Thank you to minsquare91x from YT for subbing so quickly!
Click here to watch episode 11!
(Look under the “Videos” section for recent updates!)
I suggest that you have a tissue box ready. You’ll see why!
Also, here’s the preview of next week’s episode (I can’t wait!):
Although I watched My Girl early in the morning (on YouTube) because of my excitement, I got to watch it again on TFC before Lobo. While re-watching the thirty-minute episode without my earlier anxiety and thrill, I got to really sit down and discover the bits where the pilot episode was lacking.
Remember, I have never watched Korea’s My Girl, so these comments are purely directed at the Philippine version.
Let me first start with the episode’s discontinuity of the story. I went to the Philippines just last March and visited Luneta and Jose Rizal myself (for the first time!) and as I recall, Rizal isn’t in Subic for goodness sakes. Considering it’s the first episode and we don’t really know much about Jasmine’s tour guide business, it would have been really helpful if the show explained where exactly Jasmine and her father were living because they were showing the tourists Luneta one day, but then had to get them to Subic’s airport the next day, as opposed to just going to NAIA.
What really got me laughing in disbelief was when Julian’s grandfather stated to his colleagues that Julian was at the top of his class in Harvard while taking his Master’s degree. I completely didn’t catch this on my first time watching the episode, but thank goodness I did on my second watch because it’s vital when it comes to interpreting Julian’s age. Here in the US, it takes 2 years or more to finish graduate school on top of the five (it’s not four anymore) years it takes to complete a Bachelor’s. I thought the writers opted to interpret that Julian was a lot younger than his Korean counterpart? No way, by physical appearance alone, would Gerald Anderson (at his age) pass as a grad student. Hell, they should have just stated that he was on his last year taking up his Bachelor’s — that would have been more believable.
This may have happened in the original My Girl, but I found this incredibly dumb: Jasmine and her father just won P300,000 and talks about it loudly in front of everyone to hear. Obviously, the two men with the motorcycle grabs the bag filled with money and drives away with it. Oh. Come. On. I can’t believe this really happened in the original (if it did). -_-
Before I forget, I thought that the beginning of the series was going to be happy and cheery-like (as stated by Gerald Anderson himself!), yet instead, we get about 60% (as a PEx member stated) of drama! I loved the opening scene because I thought that, finally, Philippine drama was starting to veer away from sad scenes and that we’ll get an enjoyable product. Instead, we are shown Jasmine’s hilarious day as a tour guide, but after about a short 2-3 minutes of that, the scene changes to Julian crying because his grandfather just got a heart attack. Thats what I’ve noticed with Philippine dramas (ABS-CBN & GMA!) — they’re always changing from one scene to another and back which really gets annoying because it leaves us hanging. One minute I’m laughing because of Kim Chiu and Cathy Gonzaga, the next, I’m affected by the melodrama of Gerald Anderson and his character’s family. Goodness. -_-
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Surprisingly, with all these little annoying tidbits, I still found the pilot episode enjoyable, mainly due to Kim Chiu’s performance and of course, Cathy Gonzaga’s supportive role. From the blogs and comments I’ve read on PEx and WordPress, some find that Kim’s acting was over-the-top and somewhat cheesy. I have to disagree — I found her character very likable and funny, with just the right amount of outrageousness, especially when she was trying her best to delay the flight that the tourists had to catch at Subic’s airport.
Then there’s Cathy Gonzaga’s character and her Filipino brother, Jeffrey, that only speaks Mandarin (that right there is hilarious enough!). These two add even more outrageousness on top of Kim, which I really loved. I don’t think a show can go wrong with Cathy Gonzaga in it — her type of comedic acting is never “OA” and I’ve never questioned it. However and whatever way she gets ready for her roles, she’s doing it right!
As for Gerald Anderson, when I first didn’t hear his character’s grandfather say that he was taking his Master’s, I thought the actor was doing fine. However, when I did hear about the whole age thing, it completely changed everything. Gerald needs to step up his game in the “How to Act Older” department because he needs a certain aura that states that he’s all man, not a puny teenager. However, my favorite part of Gerald’s acting in tonight’s episode was how his character reacted to his grandfather’s sudden heart attack — I actually bought it. 
Gerald just needs a more mature look, packed with an even more mature personality, and it’ll be all good. Hell, that’s what workshops are for, right?
