Television is a powerful medium. So powerful that it can make someone as jaded as I am cry. I am quite familiar with the landscape. I work on TV. I know what happens in front of and behind the camera.
But a couple of days ago, I was crying as I surfed various networks. On Teleradyo, I saw a man talking about his supposed achievements for the last six years or so. I was crying for our nation as we really have gone through a lot lately, from the pandemic to a down economy. I cried so much wishing that the country could heal.
A few hours later, I found myself crying again but this time out of joy. Hidilyn Diaz bagged our first Olympic gold medal and I really felt ecstatic. I was watching with my dog Andie who looked at me funny and then approached me, mistakenly thinking I needed comfort. And then the moment that our national anthem played and our flag was raised above China’s and Kazakhstan’s, I just lost it and ugly-cried. I bawled like a baby and Andie howled in sync with my sobbing.
Everyone has already said how Hidilyn lifted the spirits
of the entire nation, or how she has inspired the whole country and given us the much-needed sunshine after all the floods and torrential rains we have been experiencing, and they are all right. Her gold medal is our gold medal. Her victory is our victory.
For the first time in many months, I slept smiling.
Hidilyn’s victory has lingered with me. And then a friend told me that she has a great life story. After all, Hidilyn is more than her Olympic triumph, and this is dramatized on the anthology show MMK. To know more about her, this MMK episode will be reaired this Saturday on A2Z and Kapamilya Channel. Jane Oineza brings Hidilyn’s inspiring story to life, along with actors Monsour del Rosario, Smokey Manaloto and Mico Aytona.
I will surely watch this episode again. After all, I still have Hidilyn fever.
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AFTER becoming a household name for her award-winning turn in the movie Fan Girl, Charlie Dizon is playing another fearless character in her latest project—a hopeless romantic searching for true love, even if it kills her.
Charlie refuses to let a deadly illness hold her back as she unexpectedly falls in love for the first time with Jameson Blake in the iWantTFC original series My Sunset Girl, which is currently streaming worldwide.
Here, Charlie plays Ciara, a free-spirited young lady who defies her circumstances in pursuit of love and happiness. She suffers from xeroderma pigmentosum, an illness that could turn deadly if she is exposed to sunlight for a long period of time. As a result, Ciara is unable to travel the world but she makes up for this by watching travel vlogs and making friends online.
Despite her rare condition, Ciara believes she is still capable of falling in love, and that she will find the right person who will love her back. Ciara then comes across and develops a deep bond with Lucas (Jameson), a travel enthusiast just like her who promises to help her accomplish all her goals in her travel bucket list.
But as the two start to get closer, Ciara realizes it is not only her sickness that will hinder her from meeting up with Lucas. Her strict mother Melissa (Mylene Dizon) will prevent them from seeing each other, and even go as far as confronting Lucas to stay away from her daughter.
Coproduced by Dreamscape Entertainment and All Blacks Media, the iWantTFC original series is directed by Andoy Ranay. It also stars Lance Reblando, Ana Abad Santos, Jun Jun Quintana, Frances Makil-Ignacio, and Jonathan Tadioan.
My Sunset Girl can be streamed via the iWantTFC app or on www.iwanttfc.com.