Ang Tanging Ina (2003)

The frenetic Ai Ai Delas Alas plays Ina, a mother of 12 who has had a variety of jobs to provide for her children. She becomes a chambermaid with her best friend Rowena and gets to know the Madam President if the Phillipines. She finds out the Vice President is going to have the president assassinated, tries to warn the president at an outside speech and the president gets shot. She shows the proof of the VP's conspiracy and, in a snap election, becomes President..and its a comedy! Ai Ai Delas Alas is like Lucille Ball on hyper drive, and she is a star in the Phillipines, rightfully so. She carries this improbable premise very well, you just love her. Her facial expressions here and there remind me of the great Hong Kong actress Sandra Ng, they express everything. There's even a bold part of this in which one of her sons is gay and invites a stir. You're not really supposed to take most of this seriously, so if you know that going in, you should able to enjoy this slightly crazy but ultimately watchable film.

I thought this movie was one of the better Filipino comedies i've seen. Ai-Ai portrayed the part of Ina well. Mostly I liked the actors and actresses who portrayed her children. Like Heart Evangelista, Carlo Aquino, Marvin Augustin, Serena Dalrymple, Shaina Magdayao,and Alwyn Uytingco and many more. this is the story of a mother who has 12 children. her 3 husbands had died and left her to take care of them. i loved how they had used famous quotes from other Filipino movies. like when she and Carlo Aquino did the line from bata bata with Vilma Santos who originally did the line with Carlo. that was the funniest part to me. and when she quoted lines from movies with Claudine, and Maricel Soriano. over all i liked this movie and i'm glad that she won best actress for her role here. the only part i didn't like was the two young love teams of heart and John Prats i'm more partial to her love team now Geoff Eigenmann. and i didn't really like Carlo Aquino with angelica panganiban again i'm more partial to his love team partner in the love team reality search qpids Vanessa Gomez they have more chemistry and are more comfortable with each other. i also loved Alwyn's portrayal of her gay son. i didn't expect him to be playing that type of role after watching him on Qpids. but he was very enjoyable there. and jiro manio played a cute but feisty little kid who beats up the little brother of Alwyn's crush. and Serena plays a girl who is very tomboyish. edu Manson and ton ton Gutierrez are two of her diseased husbands and Dennis Padilla comes into the picture as her potential next husband. Eugene Domingo her best friend that helps to raise her 12 children. the TV sitcom that spun off from the movie is almost the same except not as many children but same actors portrayed some of her children like Heart Evangelista and Marvin Augustin.

I don't usually see Filipino films, except those I've already seen when I was a kid (like "Sarah, Ang Munting Prinsesa.") This one though, I did like. It's very funny. The kid actors and kid actresses were superb. The storyline goes from comedy to drama to comedy. I absolutely love it. Ai Ai Delas Alas is an excellent mother, and the kids were very adorable. If you like watching family comedy, this it the best Filipino family comedy I've ever seen. There's the gay son, the little kids, the daughter with the crush... SOOOO hilarious. MUST SEE if you're a Filipino! Heck, even if you're not Filipino, this is a MUST SEE... if only the DVD has an English subtitle in it... Anyways, the story plot is simple but touching. And the comedy in it is JUST SUPERB. Really, definitely a MUST SEE.

despite the unbelievable situation, with 3 husbands dying, it's a corny set-up. however, the comedic instances were actually pretty funny. I may be biased, because I think Ai-Ai de las Alas is funny as hell, but she looked and sounded to be in her element, utilizing a subtle, light comedic beat. the other scenes were quite raw, using too many fast forwards and jump cuts, less can actually be more. the other supporting actors were ok, some were solid, some were effective, the rest were just wallflowers. a solid effort overall, I normally do not like most filipino comedies, the ones I've seen were overly corny and too ambitious, but subtle comedies like this exhibit a good example of the filipino camp comedy genre