May Nagmamahal Sa'yo

May Nagmamahal Sa'yo (transl. Somebody Loves You) is a 1996 Philippine drama film written by Olivia M. Lamasan, Ricky Lee, and Shaira Mella Salvador and directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya.

The film stars Lorna Tolentino as Louella Sevilla, a mother who gave up her son Leonard to the orphanage to serve as a domestic helper in Hong Kong, and seven years later, she returned to the same place but he was not there. It also stars Ariel Rivera as Nestor, a kind policeman and Louella's boyfriend who assists on her search to find her son; Claudine Barretto as Janine, Louella's younger sister; Gina Pareño as Rosing, Louella and Janine's cold-hearted mother; Tom Taus Jr. as Leonard, Louella's son; and Stefano Mori, in his introductory role, as Conrad, a spoiled orphan at the orphanage.

It was produced by executive producers Charo Santos-Concio and Lily Y. Monteverde, producer Malou N. Santos, and supervising producer Jackie Liu for ABS-CBN Corporation's movie production arm Star Cinema. Unlike Diaz-Abaya's feature films that centered on issues related to feminism and women's rights, the film was centered on motherhood, a natural trait to every woman, child abuse, and adoption.^[1][2]

The film was nominated to eight awards from three award-governing bodies including nominations of Best Picture, Best Child Actor (for Stefano Mori), and Best Director (for Marilou Diaz-Abaya) at the 45th FAMAS Awards.

Plot[]

Louella Sevilla, a young woman from the town of Talisay in Batangas, decides to give up her son Leonard to Fr. Nicandro, the head priest, because she was going to serve as a domestic helper in Hong Kong. She entrusted her son to Fr. Nicandro and promised him that Leonard should be adopted by a good family.

Seven years later, Louella returned to the Philippines after she was relieved by her employers due to their relocation to Canada. She believed that her return would be a perfect time to reconcile with Leonard. Meanwhile at the Hospicio de San Cristobal, an orphanage in Tagaytay, a young boy named Conrad, a rebellious kid, he was rejected to be adopted due to his behavior.

At the same time, Louella returned to her hometown of Talisay at her family's house where her parents Rosing and Boy, and younger sister Janine lived. Her return was welcomed by her younger sister and father but her mother just ignored her because of their strained relationship. On the following day at the town center, Louella, who was with Janine, reunites with Nestor, a policeman serving in the town, right after he and his men stopped a threatening attack from an arguing married couple. In the same evening, as Louella watches her parents in the fishery and her neighbor taking care of a baby, she began to reminisce about the time she cared for Leonard seven years earlier. This prompted her to go back to the same place but Fr. Nicandro died four years earlier and Fr. Cortez took over as head priest. At that point, he told her that Manang Ofel knows the location where Louella's son and the other children were transferred. When Louella asks her, she replied that they were transferred to Hospicio de San Agustin in Pasig City.

When Louella arrived in Pasig, she discovered that the orphanage (Hospicio de San Agustin) was demolished to pave way for the overpass and the orphans of the said place were transferred to various orphanages. To find the details of where they transferred, Louella asked Nestor about the orphanage and the latter told the former that the children were transferred to the orphanages (Lipa and Tagaytay). Louella also asked his permission to join with her going to the orphanages and Nestor agrees. When they went to the orphanage in Lipa City, they found that most of the children are disabled and Leonard wasn't born with disabilities.

One day, Nestor went to the house of Leonard's foster mother Mrs. Alejandro but he found out that Leonard was escaped with her former house helper Editha Sungkalan.

After learning the whereabouts of Leonard from Mrs. Alejandro, Nestor and Louella started searching for Editha Sungkalan, the house helper who brought Leonard to the slums of Tondo.

When they discovered Editha, she began to tell the revelations to Louella and Nestor about Leonard, her employer, and how she brought Leonard to Manila. It is revealed that Leonard was abused by her foster mother and she treated him like an animal. Due to this, Editha decided to rescue Leonard from the abuse and she escaped with him to her home in Tondo. Leonard lived a happy life in the slums despite usually wandering in the streets. Unfortunately, one day, his friends brought his body to Editha and he died of pneumonia in her arms. The fact of Leonard's death leads to Louella's pain and devastation. When they returned to Hospicio de San Cristobal to adopt Conrad, they were told by Sr. Lourdes that he was missing. Luckily, the young girl whom Conrad took good care of telling the two that they were on the beaches.

Before Louella leaves the country, she bids farewell to her family and Nestor would assist her. Suddenly, when they hear the sound of a harmonica, they discovered Conrad in the nearby trees, much to their surprise. Conrad was finally reunited with the Sevilla family, implying that he decided to be adopted by Louella and Nestor as their son.

