Completing my 10 entries of 2024 MMFF with HOLD ME CLOSE starring Carlo Aquino and Julia Barretto, directed by Jason Paul Laxamana. The film is one of romance entries for this year which promises to bring a different kind of love story from the usual. And it does so, but not really what I expected and felt.
The story is about Woody who traveled around the world searching for the perfect home. His latest move was in Japan, where he met Lynlyn and her siblings who are making a living by selling squid. Lynlyn is revealed to have an ability to know if that person could bring joy or pain just by touching them. This ability would also lead to some trouble but will also bring Woody into their lives. At first, there was no reading if it was positive or negative however it will eventually change, as they get to know more about each other.
Set in my favorite country of Japan, her story and ability are linked with the culture and supernatural entities of the country. Though it can also be adapted to any place with that situation, yet the Japanese aesthetic just made it better but not the story. The actors are great with the performances however it suffers from the lack of establishing connection and emotion.
The characters of Julia Barretto and Joshua Garcia are caught off guard when the undead comes running after them in the film “Block Z.”
It was an ordinary day for pre-med student PJ (Julia) and her friends who attended to a patient that exhibits symptoms of rabies. The patient eventually dies but mysteriously comes back to life and started attacking people and turns them into a zombie.
Julia stars opposite Tony Labrusca in her first digital series.
Julia Barretto finds herself tormented by one unfortunate event after another after she crosses paths with a doppelganger, a girl who looks exactly just like her, in the mystery psycho thriller "I AM U," streaming on iWant starting this February 26 (Wednesday).
The iWant original series features Julia as two identical yet vastly different giris-Elise, who has the best of everything in life, and Rose, who has close to nothing.
The two unexpectedly meet when Rose saves Elise's life. Both thankful and in awe of the their similarity in looks, Elise invites Rose into her world, treats her as her twin, and shares everything she has-including her house, family, and friends.
As soon as Rose becomes comfortable, however, Elise sees her as a threat and suddenly wants her out of her life.
In a party that changes everything, Elise bullies Rose into hiding inside a closet during a game of "Truth or Dare." While inside, an accidental fire ensues, leaving Rose locked in. Elise and her friends cover up the tragedy and think everything is behind them--until one by one, they fall to their mysterious deaths.
How are the deaths linked to Rose's demise? Who will be left unscathed?
The digital series is helmed by iWant's "Past, Present, Perfect?" and "Uncoupling" director Dwein Ruedas Baltazar, and produced by Dreamscape Entertainment in partnership with The IdeaFirst Company. Its cast also include Ina Raymundo, Richard Quan, Cedrick Juan, Kokoy De Santos, Adrianna So, Claire Ruiz, Lander Vera Perez, Yayo Aguila, Jenny Miller, and Tony Labrusca.
Meet two Julias in "I AM U," on the iWant app (iOs and Android) or iwant.ph for free starting
February 26 (Wednesday). For updates, like www.facebook.com/iWant, and follow @iwant
on Twitter and @iwantofficial on Instagram, and subscribe to www.youtube.com/iWantPH.
Julia Barretto and Joshua Garcia are ready to take their acting prowess a notch higher as they star in ABS-CBN’s latest series offering, “Ngayon at Kailanman”, which can be seen outside the Philippines via The Filipino Channel (TFC), with its pilot episode streaming in most countries worldwide via TFC online (www.TFC.tv) on August 20.
Their team-up was first seen in the Metro Manila Film Festival entry “Vince, Kath, James” in 2016, where they were teenagers that are new with the idea of love. Their tandem has grown from teens who fell in love for the first time to two persons who had loved, been hurt, and was careful to love again, in their films “Love You to the Stars and Back” and “Unexpectedly Yours” both in 2017.
