Angel, was at the premiere by his lonesome. He stars in the third story titled "Daddy's Angel." The former Kapamilya star whose career gets a second wind after hopping over to the Kapuso lot, plays a paroled convict who comes home after eight years in jail. His wife was gang raped on the day of their wedding and in his rage killed one of the rapists. While in jail, his wife gave birth to a son by one of the rapists. His mother adopted the son believing it is his son's child. But to the ex-convict it is no more than a painful reminder of the tragedy that befell their lives. Dingdong Dantes wears a different hat this time, as director.

Angels is a clever decision between Angel Locsin and Becky Aguila. Apart from the fact that the stories are shorter than the usual full-length feature films, the time limitation has made the writers and directors become more effective storytellers. I now know the handicap of the Filipino filmmaker. A full-length feature makes them lose focus, injecting unnecessary sub-plots (or back stories as they are called now) and populating the movies with extraneous (useless) characters, like a comedian if only to give the material some kind of a comic relief when in fact the plot can move on without them. That is the reason I can't (even if I try hard) sit through a Tagalog movie without getting bored, angry, or irritated. Tagasa is an experienced TV writer, trained when TV dramas were limited to three settings—sala, bedroom, and dining room. But of course, she has yet to shed the talkiness of her materials and make the images speak for themselves. Oh, I think that's the work of the director to see through the screenplay and order some revisions to make the materials more than a TV drama but something for the big screens with digital surround sound.