Kasal, Kasali

We watched the movie last Monday, January 1 at Robinson's Galleria for the 7:45 showing. I was with my ate, mama and Irwin. We were a bit late so we were rushing to get to the parking lot after dropping ate and mama to the entrance so they could buy the tickets. We got a parking near the elevator. As we were about to board the elevator, the passengers going out were Angel Locsin, Jennilyn Mercado and other kapuso stars. We'll they just looked familiar to me. I asked Irwin if he wants to stay out of the elevator and he laughingly said yes. Maybe that made his day seeing Angel Locsin in the flesh.

Going back to the review, we were not able to see the start the movie so the first thing we've seen was the scene where Gina Pareno was preparing the Batotay, or Longanisa and incredulously asking Juday why she is getting married when they do not know if she has a boyfriend and of course Juday's famous answer was "Hindi ako buntis".

Gina Pareno's acting was so convincing it was like she was not acting; she is so funny as the mother of Juday who is a "politicians" or barangay kagawad. She was a typical Filipino mother on a typical scene in a province with a typical marital situation where the parents are separated and left the mother bitter with the separation.
It was a "typical Filipino" portrayal during weddings. Bride informs her family, Groom asks for the bride’s hand in marriage and both parties would talk about the wedding. The Grooms parent Ariel Ureta and Gloria Diaz were the rich parents and Gloria was accused of being “matapobre” to the family of Juday. Ariel Ureta was the rational and understanding one. His line “ pabayaan mo na ang anak mo, kasal niya yan hindi ikaw ang ikakasal” would hit a lot of Bride-to-be or former brides, Filipino or non-Filipino because people really can’t help by share their ideas during weddings.
I know a friend who wants a solemn wedding in a secluded farm with only 50 guests and her parents wants to invite at least 300 guests. More or less just like in the movie, they ended up getting a civil marriage.
Juday’s acting was funny, “typical” again of Juday, she is effective in portraying underdog characters, like in her past tele-serye, where the poor girl gets the rich man and lives happily ever after. Reminds of “I’m sorry my Love” with Onemig Bondoc. Really, I watched it and it never failed to make me laugh and fall off the seat the first time I’ve seen it.
One thing for sure that really caught my attention, she lost a lot of pounds! She can wear mini skirts and show off her legs, her shirts were small in size I guess. It inspires me to lose some weight too. Well, Juday is not the “typical” beauty like Claudine, Bea, Roxanne, and other stars but she has no competition when it comes to comedy series. She can really make me laugh. It is so natural of her to say those quick, long lines.
Guys are attracted to these gals I think because of their sense of humor. Like Ryan A, again he is a “typical” rich, mama’s boy who can’t decide on his own that he keeps on asking his friends for decisions that he should make himself. Even in the proposal for marriage, he kind of let Juday decide if he would go to the States or not by asking Juday to marry him. It shows a little weakness in his character role, and that weakness compensates or compliments Juday’s assertive and aggressive role.

Overall, this movie shows what everyone of us knows already but failed to recognize them. Married life in the Philippines is different because of close family ties and because of this we have to consider everybody in our decision, parents, relatives and friends. Close family ties encourages living with the parents, much to the chagrin of the bride or the groom who wants to live separately but can’t because of financial difficulties and practicality. A groom or a bride would really never realize the difficulty or challenges of married life unless they live in a separate house apart from the parents. Well, I hope Juday would inspire me to be myself just like her in any setting or situation and not the best foot forward show that I seriously am trying to do. I am glad we watched this movie because right after watching it, we planned to move out and build our own house, maybe look for a place where we could rent or buy a house on a loan. I never have to point out to my husband anything, I never said a word, the movie says it all.