Labs Kita, Ok ka Lang?
Three colllege seniors sneak out of their BRAINS NMAT review class in
Diliman one lazy Sunday afternoon to catch the screening of…wait,
that’s us.
Pero pwede.
Now that I think about it,
at that time, the main characters could very well be my friends. They
were your average teenagers. And they look so darn regular that
watching them felt like we were watching, well, ourselves.
Labs Kita is the story of rich girl Bujoy (Jolina Magdangal), an awkward teenager secretly in-love with her childhood bestfriend and neighbor Ned (Marvin Agustin).
Bujoy is an heir to a flower farm, Ned’s family runs a small lodging place. His father is a former guitarist who never made it big.
Both are artists - Bujoy sculpts, but doesn’t want the world to know. Like his father, Ned is a musician (pianist) who is having trouble finishing his song due to lack of inspiration.
They enter college, they get teased all the time by Ned’s bandmates, played by Vhong Navarro and a bunch of other Ang TV kids. Bujoy hangs out with histrionic Mayo (Meryll Soriano), the only person who knows about her real feelings toward Ned. Mayo also dresses like Jolina in real life, but let’s not get into that.
Vanessa del Bianco enters the picture as Mary Ann, Bujoy’s gorgeous balikbayan friend. Naturally, Ned falls for her and asks Bujoy to set them up on a date. Gio Alvarez plays Cenon, a Manileno who moves to Baguio for school. He joins Ned’s band, gets smitten when he meets Bujoy and then asks Ned to - surprise, surprise - set them up.
Because of Mary Ann and Cenon, the once inseparable bestfriends begin to spend less and less time together.
Bujoy joins a campus sculpture competition, and asks Ned to show his support. She requests for him to arrive early and not to bring Mary Ann because she wants to have his whole attention. Of course Ned shows up late - with Mary Ann in his arms - causing Bujoy to walk out of the competition. Ned chases her, and tells her that Mary Ann is there because they want her to be the first to know that they’re officially together.
Bujoy loses her cool and spills her real feelings by delivering the line which, IMO, sums up the whole movie:
"Oh
yes, kaibigan mo lang ako…and that’s all I was to you Ned…I am so
stupid for making the biggest mistake of falling in-love with my
bestfriend."
That’s it. That’s the whole movie right there. I can imagine the writer pitching this story to Star Cinema using that line.
Shocked, Ned tells her that he feels the same way but he doesn’t want to lose the friendship that’s why he doesn’t act on it.
Of course, eventually they end up together, but not after several Pinoy pampakilig scenes such as Ned finally finishing his song - with Bujoy as her inspiration, a dream sequence where Ned climbs up Bujoy’s room like he used to, and a bus-car chase down Marcos Highway.
Ironically, the best scene belongs to Ned’s parents, played by the luminous Gina Pareno and the dashing Ronaldo Valdez. When Gina tells Ned that he is just wasting his life on music the same way his father did, Ronaldo smashes his guitar against the wall and utters the line that - I swear - had almost everyone inside the whole cinema crying:
"Putangina
mo, hindi magmamana sa kin ang anak ko dahil wala siyang asawang
katulad mo…papa-Japan na ko noon eh pero pinamili mo ko, ikaw o ang
banda ko…natural ikaw pipiliin ko…mahal kita eh".
How two people who look like Ronaldo Valdez and Gina Pareno can produce a Marvin Agustin I have no idea.
Vanessa is lucky she gets to play her real annoying self as the gorgeous balikbayan who has guys wrapped around her fingers. Gio is believable, and incredibly cute. Vhong is hilarious, especially when he banters with that other Streetboy. Meryll shows promise, but sometimes acts too much like her Tita Maricel.
The Gina Pareno-Ronaldo Valdez team-up is, to borrow Chandler Bing’s word, perfection.
And of course, Hilda Coronel is Hilda Coronel.
Marvin does good as Ned, if not for his high-pitched voice which annoys the hell out of me. His chemistry with Jolina is so strong it’s palpable.
But the movie belongs to - handsdown - Jolens. She’s Bujoy. There is no other way of saying this.
I
guess the brilliance of this movie lies on the fact that it is devoid
of pretenses. It doesn’t try to be anything than what it really is - a
simple love story about two average teenagers set in breathtaking
Baguio City.
Everything, everyone in this movie is just so darn real.
When Bujoy tells her mom that she feels insecure and ugly - who wouldn’t if your mom looks like Hilda Coronel - we understand. No, we get her.
When she tries to set up but ends up sneakily discouraging Mary Ann from going out with Ned, we laugh, but we relate.
When she receives a bouquet of roses from Ned with a letter inviting her to have dinner, we giggle, we hope.
When she sees Mary Ann and Cenon with Ned at Cafe Legarda and realizes that it’s actually a double date, our hearts bleed as well.
We cheer her on, we hate Mary Ann with a passion.
And why not - after all, who among us hasn’t fallen in-love with a dear friend?
