In the last quarter of 2023, Viva Communications, Inc. seems bent on making people remember that Viva Films is very much alive and has not been replaced by its hit streaming platform Vivamax.
The film-churning VCI did not use the moviehouses from August to October this year. In those three months, VCI film outputs were streamed through Vivamax — movies that were heavily loaded with sex scenes and nudity since they didn’t have to go through the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.
Scriptwriter Ricky Lee, who was named National Artist for Films and Broadcast Arts last year, began writing scripts for Vivamax movies this year directed by Mac Alejandre, a close friend of his and also Lee’s former scriptwriting student.
The award-winning director-scriptwriter Joey Javier Reyes also began helming for Vivamax from his own scripts.
Not content with movies, Vivamax also now airs mini-series of at least three or four episodes. A current example is Araro, topbilled by Vince Rillon and directed by Topel Lee who used to helm horror films. Rillon is a protege of Cannes-winning filmmaker Brillante Mendoza, who also directed a cluster of movies for Vivamax last year.
Up until June this year, Mendoza was acting as a creative producer for the products of his mentored young filmmakers for Vivamax, all male directors. Mendoza is now back doing sex-less serious films for international festivals, where he also holds master classes on filmmaking and serving as a jury member in some festivals.
Vivamax, which began operations only in 2021, now has more than 60 million subscribers worldwide.
Last month, Viva Films screened in theaters Marita, a horror movie starring Rhen Escaño as a furious ghost. Her fully-garbed-in-white-gown character marked the young actress’ decision to stop doing skin flicks. The comparatively less known Roni Benid directed Marita.
‘Ikaw at Ako’
Starting today, 6 December, Viva Films screens in theaters the first ever movie of Rhian Ramos and Paolo Contis: Ikaw at Ako, directed by Rechie del Carmen. The movie also stars Boots Anson-Rodrigo, Ronaldo Valdez and child actors Fatima Mislang and Cloud Ugayan.
The film was shot during the first quarter of 2023, not originally as a Viva Films production but by a new company that eventually turned over the project to Viva. Neither Contis nor Ramos is also a Viva-managed actor.
The film is about the love affairs of three couples: the senior citizens portrayed by Anson-Rodrigo and Valdez, the middle-aged couple played by Ramos and Contis, and the puppy love between Mislang and Ugayan.
VCI also has to hype its latest Vivamax offering that begins streaming on 8 December: Hasler, which deals with four women who were close college friends but started to drift apart even before they could earn their diplomas because they have to earn a living for their families as sex workers.
Denise Esteban, Hershie De Leon, Angelica Cervantes and Quinn Carrillo, collectively known as the VMX Bellas, star in Hasler, directed by Jose Abdel Langit.
Most of the Vivamax actors, men and women, are talents of Jojo Veloso, who had to freeze his talent agency years ago when he figured in a sex scandal with a young male actor.
There are sporadic Internet postings indicating that the ever-controversial director Darryl Yap will have a movie released in theaters this December.
Viva Films also has an entry in the 2023 Metro Manila Film Festival: Pedro Penduko, a Pinoy superhero fantasy starring Matteo Guidicelli.
Meanwhile, the pioneering Regal Films of the Monteverdes whose movies once lorded it over the local box office, became more active again beginning last year, as a collaborator of GMA 7 in the series Regal Studios Presents and in the new series Lovers/Liars starring Claudine Barretto.