Decadence of Youth in Mayohan

Best Actress Lovi Poe has an important similarity with her character Lilibeth

Written and photographed

by Jude Thaddeus L. Bautista

Her bronze skin glows from the hot sun. Her smile is both seductive and innocent at the same time. No man it seems can resist her charms and she knows how to use them. Lovi Poe has that sweet youthful quality that is on the verge of blossoming to womanhood. “Mayohan” directed by Dan Villegas who has been a long time cinematographer, captured that period of wonder and pain.

Award winning writer Paul Sta. Ana also serves as co director and screenwriter. Sta. Ana wrote and directed “Huling Pasada” from Cinemalaya 4. “Mayohan” is in the New Breed category of competition in this year’s Cinemalaya. A testament to their efforts, “Mayohan” won 4 awards: Best Actress-Lovi Poe, Best Cinematography-Dan Villegas (shared with The Leaving), Best Screenplay- Paul Sta. Ana and Best Original Musical Score- Emerson Tecson.

Mayohan winners (New Breed Category) from left: Best Screenplay-Paul sta. Ana, Best Actress- Lovi Poe, Best Cinematographer- Dan Villegas, Best Orginal Musical Score Emerson Tecson

Best Director Winner Gil Portes (Director’s Showcase) for “Two Funerals” is also from the province of Quezon. After seeing “Mayohan” he said, “It was able to capture the atmosphere of excitement, religiosity and everything that goes on in the Fiesta. I come from a town not far from the setting and it’s exactly like that.”

Dan Villegas and Paul Sta. Ana receive their Cinemalaya certificates

May time fiesta means a lot to us Filipinos and the story revolves around that time of the year. Nino played by Eijah Castillo recently lost his parents in a car accident. And he still has difficulty walking because of the injuries that he sustained from the tragedy. He visits their home town of Libjo, Quezon for the first time. The moment he meets Lilibeth (Lovi Poe) he instantly falls for her. She cooks the delicacy of binagkat and it becomes a bridge for them to get to know each other. In many ways the film is about a loss of innocence for both characters.

Lovi w co star Elijah Castillo as Nino. Ed Cabagnot noticed Elijah looks like Aiza Seguerra

The film deals about how the festivity has evolved from the traditional religious celebration of the Virgin Mary. Today the dance, which is the culmination of the fest has been perceived as a means for materialism, promiscuity and often ends up in violence. Lilibeth herself is tasked to collect money from town mates to fund the dance. And she uses some of the collection money to buy herself a cell phone that her friends have been egging her to buy.

Lilibeth is so pretty that she was the previous Sta. Cruzan queen. She longs for a normal family life because she is the illegitimate daughter of Mayor Renato Olivar played by Benedict Jhocson. Lovi Poe shares similarities with her character; in real life is the daughter of “King of Phil. Cinema”, Fernando Poe Jr. out of wedlock. Lovi shared that she had difficulty emulating the accent from Quezon in which she had to deliver all of the dialogue. Nino the city slicker, slowly acquires the accent as he stays in the town and tries to impress Lilibeth. Lovi played her character with aplomb and professionalism for someone so young thus garnering the Best Actress award.

Director Dan Villegas describes her accurately, “Lovi is able to have that mature quality in spite of being so young, an old soul in a young body. When she went in for a video test she nailed it. There was no one else I wanted.”

The gang from Libjo from right: Benedict Jhocson (Mayor), Ping Medina (Ruben), Jill Palencia (Melay), Lovi Poe and the barkada

Lilibeth’s gang of friends was cast from kids who are really from Libjo, Quezon. They made a good account of themselves particularly, Melay (Jill Palencia) and Aida (Girose Lanot). Aida is the pushy girl who has a crush on Nino. The friends are often the source of wisecracks. Another comic relief character is Ruben played by Ping Medina. He is the bad influence uncle who introduces Nino to nearly every vice. Villegas said, “Ruben was a bad influence and yet Ping was able to make him sympathetic and lovable for the audiences. I’m so impressed with him.”

Mla Bulletin photog Chari Villegas is camera shy. The old friend and co photog of mine is sister of Dan.

The rural landscape of Quezon was one of the elements that inspired cinematographer Dan Villegas to make the film. The lush green hillside and pristine beaches make a memorable backdrop. To capture the vivid colors of the landscape Villegas shot the feature with a Canon 7D. The results were crisp, sharp images and accurate skin tones. Sunsets on the beach for example were rendered with lovely warm tones, orange and golden sky.

He said he experimented with the camera and different lenses before committing to use it for the project. A few of the lowlight scenes were shot with an 85mm/1.8 and 50mm/1.4 lenses which allowed them to capture images by the campfire etc. The camera and lenses allowed a majority of the out door scenes to be shot without the aid of additional lights.

Mayohan co director Paul Sta. Ana, Armi Millare of Up Dharma Down and Director Dan Villegas. A new version of their hit “Hiwaga” was rerecorded as a soundtrack for the film.

Armi Millare the pretty vocalist of Up Dharma Down reworked their hit “Hiwaga” to fit the mood of “Mayohan”. Villegas explained how he got the soundtrack, “I fell in love with the song “Hiwaga” by Up Dharma Down since before. The original version was too fast, it wasn’t mellow. We were so lucky to know and work with Armi. We asked her to do a slower acoustic version with more haunting vocals. They did it and recorded it for us.”

Written by bassist Paul Yap, the song is from their first album “Fragmented.” Millare said the song is about “painful experiences in your past that you shouldn’t let go because they help mold who you are as a person. Another way of approaching a song is always good. And now it feels like it’s a new song again.” Armi recently wont he AVIMA Best Female Vocalist award for a 2^nd year in a row (09 and 10). AVIMA is the biggest and most supported award giving body for independent music.