At the grand press conference of Love Thy Woman, the female stars were each asked how they wanted to be loved by their man. Everyone almost had the same answer, they wanted their man’s attention and support even at times when they prefer to do things alone.
For Kim Chiu, the lead star of the new series, she prefers a man who talks to her all the time. But she doesn’t like someone who is too clingy, to the point she no longer has personal space.
“I’m like a shock absorber, I want someone who always talks to me. Now hearing everybody, I thought I’m the only one who likes space, who doesn’t like a partner who’s too clingy,” she started talking while occasionally holding Xian Lim’s arms and giving him some sweet glimpse.
“It’s not bad at all if you’re alone and your happiness is just yourself, but of course it is much happier when you share that happiness with someone. I have become strong along the way, you’ve seen me grow and you were witnesses how I was when it comes to love. I think my past relationship prepared me to become a strong, independent woman. I’m more in control now when it comes to my feelings,” she explained.
Her answer was warmly received by the members of the press and the blogging community who all agreed that Kim Chiu has definitely matured especially when it comes to dealing with her emotions. And she promised that the kind of person she is right now will be the same kind of character people will see in the new series.
“Hindi na kami tweetums, chummy. So, the roles we portray now are different. And that makes it challenging. We don’t play those kinds of roles every day,” Kim said.
In Love Thy Woman, Kim is seen being paired again with Xian. It also marks their first time working with Yam Concepcion after her breakout role in Halik and brings together a star-studded cast that includes Eula Valdes, Sunshine Cruz, Zsazsa Padilla, Ruffa Gutierrez, and Christopher De Leon.
It revolves around a modern Filipino-Chinese family headed by patriarch Adam (Christopher), who is determined to keep his family intact despite having two of them. He lives with his first wife Lucy (Eula) and their daughter Dana (Yam), while his second family, Kai (Sunshine) and Jia (Kim), lives separately.
Even if the two wives have long accepted their situation, conflict continues to brew between them—a rivalry that will spill over to their daughters.
Their clan is put to test when one fateful night, Dana and her husband David (Xian) get involved in a road accident after their wedding, putting her in a coma.
In the absence of her half-sister, Jia finds herself falling in love with David. This will cause a series of events that will threaten their family’s already complicated set-up.
Love Thy Woman, directed by Jeffrey Jeturian, Andoy Ranay, and Jerry Lopez Sineneng, is produced by Dreamscape Entertainment. The cast also includes Jana Victoria, Jennifer Sevilla, Chienna Filomena, China Yoo, David Chua, Shido Roxas, Tim Yap, Kimberly Tan, Mari Kaimo, Tori Garcia, Turs Daza, and Karl Gabriel.
Witness the lives entangled by love and blood in Love Thy Woman, starting Monday, Feb. 10 on Kapamilya Gold on ABS-CBN and ABS-CBN HD (SkyCable ch 167).
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Cristine and Xian discredit each other ‘Untrue’
When there is violence in a marriage, you can expect conflicting narratives from the couple involved. Untrue, the psychological-drama-thriller from Kita Kitawriter/director Sigrid Bernardo, will show that there’s a lie in every story, and it’s going to be a dark, intriguing ride.
Cristine Reyes and Xian Lim play Mara and Joaquim, two lonely Filipino migrants in the country of Georgia who find solace and companionship in each other. They hastily get married, without even getting to know each other very well.
When their fiery romance turns into heated arguments and physical abuse, Mara goes straight to the Georgian police. Following her narration of how she married a mad man, Joaquim defends himself with his own version of the events, pointing to his wife as the real lunatic.
In this he-said/she-said film, a strange apparition of a woman adds to the suspense. As Mara and Joaquim fight to discredit each other, truth, lies, and a dark past are brought to the surface.
Director Bernardo described Untrue as “an acting piece”, and she commended Cristine and Xian for their dedication to their roles that resulted to their remarkable performances.
“We had 10 days of workshop…we hired an acting coach…They were really professional. They studied their lines. Xian gained 20 pounds for this. I told him to gain 20 pounds, and he did…tapos nagpabalbas siya. Si Cristine naman nagpakulay ng buhok.”
“I am very happy with the outcome of Xian and Cristine. They were good…I’m very satisfied,” she said in an interview posted on YouTube by My Movie World.
Cristine understood the need for acting workshop since they had a limited time to shoot in Georgia, with no time left for rehearsal. “We only had three weeks to complete the film and everyday we were working, so we were not able to take a break for vacation because we had to do all the sequences there.”
The movie was mostly shot in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, where the cast and crew endured freezing weather.
“It was so cold, it felt like -1,” Xian shared that the temperature dropped to -1 degrees Celsius, making the shooting extra challenging for them. “The wind was strong when we were doing dramatic scenes, so it was kind of challenging,” he said emphatically at last year’s Viva Con.
Georgia was chosen as the film’s setting because the story called for a place that isn’t filled with Filipinos.
“Kailangan sa kwento na konti lang sana ang Pinoy kaya nag -migrate (yung character) doon,” said Bernardo. According to her, there were only 30 Filipinos living in Georgia at the time of filming and she actually met all of them.
Untrue was featured at the prestigious Tokyo International Film Festival last October, along with seven other notable Filipino films.
From Viva Films, in cooperation with The IdeaFirst Company, Untrue opens in cinemas nationwide on Feb. 19.
