For a long time now, we’ve been looking forward to iconic singer-actress Nora Aunor’s comeback to local show business, especially after the unfortunate medical emergency that has adversely affected her singing voice. It’s mostly been bad and sad news—but, here at long last is a bright ray of light and hope: Nora has been tapped to play a key role in a film about Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo, with ER Ejercito playing the title role. Shooting is set to start here next month.
Quintessential
It’ll be great to see Nora in our midst again, after too many years spent in forced and/or self-imposed “exile” abroad, due to a number of run-ins with the law, as well as some personal reversals.
We miss Nora, not just because she’s a fine and acclaimed performer, but because her looks and essence make her, in our view, the quintessential Filipino talent.
In addition, her life and career’s many roller-coaster ups and downs have made her “perpetually” newsworthy. People wonder, “ What could she come up with next?” And she promptly springs another unexpected zinger from way out of left field! Like that medical crisis which has sadly (and we hope temporarily) silenced her golden and most expressive singing voice.
Despite these reversals, we continue to believe in Nora’s gift as a performer. If she can’t sing now, she can always move us with her naturally insightful dramatic portrayals—like her role in the forthcoming Aguinaldo film bio.
Incidentally, the film itself could end up as a controversial production, because we presume that it will have to take a stand on the number of contentious and still unresolved issues associated with the young general and the country’s first revolutionary president.
ER Ejercito is a good choice to play the title character, due to his resemblance to Aguinaldo.
Other comebacks
Other long-awaited comebacks on the local entertainment scene: Acclaimed dramatic actress Mona Liza was one of Lino Brocka’s “signature” talents, so it would be really great if she can act in a movie or at least do a staged reading. Now in her 80s, she’s still lively and spirited, as we saw for ourselves when she watched our “Cory” musical sometime back.
One of local movies’ first “modern-minded” stars (she lived for years in the States), she began her career as “Fleur de Lis,” before it was changed to the still enigmatic and exotic “Mona Liza.” She was one of the leads (along with Fernando Poe Sr.) of the oldest Filipino movies we’ve seen in retrospective screening, a 1939 musical-romance.
Niño, Snooky
It would also be great if former child superstar Niño Muhlach could make a comeback as an adult actor. Other “child wonders” have successfully reinvented themselves as adult performers, so why can’t he?
Snooky Serna has had her share of problems and reversals, but she’s talented and deserves a second chance. Specifically, we think she’d be great in the Blanche DuBois role in Tennessee Williams’ celebrated theatrical masterpiece, “A Streetcar Named Desire,” staged here many years ago by Lino Brocka.