Support na lang sa baguhang aktres… LEA, TANGGAP NA LAOS NA

ni Reggee Bonoan - @Sheet Matters | January 27, 2021

Ang pelikulang Yellow Rose na naipalabas na sa Amerika noong 2019 at nakakuha ng awards tulad ng Grand Jury Prize sa 35th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival noong May 10, 2019, Bentonville Film Festival last May 11, 2019 at CAAMFest 37 nu'ng May 12, 2019 ay mapapanood na sa Pilipinas sa Enero 29 via KTX.ph, iWant TFC, Sky Cable pay-per-view at Cignal pay-per-view at distributed ng Cinexpress.

Gusto naming mapanood ang pelikula dahil parehong gumanap na Kim sa Miss Saigon ang cast na sina Lea Salonga (1989-2001) at Eva Noblezada (2014).

Tinanong si Lea sa solo virtual mediacon niya nitong Lunes kung ano ang masasabi niya kay Eva at kung sa Yellow Rose lang ba sila nagkakilala.

“It was wonderful finally getting to work with her and I think it was a good thing that her first and 2nd shooting days are with me. And the two of us know each other, so, I guess there was a good level of comfort for the both of us to going into this."

Actually, 'di naman daw total stranger para sa kanya si Eva dahil nagkita na sila nu'ng 17 yrs. old pa lang ang huli at gumaganap bilang Kim nang magpunta siya noon ng London nu'ng 2016.

"I saw her again in Miss Saigon in New York (2017) and I got to see her in Hadestown (musical) and she blew me away on that stage.

“And she’s gonna blow people away with this (Yellow Rose) movie and she really registers well on film. She wears her heart on her sleeve and that’s apparent as human being and that’s how she is. She fills things in a very, very deep way as human, just being around her, just talking to her, working with her.

"It’s very transparent, everything registers on her face, everything registers on how she moves and how she speaks. So, it makes her a very natural actor and she registers really strong on camera and she’s luminescent. She really glows on screen. And I think people are going to recognize her as a star.

“So I have been champing it a bit for folks here in the Philippines to finally get to see this movie but were in the middle of this global pandemic and everybody is gotten quite creative in how they are releasing the movie that’s have been in the can for at least a year. But I’m glad that Yellow Rose did get a theatrical run in the US and I’m glad that it’s finally coming here and there are platforms to make it available and I’m glad that the audience will finally meet Eva this way,” mahabang kuwento ng aktres cum The Voice judge.

At dahil supporting role si Lea sa pelikula ay okay lang ba sa kanya?

“My days are done. Hahahaha! I’m done! I’m a supporting character in this and I just have to advance the protagonist journey in this, so, that is my role. It’s about 15 minutes or so in the entire movie but I have a lot of fun shooting it,” humahalakhak na sagot ng aktres.

At kaya naman niya tinanggap ang Yellow Rose ay dahil sa manager niya sa Amerika at nagustuhan niya ang script.

“He actually pushes me hard to do this movie. He said, ‘You have to do this film. You should do this film because it is the right thing to do, it’s very topical.'

“It was interesting to tackle and to try something where the character isn’t really, really well-liked, so trying to gain some empathy from our audience and a little more challenging unlike Rose who you know is the hero throughout the entire narrative of the film.

“And I patterned this character after somebody that I didn’t like and it makes more interesting for me, I guess and me trying to gain empathy for that kind of human being. Recently, I was reminded why I didn’t like this person, so, he was interesting to be revisited all of the same time.

Dagdag pa ni Lea, “What convinced me to do this, it was the power of the script, power of the story and the power of my manager’s word saying, ‘This is the right thing to do, you gonna do it,’ so that’s it.”

Paano ikukumpara ni Lea ang Yellow Rose sa Sana Maulit Muli (1995) na halos pareho ang kuwento na tungkol sa undocumented immigrants.

“It’s a different experience, cannot compared the two although it does tackle immigration (issues) but, Yellow Rose kasi really tackles the plight of undocumented immigrants and immigration policies that are not particularly friendly to undocumented immigrants.

“As for Sana Maulit Muli, even though there were a lot of but still topical issue that were tackled in the film, the center piece of that movie was really romance between Jerry and Agnes.

“For Yellow Rose, even though there is a romantic aspect to it, it really, really focuses on the human component and para sa mga nangyayari sa mga taong nadadamay, you know? No thanks to a particularly unfriendly immigration policy of United States.

“So, it’s really…that's what happens when there’s lack of compassion and so we see Rose’s and how it is connected to all other undocumented immigrants especially Filipino undocumented immigrants in the US,” mahabang pahayag ni Lea.