For my first review post, it is only fitting to have LVN Pictures' Nina Bonita (1955), a remake of the Hollywood film It Happened One Night, to start the ball rolling. Filmed in early black and white, Nina Bonita stars Charito Solis (dubbed as the Cinderella star then) as the lovable but spoiled Cita and Jaime dela Rosa as the dashing and smooth-talking journalist Ninoy.
The simple story revolves around a beautiful but spoilt daughter of a presidential secretary Cita (played by the young Charito Solis) whose attempted shotgun wedding was foiled by her father who then sends her up to their vacation house in Baguio. Frustrated with her caged life, she runs away to try getting back to Manila and her lover. Along the way, she meets up with a journalist (Jaime dela Rosa) who recognizes her as the missing daughter of the multimillionaire secretary and schemes to help her find her way back to her lover on the condition that she allows him to publish an exclusive article on her for the Sunday newspaper.
Charito Solis and Jaime dela Rosa in their characters' first meeting aboard a bus bound for Manila
Citas writes a note for her lover in the trip's stop over post office
Jaime dela Rosa's character strikes a deal with Citas (Charito Solis)
Not knowing much about traveling through the outside world by herself for the first time, she agrees. Needless to say, along the way, as in every great story, love blooms. Cita learns the beauty of a simple life as they go through numerous disguises to escape her father's private detective hounding them. Ninoy, on the other hand, reveals a soft and gentle side to him that makes Cita fall for him all the more.
Citas and Ninoy on a carabao-pulled plow, on the way to the nearest town
Contrary to traditional Filipino custom then, Cita is the one who reveals her feelings for Ninoy. Ninoy, though only too happy to feel for her the same way, realizes the wide gap between them--Cita, a sophisticated daughter of a millionaire secretary used to luxury and money, while he is a mere journalist living on little and can never provide for her.
Fooling Cita that he does not share the same feelings she just confessed, Ninoy resolves to let her go. Cita, fooled into believing her love isn't reciprocated phones her father herself, asking him to get her. Fearing to lose his daughter again and thinking agreeing to marry her to her former lover would keep her happy, he does so, only to discern later that Cita has matured, and has finally found true love in the journalist Ninoy.
Ninoy visits Cita for the last time in her house during the couple's pre-wedding party. Cita thinks the visit was to collect the prize money which makes her more determined to go through with this now loveless union.
During the walk to the altar, the father finally reveals Ninoy's intention to go to the house--to collect the P24.90 he spent during their trip together (memorizing every small detail, showing just how much he cares for her), and not the P10,000.00 prize money that was offered him.
Cita, realizing her mistake, rushes from the church to find Ninoy outside. The two elope with the father's blessings while Cita's former lover, now exposed to be a fraud and only after her money, mourns the loss of his opportunity.
The naughty ending--Citas and Ninoy "naked" behind the bedsheet, winking at the audience
The plot, though quite simple, is still resonant enough to make girls swoon over the lead hero played by Jaime dela Rosa, and the dialogue sweet enough but not cheesy to make one judge it impractical and unrealistic. This film does break traditions in terms of plot, indeed it was unthinkable for a woman to be so straihght forward then, much more spoilt and having a tantrum. This progress in representation though cannot make up for the patriarchal perspective of a woman's fate as kept by Jaime dela Rosa's Ninoy character--that to have a wife who would be simple enough to enjoy what little they have, and would be there to keep the simple dream house in the middle of the field, and serve him as a doting wife. Now this narrowness of perspective is forgivable given this film's historicity--made in the mid 1950's Philippines--and the attempt itself to create some change in the representation of the woman now being an independent, strong-willed individual is commendable. The simple plot twist at the end makes for entertaining viewing and the comic tension between Solis and dela Rosa is just impeccable.
This film marked a rarity in Philippine cinema then--casting a then unkown Charito Solis in the lead role. I guess this is where Jaime dela Rosa's star appeal, and therefore somewhat insured and certainly certified bankability, comes in. Already famous for his team-up with Carmen Rosales, the move was a cautious but high risk choice which eventually paid off when the film was an instant box office hit upon release. This shot Charito Solis into fame who would later on make Philippine cinematic history for gracing the screen as one of the greatest Philippine actresses of all time, indeed dubbed as the "Meryl Streep of the Philippines" because of the nuances and human dimension she brings in to each character she would play then on.
Watching a black and white film such as Nina Bonita just makes one, especially of this new generation, wish to have been born in the heyday of Philippine cinema, when the screen sizzled with such often unparalleled brilliance. This does not mean to say that Philippine cinema today pales in comparison, but that less and less local movies can parallel and achieve the critical and box office success of the films of the past, not to mention even less can be considered and truly deemed art. Oh, if one can only find a ticket back to those days.
Rating: 4 SMILES :) :) :) :)
