by Rachelle Siazon | February 28, 2009 11:36 PM
Your Song Presents: Underage brings a whole new twist to the movie classic which originally starred Dina Bonnevie, Maricel Soriano, and Snooky Serna. “Dito sa version namin ng Underage sinunod talaga namin yung storya. Kwento siya ng tatlong babae na nakatira sa probinsya, kung ano ang mangyayari sa paglipat nila sa Manila and how they met the first men in their lives. Pero yun lang actually ang ginaya namin. In terms of treatment, magkaibang-magkaiba. Most of you watched probably the original version and alam natin na it’s a camp classic. Ang treatment namin dito hindi siya campy. It’s more real, it’s updated and more truthful,” said Direk Manny Palo during their press conference last Wednesday, February 25.
This is why it was unnecessary for Melissa Ricks, Empress Schuck, Lauren Young, Matt Evans, Rafael Rosell, and AJ Perez to watch the original version because they were required to add a modern touch to their roles. Fortunately for Direk Manny, he didn’t even have to convince Melissa and Matt to show more skin in this project. “Yung kauna-unahang project na ginawa ko sa ABS-CBN, Your Song din yun featuring the two of them. Ang theme ng episode unwanted pregnancy and young marriage. Dun sa episode na yun nagkaroon ng first love scene and kissing scene si Matt and Mel. Eh dito sa episode na ito sabi nila they’re willing to go more daring, mas adventurous. So I guess they can go a little more daring,” he reasoned.
But even though Underage was shot back in the ‘80s, the cast then had really portrayed a lot of sexy scenes like men being seen in their underwear or women who are out to seduce as many boys as they can. Will this still reflect on the TV version knowing that children could easily tune in to its Sunday afternoon airtime? “Nasa treatment naman ‘yan palagay ko. Of course I am working with underage actors so yung pagha-handle naman ng mga eksena pag-iingatan talaga. At the same time, mayroon din kaming mga hindi malilimutang eksena like yun naliligo yung tatlong girls dun sa banyo at tiyempong masisilipan sila ni Matt. Gaganti naman itong si Mel. She’s going to do a different kind of striptease sa batis kung saan sila magde-date. Talagang tinanggal niya isa-isa yung kanyang malong, yung kanyang damit, pati underwear niya. Exciting yun pati na yung scenes before and after that,” he further explained.
There are also lots of valuable lessons to be learned through this show. Even the cast members admitted that they have come to appreciate their personal experiences as teenagers because of this project. “Ang gusto ko sa pagiging underage ko, you get to experience a lot of stuff. Katulad ng sabi ni Matt, umaasa ka pa rin sa parents mo so wala pa ring masyadong pressure. You still get to experiment and enjoy life while you’re still young,” exclaimed Lauren.
Empress on the other hand is grateful to have her mom to guide her in making decisions. “Ever since Ang TV days ko kasama ko na siya hanggang ngayon. Yun yung gusto ko, yung hindi siya mawala sa tabi ko kahit hindi na ako underage at saka parang araw-araw may nagiging friends ka.” Melissa was quick to agree. “Siguro kasi kapag underage ka wala ka masyadong pinoproblema dahil yung mga magulang mo they take care of everything and you get away with anything kasi nga bata ka pa. Hindi mo pa alam yung tama sa mali. So yun dapat ang abangan dito sa Underage, yung mga pagkakamaling gagawin namin at paano namin aayusin yun.”
SOURCE: WWW.ABS-CBN.COM
