“Mumunting Lihim” is a personal film but he’s quick to point out that it’s not his and his best friends’ own story. “The idea came to me when our dear friend Don Escudero passed and I was not asked to give a eulogy. In a way, I was relieved kasi I realized hindi ko makakaya, as I was just listening to the eulogy of others, humahagulgol na ko. Among us friends, I’m the one who keeps a journal, a diary. And in ‘Mumunting Lihim’, the character who’s dead when the film starts also kept a journal na iniwan niya at naging dahilan for all her friends to know more about themselves and their relationship.”
He dedicates the movie to his late director friends Don Escudero, Khryss Adalia and Tony Espejo. The film doesn’t look like it cost only P3 million to make. “That’s because my stars Judy Ann Santos, Iza Calzado, Janice de Belen and Agot Isidro didn’t charge a single centavo for their work here. Si Juday, all I said was: Can you give me four days of your life for free? All she asked was: What’s my role? I said: Contravida. And she quickly said: Go. Marami sa locations we used here, ex-deal lang, free.”
But Juday's manager, Alfie Lorenzo, is mad at Direk Joey for not being informed at all about this free appearance of his ward in "Mumunting Lihim". The movie will have its gala premiere at the CCP Main Theatre on July 25, Wednesday, 9 PM. It’ll have a run in commercial theaters on August 22.
