‘It’s Okay to Not Be Okay’ on final chapter
The final chapter has begun to reveal why Aquino’s character is fearful of butterflies and cannot even get himself to draw one.
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The final chapter has begun to reveal why Aquino’s character is fearful of butterflies and cannot even get himself to draw one.
Carlo Aquino, Anne Curtis and Joshua Garcia.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ABS-CBN
CECILE Licad with maestro Grzegorz Nowak and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.
PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF KIKO CEBUANA
Catch the now reeling final chapter of It’s Okay to Not Be Okay on Kapamilya Channel, Kapamilya Online Live (KOL), A2Z and TV5, weeknights at 8:45 p.m. Watch it in advance on iWant.
The series must have been planned to be a short one just meant to break the long hibernation from TV of lead actors Anne Curtis, Carlo Aquino and Joshua Garcia. ABS-CBN is most likely preparing a series that either has all three of them or three separate shows that give the title role to each of them. Those forthcoming shows will be for 2026 airing.
It’s Okay to Not Be Okay really showcases the character-portrayal mettle of the three actors that deserve longer exposure than just three months or so. It is an adaptation of a South Korean series of the same title, but our three lead actors in the adaptation deserve original Pinoy-conceived storylines, not adaptations of foreign narratives whose major details and twists have to be retained. Pinoy viewers of an adaptation of foreign materials could not help but detour in their minds if a scene that moves them was presented the way it was in the original or the scene is a handiwork of the Filipino cast and artistic team.
The final chapter has begun to reveal why Aquino’s character is fearful of butterflies and cannot even get himself to draw one. The character has autism though he is functional. All three lead characters reel from traumatic childhood events. The final chapter reveals what those events were even as some characters from their past linger in their grownup lives narrowed by Aquino’s character who has autism. There are love angles to resolve.
Also, some forgiving of evil ways have to occur in It’s Okay to Not Be Okay. In real life, forgiving people who caused suffering and terrible difficulties does not mean they do not have to do restitution of what had enriched them. And we do not have to allow them to freely live with us. They can be banished in jail. We should not hate them because that hatred will cause us to attract similar characters amid us sooner or later.
The series actually has a huge cast that includes Rio Locsin, Ana Abad, Francis Magundayao, Bobot Mortiz, Michael De Mesa, Maricel Laxa, Agot Isidro, Enchong Dee, Kaori Oinuma, Bodjie Pascua, Sharmaine Suarez, Xyriel Manabat, Louise Abuel, Alora Sasam, Alyssa Muhlach, Bianca De Vera, Aljon Mendoza and Mark Oblea.
Bewitched by Cecil Licad
Meanwhile, it is awful to attend a Cecile Licad concert if you can’t see her hands moving on the piano keys. That means you are not watching “the pianists’ pianist” but just listening to her playing live. Music-making in the great tradition of the olden days is a magic of the hands. You could be sorry if you don’t ever see the moving hands.
At the Gallery MiraManila in Quezon City last Wednesday night (1 October), a contrarian god ruled. Seated in the middle rows of the flat-floored exhibition hall, we can see only Licad’s head of long black hair moving every now and then. But we could hear her playing clearly, even her pianissimos — though at certain passages, Licad sounded like she had three hands or more.
At unpredictable points in her playing, she virtually transforms to a goddess of enchantment. You cannot see how her hands create the magic of music. You would only know you are bewitched by the music you hear, binding you into a spell.
Licad will be at Sta. Ana Parish in Molo, Iloilo on 6 October; at the University of the Philippines Visayas Museum of Art and Cultural Heritage on 7 October; and at the ECrown Hotel Ballroom in Virac, Catanduanes on 11 October.
If the venue seats are not tiered and your ticket is not in the front rows, do not feel awful. Sit down and prepare for enchantment.
Licad’s repertoire will be the same as the one she played in Baguio City and in Quezon City. Kindly see seasoned journalist Babeth Lolarga’s review of the Baguio concert in this paper on 28 September for the set list. Most likely, even the encore number will be the same.
Our dear editor, Dinah S. Ventura, wrote about Licad on 19 September and asked about how “the greatest pianist of her time” takes care of her hands. It was Lolarga’s review of Licad’s Pines City concert, though, that somehow bothered us. She wrote: “But when I saw on the screen that Cecile only had two hands, I couldn’t believe it. It sounded and felt like more than one person was playing.”
The pianist as monster? No, the pianist as enchantress! She plays from her soul. The soul emanates through the hands the most enchanting sound.
Gallery MiraManila is part of the one-hectare estate known as MiraNila Heritage House and Library at 26 Mariposa St. in Quezon City. We are glad it has begun to be a venue in QC for cultural performances, including media conferences for those events. It is actually like a museum of mementos (including books) of the Benitez family headed by the couple Conrad Francia Benitez, a pioneering educator and constitutionalist; and Francisca Tirona Benitez, co-founder of the Philippine Women’s University, the first university for women in Asia founded by Asians.
The estate accepts guided events by appointment, tours, catered events, walk-in or reserved indoor and outdoor lunches or dinner and a lovely bed-and-breakfast at MiraNamin Nest.
