But in “Muling Buksan ang Puso”, she’s totally deglamorized in her role as a coconut farmer in love with Jestoni Alarcon. But Jestoni falls for Agot Isidro instead. The structure of the soap is similar to the recent hit, “Walang Hanggan”. It also spans three generations.
This starts with Dimples Romana and Iza Calzado fighting over Joem Bascon. When they get old, they’re played by Susan Roces, Pilar Pilapil and Dante Rivero. Dante is with Pilar first but Susan steals him, then he goes back to Pilar. This is like the triangle between Susan, Eddie Gutierrez and Helen Gamboa in “Walang Hanggan (WH)”.
In the second generation (represented by Richard, Dawn and Rita Avila in WH), Susan’s daughter is Agot while Pilar’s daughter is Cherie. Susan is very, very rich while Pilar (in the role originally offered to Amalia Fuentes) is poor. Like we said Cherie and Agot become rivals over Jestoni. Also in this generation are Daniel Fernando and Dominic Ochoa.
In the third and present generation (then comprised by Julia, Coco and Paulo) Cherie has two kids: Enchong Dee and Julia Montes. Enchong is over protective to Julia, like he wants to have an incestuous relationship with her. Agot’s son is Enrique Gil, a sickly boy who’s a balikbayan from the States. Eventually, there’ll be a love triangle conflict between Julia, Enrique and Enchong, so it’s obvious that there’s a twist in Enchong’s character and it’ll be revealed he and Julia are not really siblings.
The soap is directed by Manny Palo and Nuel Naval who have both branched out into the movies. Manny directed the acclaimed “Santa Nina” that won awards for Alessandra de Rossi and Anita Linda as best actress and best supporting actress, respectively, in an international filmfest in Sarawak, Malaysia. Nuel helmed the blockbuster sex-drama “A Secret Affair”.
