A busy world together for a separated couple
‘LIVESCREAM’, the horror thriller starring Elijah Canlas, about an influencer who is held captive by a mysterious tormentor who tortures him inside a deserted building, is now streaming on Vivamax Plus. And on November 16, the hilarious gay romp starring Christian Bables and Keempee de Leon, “Mahal Kita, Beksman”, will be shown on the big screen in actual cinemas.
Both films, which are so different from one another, are directed by Perci Intalan. Were the two films really intended to be shown one after the other?
“Nagkataon lang,” he says. “We finished ‘Livescream’ in February and ‘Mahal Kita, Beksman’ in June. Ngayon lang naging available pareho, pero iba naman ang venues nila. ‘Livescream’ on streaming platform kasi kapag sa sinehan ‘yan, daraan sa MTRCB and I know what rating they will give it. Sana, meron tayong rating na R-21, e hanggang R-18 lang tayo, e.”
How did he convince Elijah to do his nude love scenes in the movie and the scene where he is tortured and his briefs were pulled down to show his naked butt?
“Si Elijah naman, he’s game in what the role requires, basta i-explain mo lang nang maayos. He asked why he has to do it and I said, Vivamax ito, e. As for the scenes where he’s stripped naked, I told him it’s about his layers, his facades being stripped also, to show his vulnerability. Actually, mas mahirap ‘yung scene where his finger is being cut. I had to make a storyboard for the movie so he’d know exactly what we expect for him to do.”
Perci is not a neophyte when it comes to gay films as he did “Born Beautiful” both the full length film and the TV series. The different is that Christian Bables in “Mahal Kita, Beksman” looks like a flamboyant swishy parlorista gay, but it turns out he is really straight. He falls in love with Iana Bernardez, much to the consternation of his flaming openly gay dad played to the hilt by Keempee de Leon.
Perci says Christian’s character is inspired by his own experience in high school. “Ang friends ko noon, all gays. Then may nagustuhan akong girl, niligawan ko, naging girlfriend ko, naloka at nawindang sila.”
But of course, his relationship with the girl didn’t prosper and he eventually met writer-director Jun Lana who he married in New York. They’re now no longer officially together, but they remain to be the best of friends.
“We still live in the same house, we do co-parenting for our two kids, araw-araw pa rin kaming nag-uusap, magkasama pa rin kami when we attend all showbiz functions. We still have projects for our company, IdeaFirst, and right now, we have two new completed films, ‘About Us But Not About Us’, which is autobiographical for Jun and stars Romnick Sarmenta and Elijah Canlas. And we have ‘Sampung Mga Kerida’, a comedy about a man with ten queridas starring John Arcilla, Eugene Domingo, Pokwang, and eight other actresses. We also have ‘Amoral’, with Kokoy de Santos, Miggy Jimenez, Sue Prado and Elora Espano. For Viva, we have four other projects, movies and a series, and I am directing three of them. So we will be very busy in 2023.”
