JUST A THOUGHT: The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.—Sydney J. Harris

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FINDING SELF IN ‘’TAGPUAN:’’ Rep. Alfred Vargas has taken time off from his congressional duties to produce and act in a movie called Tagpuan, one of 10 official entries to this year’s Metro Manila Film Festival on the 25th.

In somewhat philosophical terms, he sums up Tagpuan as a search for one’s self, his comfort zone, and what he stands for.

Written by Ricky Lee, Tagpuan is the story of three people, played out by Alfred, Shaina and Iza Calzado, who set out to find themselves through other people.

The search takes them to far places, New York in the case of Iza, and Hong Kong, in the case of Shaina.

The film traverses these two diverse landscapes, although director MacArthur Alejandre warns that in keeping with the film’s theme, it shows the other side, actually the more seamy side, of the two cities.

For instance, Shaina’s character is shown camped, rather cramped, in one of Hong Kong’s cage houses where the resident could barely move.

In New York, the viewer is brought to the city’s more seedy side, the usual start-up point among Filipinos who venture into a new life in that part of the world. No touristic spots here, according to Alejandre, the better to capture the loneliness within the film’s central characters.

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BRAVE: Antonette Jadaone’s new movie, Fan Girl, needed an actor who was brave, bold, daring.

The director, who made her mark through rom-com films, said she was glad Paulo Avelino accepted the part.

It’s a role that’s both easy and risky for the actor, who’s playing himself.

The downside?

There’s always the risk that people might misconstrue what they’ll see on screen and identify it with the real Paulo off-screen.

Paulo said he accepted the project as he found something new in it.

He assured himself he should not worry about what people might think of him.

‘’It’s still a role I’m playing.’’

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SEDUCTION: Fan Girl is the story of a common fan (Charlie Dizon), who sneaks into the home of her idol (Paulo, a movie star).

The forced entry leads to seduction, and that’s where the issue of separation between on-screen and off-screen personae can pose a problem.

Jadaone says her film takes a cursory look at fan culture as a whole. Why is idolatry rampant?

Fan Girl debuted at the 2020 Tokyo International Film Festival in Japan recently.

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VHONG ALONE: Without Vice, Coco, and Vic in this year’s MMFF, what are the chances for heir apparent Vhong Navarro to be crowned as the filmfest’s Comedy King?

His entry, ‘Mang Kepweng: Ang Lihim ng Bandanang Itim,’ combines comedy with action amidst enchanted kingdoms peopled by giants, dwarves, mermaids, all of them familiar characters from local mythology.

Vhong admits he feels relieved that the comedy giants aren’t in the running this year.

Yet, he says those names add luster to MMFF, which fortunately or unfortunately, is going digital for the first time.

Bandanang Itim is the sequel to

‘Mang Kepweng Returns’ in 2017, with Vhong playing the title role.

The original Mang Kepweng film, based on a komiks novel in the 1970s, starred the late Chiquito.