Aside from the characters, I enjoyed how the episode was filmed and edited. It had more “bounce” and it felt like we were a fly on the wall watching the characters. For instance, when Jasmine was adding up their debts and crying softly, her father comes in to talk to her and when he leaves, we watch from the ceiling, as if we just happened to be there and took notice. My favorite moments that exhibited this would be the ones with Cathy where we really see her facial expressions — hilarious! In addition, I loved how they incorporated more background music to accompany the scene on hand — it added more comical flare to the funny scenes which I have always enjoyed whenever I watched Korean or Taiwan dramas. This was a good call!
All in all, would I watch episode two? You sure bet I would! There may be some sad scenes up ahead, but because there’s a whole lot more of hilarious ones, I’ll gladly anticipate the next episode.
For the duration of Lobo, I have always found delight in its well-written plot, the whirl of emotions successfully delivered from the characters when the situation calls it, and the daily gulp of mystery.
However, for tonight’s episode, the story dipped down the toilet a bit and it is all thanks to the scene where Rodolfo barges into Noah’s home looking to avenge the death of his brother, Raul.
First of all, why did Raul, out of the blue, lunge after Gabby? Hell, why was he even there in the first place? He should have stayed close to Nessa while waiting for Rodolfo and the other black lobo to bite Lyka, but instead, he somehow mysteriously appeared before Noah’s team of soldiers while they were capturing Alec. Then he does the dumbest thing ever which is attack Gabby, only to have himself shot to death by Noah. There should be a smilie face that smacks itself on the head because that’s the only thing that expresses how dumb this episode got.
So obviously, Rodolfo goes to Noah’s home only to find Zoey and Tikboy there. By this time, I was thinking of the worse. As much as I rag on Zoey, I don’t want her to die because it would just increase the levels of sadness and Noah’s hate for the lobo (to the point where he may never accept Lyka). (Tally: his father, dead; Leon, dead). I was literally screaming at my television for Lyka to appear, and it’s a damn good thing she did.
Here’s the part where I thought the show lost all sanity: Lyka gets out of the taxi, hears Zoey and Tikboy screaming, and instead of using her speed to quickly save them from whatever that was happening, she goes and fights Rodolfo’s pack of wolves of first. LYKA, you’re the freaking huling bantay — with one nudge of the elbow, people go splattering on the floor, for God’s sakes (e.g, Noah, Alec, the black lobo mother to name a few). Instead, you use up the time by kicking butt first. OH come on! How freaking dumb was that?
Then when Lyka’s done doing that, she still doesn’t use her speed to go to Zoey. Instead, Angel Locsin strikes a pose and does a freaking “sexy-bad-girl” walk like she’s on a damned runway. *rolls eyes* So finally, when Lyka reaches the room, she sees Rodolfo suffocating Zoey in mid-air (who is still surprisingly alive after all that time wasted), and once again, Lyka waits and does nothing but talk Rodolfo out of it. HELLO? You can just push Rodolfo away so Zoey can get some air, and then you can talk to him. Good God. You don’t see Clark talking the villain out of killing Lana/Lois/Chloe right? NO! He uses his super speed to quickly save his friends. Dumbest scene ever; I absolutely hated it.
There were other things that really bit the dust in this episode, but the aforesaid scene was just the crap topper (as opposed to “cherry on top”).
Good morning! So far, Kim Chiu’s performance has been hilarious and as for Gerald Anderson, he ain’t so bad actually. Make sure not to compare the remake to the original when it comes to Kim and Gerald’s ages because the show purposely made their characters younger — which is fine since I don’t think these two blooming teens would be able to pull off playing adults anyway (they’re no Bea Alonzo!). If you’re loyal to the original, you don’t have to watch, but you also have the choice to sit back and just enjoy it.
Happy drama watching!
[videos removed due to copyright infringement (sucks)]
Here’s the MV for the Philippine remake of My Girl (starring Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson) featuring the song, “Sabihin Mo Na,” sung by Yeng Constantino.
The show will air on May 26 in the Philippines on ABS-CBN! As for me, I’ll give the show a try — the preview looked pretty good in my opinion and it’s also a plus that I haven’t seen the Korean version (gasp!) so I can sit back and not worry about comparing the two (unlike the majority of you!). hah
[edit] Here are some more videos with English subtitles!
Teaser/Trailer
Full Trailer
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