Zsa-Zsa Padilla

Every great story that centers on a hero or heroine who exemplifies the sweet triumph of the indefatigable human spirit needs a villain or in the case of the 6th installment of Regal Films’ “Mano Po” film franchise, a villainess!

“Mano Po 6: A Mother’s Love” is clearly a character-driven, feminist story that focuses on Filipino-Chinese Melinda Chen-Uy (Sharon Cuneta), daughter of a Chinese immigrant and a Filipino. Melinda marries Alfonso (Christopher de Leon), scion of the wealthy Uy clan. Alfonso’s parents and his diabolical sister Olive (Zsa Zsa Padilla) are enraged with his marriage to Melinda believing that it is cursed.

Melinda’s marriage suffers from a series of mishaps as their small business goes bankrupt, their house burns down, culminating in Alfonso’s untimely death. Three of Melinda’s children: Stephanie (Heart Evangelista), Audrey (Nicole Uysiuseng), and Walden (John Manalo) are taken away by Olive. However, Melinda is able to save her eldest daughter Carol (Ciara Sotto) from the evil clutches of Olive.

Over the years, Melinda builds her own business empire after receiving a sizable inheritance from her mother. Melinda uses her wealth and influence in reclaiming her children after a series of futile attempts prior to her success. Olive feeds Stephanie, Audrey, and Walden an intricate web of fabricated lies that destroys the remaining morsels of their affection with their mother. Of the three children under Olive’s custody, it is Stephanie who nurtures an intense loathing against her mother as she openly proclaims Olive as her true mother.

Sharon Cuneta delivers a superb performance as she breathed life to Melinda. Her intense and sincere characterization provides a multi-sensory treat to the audience. Cuneta is able to effectively and convincingly simulate the struggles of Melinda as an impoverished woman trying to rightfully reclaim her children without the excesses of theatrical hysterics. Cuneta’s reading of Melinda empowers the audience in experiencing great empathy in her character. Her performance elicits pity, frustration, and the joyous feeling of victory from the moviegoers in exactly the right scenes in the movie.

An experienced actress who has mastered the medium of film, Cuneta used her body in her interpretation of Melinda. She was subtle in one of her confrontations with Olive as seen in a particular scene where her rage is executed seamlessly as she used the exact emotional expression and bodily movements that is the best visual representation of the pent-up anger of an oppressed and silenced woman when Olive harassed her with a missing bottle of Paipakwa.

In this scene Cuneta was obviously angry but she knew her place in the Uy residence so she held back while applying massive tension in her hands as she threatening to kill Olive with a cooking knife. In another scene, on the other hand also with Olive, Cuneta’s anger is laced with the quiet confidence and elegance of her success and wealth.

Zsa Zsa Padilla is equally magnificent in her brilliant portrayal of Olive. Padilla’s exquisite interpretation of Olive made the audience believe that she is actually a Chinese woman. Her annoying verbal inflections and as well as her authentic Chinese accent is so convincing to the point that one actually forgets that Padilla is, in reality, also concert performer and recording artist.

Padilla’s performance complements and bolsters Cuneta’s as she effectively fuels the perfect contempt of Melinda to the Uys. Padilla transformed Olive into a champagne villainess: Beautiful, rich, sexy, highly intelligent, and positively scheming. Audiences love to hate Olive because Padilla recreated the character so passionately. This is apparent when the audience cheered and applauded when the rich and successful Melinda slapped and sucker-punched her. This scene served as cathartic moment for the audience who wanted to kick Olive’s cruel and mean ass from onset of the movie thereby confirming the effectively of Padilla’s reading of Olive.

Padilla’s characterization showed the audience the unimaginable evils a human being is capable of and the scary thing about it is that she executed it so effortlessly in a package that is so attractive reminding everybody how the face of evil could be cloaked in the guise of wealth, class, and beauty. In contrast, Cuneta exemplified how the human spirit could rise above such insurmountable and seemingly unbearable odds with the bravura of her performance as Melinda. As an effect, in the end good is rewarded and evil is punished and the escapist thirst of every movie aficionado is quenched.

I cannot think of any other actor who can play the role of Melinda and Olive. Their chemistry on screen as heroine and villainess is so palpable. It is so easy for the audience to fall under the spell that Cuneta and Padilla cast upon them and suspension of disbelief happened the very second the movie started. I believed Cuneta and Padilla and everything else followed, making “Mano Po 6: A Mother’s Love” a divinely, mega-delicious masterpiece to watch over and over again.