Cast[]

• Lorna Tolentino as Louella Sevilla: A domestic helper in Hong Kong and Leonard's mother. She gave up Leonard to the adoption. After seven years of work, she began her search to find Leonard.
• Ariel Rivera as Nestor: One of the members of the Talisay PNP Station and Louella's boyfriend.
• Stefano Mori as Conrad: A rebellious child in the orphanage whose parents died in Pampanga. He assists Louella on her search to find her son.
  • Kaiser German Gonzales as 2-year old Conrad
  • Robert Norton as 5-year old Conrad
• Tom Taus Jr. as Leonard: Louella's son whose birth was resulted from a brief romance with a visiting businessman.
  • Angelo Lourds Silverio as 8-month old Leonard
  • Janjiro Hernandez as 2-year old Leonard
  • Emman Abeleda as 5-year old Leonard
• Gina Pareno as Rosing Sevilla: Louella and Janine's mother who has a strained relationship with the former.
• Claudine Barretto as Janine Sevilla: Louella's younger sister. She always supports her older sister in life.
• Renato del Prado as Boy: Louella and Janine's father and Rosing's wife.
• Rolando Tinio as Fr. Nicandro: The head priest who took care of Louella's son Leonard when she transferred care to him. He took care of Leonard and the other children until they were transferred to various orphanages after his death.
• Vangie Labalan as Sr. Lourdes: The head nun of the orphanage.
• Michael Macasio as Dindo: Conrad's friend.
• Jaclyn Jose as Editha Sungkalan: Mrs. Alejandro's former househelper and Leonard's second foster mother.
• Archie Adamos as Fr. Cortez: The current head priest and successor to Fr. Nicandro.
• Cita Astals as Mrs. Alejandro: Leonard's first foster mother. She was an abusive woman and treats her foster son like an animal.
• Gamaliel Viray and Alma Lerma as Mr. and Mrs. De Villa: Conrad's former adoptive parents.
• Cris Daluz as Gusting: An old man who was arrested by Nestor for threatening his wife with a machete.
• Lora Luna as Sr. Marrianne
• Mae Ann Adonis as Melencia
• Romy Romulo as Nestor's police buddy
• Lilia Cuntapay as Manang Ofel: Fr. Nicandro's assistant. She gave the information of Hospicio de San Agustin, located in Pasig, to Louella.
• Benjamin Valdes as Stephen: The son of Louella's employers in Hong Kong.

Production[]

Ricky Lee (pictured in 2018) has been a frequent writing collaborator to Marilou Diaz-Abaya since 1980.

When the film version of ABS-CBN's hit legal drama Ipaglaban Mo! (then titled Kapag May Katwiran, Ipaglaban Mo!), directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya, became a box office hit in theaters in 1995, she was offered by Star Cinema, the film production arm of ABS-CBN Corporation, to produce another film. In her previous films, most of them tackled the controversial issues and themes of feminism and for her follow-up project, she decided to create a film that tackles the themes of motherhood, adoption, and the importance of children.^[2]

The screenplay was written by Ricky Lee and Shaira Mella Salvador for Star Cinema. Ricky Lee, one of the film's writers, has been a frequent collaborator to Marilou Diaz-Abaya since they collaborated in a number of films including Moral in 1982 and Karnal in 1983, both were part of Diaz-Abaya's trilogy of feminist films.^[2]

It was filmed and produced in the course of seven days as well as the editing and post-production due to the limited budget. Because of this circumstance, the staff used the "pito-pito" (seven each/seven-seven) concept, a solution to keep the Philippine cinema afloat from declining and giving a chance to have creative freedom back in the 1980s and 1990s.^[3]

Release[]

The film was theatrically released by Star Cinema on 25 January 1996. It also received an overseas release in Japan on 15 September 1996 as one of the exhibited films for the 1996 Fukuoka International Film Festival, shown in Japanese and English subtitles and its Japanese title is Madonna and Child (Japanese: マドンナ·アンド·チャイルド, Hepburn: Madonna Ando Chairudo).^[4][5]

It was re-released for exhibition in the Philippines on 10 December 2012 as part of a tribute to the late director at the 14th Cinemanila International Film Festival in Taguig City.^[6]

Legacy and reception[]

May Nagmamahal Sa'yo is one of the Filipino films whose 35mm negative film prints were stored and archived at the film archives division of Fukuoka City Public Library Archives in Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.^[5] It is also one of the well-known films of the Philippine cinema that were produced under the "pito-pito" filmmaking concept.^[3]

Accolades[]

On the Society of Filipino Film Reviewers' list of the "100 Best Filipino Films Directed by Women", Marilou Diaz-Abaya's May Nagmamahal Sa'yo was placed 78th.^[7]

References[]

Notes[]

External links[]

• May Nagmamahal Sa'yo (Madonna and Child) at IMDb