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Sunday, March 16, 2014

LIST: International Stars who Graced Philippine Cinema


Mario Maurier
I don't know who Mario Maurier was until he was already promoting his Star Cinema Film "Suddenly its Magic". From there, I realized that I've watched some of his tagalized movies in CinemaOne. "Crazy Little Thing" is the more popular one but "Friendship" is the one which touched me more. Maybe because of the dark story and morbid ending. On that episode of Gandang Gabi Vice, Erich Gonzales (Mario's co star) teased Vice Ganda's favorite Mario's Film. It intrigued me why Vice denied that to be his favorite and it made me search to the internet in pronto. It turned out to be  Love of Siam.

I already seen links and posts about it but thought that it was just one of the foreign films. By the time I finally clicked play and finished the movie, I'm in total LFS. Last Film Syndrome (remember: Last Song Syndrome).


Mario and Erich's film was not a flop in box office, even better than a Piolo Pascual's film in that year. It's just that people expect better box office result based on his perceived popularity in the Philippines. 

Jason Everly
My age is of Donna Cruz generation though I'm quite younger. It came as a surprise that she'll be paired up with Jason Everly - breaking the Donna Cruz-Ian De Leon hype at the era. Jason Everly's credential was just the familiar last name from the Everly Brothers' fame. No one knew about him before that. That love team produced only one film "Isang Tanong Isang Sagot" and a very hit song "Wish". 

I can't remember if Donna's following was enough for the film to do well in the box office. We did not hear any from Jason from there. Donna settled down at her peak i. e. she never resorted to sexy role. quite bad.

Cynthia Luster
Before her Philippine career, she was packaged as Hongkong Martial-arts Superstar. I was too young then to know if she really is of that Jacky Chan Status. Everyone got excited to know that she was about to do a film here, which led to countless more. She did "Tapang sa tapang" with Senator Lito Lapid and "Once upon a time in Manila" with Vic Sotto as her career's highlights. I even remember her promoting her films doing a tagalog song number "Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko" at local variety shows. That wondered me about her career abroad.

Once in a while, I chance upon her films and still wondered if she really thought that her stint in the Philippines was a good career move for her. 

Dayanara Torres & Michelle Van Iemeren
They should not even be on the list or I could have just changed the title. Dayanara Torres and Michelle Van Iemeren were not international stars before doing movies in the Philippines. Dayanara was the reigning queen and Michelle was a candidate, when Miss Universe was held in here in 1994. 

 Dayanara starred with Aga Mulach in Basta't Kasama Kita.  She then tried her luck in Hollywood with few things not enough to break in, big time. She went back few year after with to do a movie with Cesar Montano "Type Kita, Walang Kokontra".


Michelle did not pursue a film career after her stint in the Philippines. She did more movies than Dayanara with strings of Ogie Alcasid pair-up. She can not quite be forgotten by Filipinos because of the connection with the former husband Ogie Alcasid.

After 20 years, producers might think of a appropriate projects for them as a good throwback for early 90's generation.

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