Pinoy Big Brother Otso teen housemate Kaori Oinuma gets her first role on TV via Parasite Island, ABS-CBN’s newest weekly TV series airing every Sunday at 7:00 p.m.
For the showbiz newbie, she could only thank the network for giving her the opportunity to entertain people and have the opportunity to work with much-experienced actors in the industry.
“I didn’t expect that I will be given a TV project right away,” Kaori starts saying that she got a lot of help from the program’s director and veteran actress Liza Lorena, whom she had a scene on her first taping day.
“It was really difficult. I wasn’t sure if I was giving the right kind of emotion that my character was asking for. It’s nice that you are surrounded by people who want you to grow. With their help, I guess I was able to pull it through,” the rising teen star adds.
True enough, the first episode of Parasite Island dominated the online world. Even her co-star Rafael Rosell acknowledges the fact that Kaori has a legion of fans who made the show a trending topic on Twitter.
The program did massively well in the numbers game, too. On Sept. 8, the premiere episode recorded a national TV rating of 30 percent versus Daig Kayo ng Lola Ko’s 17.3 percent, according to data from Kantar Media.
The weekly series follows the talented paramedic Jessie (Rafael) who used to have a lot of potential as a child, but grew up bitterly as his brothers blamed him for the mysteriously tragic death of their father. This happened when young Jessie insisted on going swimming in a lake in an island called El Cuerpo after his father was attacked after saving him from drowning.
While it truly was not Jessie’s fault, no one believes his story that a rabid woman covered in leeches tackled his father and dragged him into a crevice under the waters of the lake, leaving no traces, not even a body.
Twenty-three years have passed, and Jessie’s conscience is still burdened by guilt over his father’s death, which remains unexplained and unavenged. He is now dealing with a bad case of alcoholism that even caused his family and his relationship with his wife Janelle (Ria Atayde) and daughter to break apart.
Jessie comes home to El Cuerpo to surprise his mother Daria (Liza Lorena) for her 70th birthday celebration. His arrival is followed by his two greedy older brothers, Warren (Michael Flores) and Gary (Bernard Palanca), who both have sole intentions and aspirations of inheriting a large slice of their mother’s estate.
True intentions will be unraveled in the aftermath of the party, while the strange epidemic begins to take over the island of El Cuerpo.
Directed by Avel Sunpongco and Richard Arellano, the Dreamscape Entertainment offering also stars Desiree del Valle, Zeppi Borromeo, Fino Herrera, Charlie Dizon, Paulo Angeles, Ian Galliguez, and Bianca Manalo.
