Mano Po 5: Gua Ai Di, A Movie Review

This is much anticipated movie directed by Joel Lamangan and produced by Regal Films. This movie is starred by Angel Locsin, Richard Guttierez, Christian Bautista, Lorna Tolentino, Tirso Cruz III, Gina Alajar, and others. It was shown in Philippine theatres last December 25, 2006.

The new genre of this movie theme of Mano Po would attract many movie goers from the young generations. This movie is one of the entries of Manila Film Festival 2006.

Synopsis:

The story tells about two lovers who have different ethnicity background. Charity Co is a Chinese who came from a rich family, while Jonathan is a Filipino from the middle class family. It is against the tradition of Chinese to marry a Filipino according to the custom here in Philippines. Yolanda Co is the mother of Charity who plays the antagonist role. She and the other members of the family do not like Jonathan from the start for he is a Filipino. She is expecting her daughter to marry a Chinese named Timothy Lam who is the childhood friend of her daughter. Timothy Lam is now known as Felix Yan, the Asian Idol. When Charity goes against the custom of the family, the struggles in their relationship follows. For Charity, it is only her grandmother who can understand and give her sympathy.

The conflict of the story started when Kate, the assistant of Jonathan, makes a darn move for she is overly obsessed with Jonathan. She is also a Filipino and thinks that they are compatible with each other. She takes the initiative to kiss Jonathan while they are drunk, and then Charity caught them kissing together as she thought that she was betrayed by Jonathan.

On the other hand, Jonathan is also jealous of Timothy Lam because he is a famous artist. Charity’s family likes Timothy because he is a family friend and much better than Jonathan. Jonathan is going to propose a marriage to Charity when Kate is not conscious and gets drunk, and then tell the whole family about what Jonathan told her behind Charity’s back. Charity thought that Jonathan betrayed her trust, and she was brokenhearted.

Her grandmother gave her a piece of advice to forgive Jonathan, and then she went to Jonathan to mend their broken relationship but Jonathan went to Australia to accept the scholarship offered to him. It is too late for Charity to go after him, and Timothy took this opportunity so he proposed a marriage to Charity. Then, Charity finally accepted the marriage proposal.

One year after, Jonathan became a successful senior veterinarian as Charity and Timothy will pursue their wedding plans. When Jonathan and Charity met together coincidentally, they still feel their love for each other. Therefore, Timothy decided to cool-off the wedding plans and go to Singapore because he realized that Charity still loves Jonathan.

At the Chinese New Year’s Eve, Yolanda made an initiative to mend the broken relationship of Charity and Jonathan. She realized that she is not in control of everything. And, the whole family is happy for Charity and Jonathan.

Conclusion:

Whether we came from different ethnicity background, we should be open-minded when it comes to decision making. We should learn that we are not in control of everything. And, we cannot teach our emotions to work for us because it is against our will. I love the casting and the acting of the celebrities who are the casts of this movie. I learned much from the experiences of the characters. This movie is surely a blockbuster hit because of the outstanding performers.