YAP. Less is more, indeed.
THE recently concluded series, “My Binondo Girl,” had some good things going for it—not the least of which was its impressive roster of new “Chinoy” actors in key roles. Frankly, it was a risky stretch for the show to rely so much on “untested” and relatively unknown talents—but, the Chinoy actors did so well that they added significantly to the series’ thespic strength and cachet.
The key Chinoy players in “My Binondo Cirl” were led by Xian Lim, whose character is the one who married female lead, Kim Chiu, despite the presence of the more “mainstream-popular” likes of Jolo Revilla and Matteo Guidicelli.
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In fact, it can be said that Xian has become popular now because of his role in the show.
Aside from Xian, “My Binondo Girl” also showcased the more mature Richard Yap in the pivotal role of Papa Chen, Kim’s character’s father. It isn’t easy for any actor to turn in a believable performance as a super-wealthy taipan, but Richard was able to pull the dodgy assignment off.
Of the two Chinoy talents, it’s Xian who’s the more experienced actor: The model and basketball player’s show biz career began in 2008 with a cameo appearance on “My Girl,” followed by a stint on “Your Song Presents: My Only Hope,” and his first lead role on TV in “Katorse.”
In 2010, he was seen on shows like “Midnight DJ,” “Maynila,” “Rubi,” “Agimat,” “Maala-ala Mo Kaya,” “Wansapanataym” and “Celebritips.” Last year, he further honed his thespic skills in “Minsan Lang Kita Iibigin,” “100 Days to Heaven” and “Sparkada Trip,” before he was deemed “ready for his closeup” on his big stellar break, “My Binondo Girl.”
For his part, Richard Yap is a late bloomer, with only a long-running commercial introducing him to viewers before he landed his plum role (impressively, without having to audition for it) in Kim Chiu’s starrer.
What Richard brought to the show was a maturity and depth that generally elude most newbies like him. He’s able to communicate a lot with minimal dialogue, effectively showing the aptness of his “silent water runs deep” approach—and that less is indeed more. We trust the “My Binondo Girl” is only the first of many TV-film productions for this relatively rare find.
The best news of all is that Xian and Richard aren’t the only Chinoy talents who did well on Kim Chiu’s series. We were also quite taken by the focused portrayal of the actress who plays her half-sister, Amethyst—and even more so by the mature actress who oh, so entertainingly portrayed Xian’s with-it mom.
Our hope is that we’ll be seeing much more of them on our TV and movie scenes, even in less specifically Chinoy roles. They’re too good to grace local TV-film screens only occasionally!