Viva artist Nadine Lustre takes on the demanding role of Maya, the young woman alternately fascinated and fearful of rainfall in the latest film offering from Viva Films, Ulan.
Written and directed by Irene Villamor, who earlier achieved critical and commercial success with Sid and Aya: Not A Love Story and Meet Me in St. Galen, Ulan marks Nadine’s first acting venture without her perennial screen partner, James Reid.
In the movie, Maya’s teacher gave her a scientific explanation for the rain. It is water absorbed by the heat of the sun, then turned into clouds, after which it is sent back to earth as precipitation.
But rain is not always just water pouring down in steady drops from the sky like the kind that children like to play in or that lovers find romantic.
It was under such rain that Maya’s grandmother found true love. It was raining when she first kissed the man who became her husband and Maya’s grandfather.
Sometimes rain can come with fearsome thunder and lightning and dangerous winds at sea. That is just like the rain that took the lives of Maya’s parents while on board a ship on their way home. The rain took her parents away. She never saw them again.
Rain can also do strange things like suddenly invade a sunny day. A battle ensues. The red-hot sun shining with all its might to stop the raging waters coming out of the dark clouds.
Maya’s grandmother told her that that is the rain that signifies heaven’s disapproval. Tikbalangs are getting married and that is why the sun is shining and it is raining at the same time.
A nighttime creature from folklore, the tikbalang is a tall, thin humanoid with the head and long extremities of a horse and the body of a human. It is believed to inhabit the forests and mountains of the Philippines.
Maya grew up alternately excited or fearful of the rain and stalked by storms and tikbalangs. The rain also became the reason for her failures and unhappiness. The kiss she did not get under the rain. The love she lost one rainy day.
Still, she continued to wait. Hopefully, the rain which has been her close companion from childhood will bring her one true love.
A Viva Films presentation, Ulan also Carlo Aquino, Marco Gumabao, AJ Muhlach, Joseph Elizalde, Ella Illano, and Perla Bautista. Creative producer is Joyce Bernal.
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‘Malibu Nights’ in Manila
Paul Klein, Jake Goss, and Les Priest of the American Indie-pop band, LANY, have recently announced that their 2019 Malibu Nights Headline World Tour is coming to Manila.
In support of their sophomore album, Malibu Nights, the band’s most-anticipated return to Manila is on July 24 happening at the MOA Arena, Pasay City. The tour includes over 100 dates across North America, Europe, UK, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Asia.
Marking their fourth visit to the country, their Malibu Nights World Tour was described by Rolling Stone as “Enigmatic frontman Paul Jason Klein carried the sea of fans through his passionate delivery of the starry-eyed, gushy pop tracks, losing himself in smooth dance breaks… LANY’s star power was both out-of-this-world and incredibly effortless.”
Sophomore album Malibu Nights was released in October 2018 via Interscope Records and Angeles Times praised the record “a sleek and tender document of a thoroughly modern band hitting all the right references for 2018.” Malibu Nights is the follow up to the band’s 2017 self-titled debut album, which tied for the highest-charting debut album on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart in 2017.
Lead single “Thru These Tears,” received massive critical praise, which TIME Magazine named one of the “5 Songs You Need to Listen to This Week.”
Tickets for LANY’s Malibu Nights World Tour concert in Manila went on sale to the general public on Feb. 21 at all through SM ticket outlets. Tickets were sold out in two hours.
According to MMI Live, LANY has added another night to its tour on July 25 at Mall of Asia Arena. Tickets went on sale on Feb. 22 via SM Tickets.
For complete concert details and ticket information, please visit www.mmilive.com , www.livenation.asia or follow MMI Live (on Facebook), and @mmilive (on Instagram, and Twitter) for updates.