CHLOE JENNA couldn’t help but cry with tears of joy at the mediacon of her first solo starrer, “Ligaw na Bulaklak”, when we congratulated her for her totally unabashed and brazenly uninhibited performance in the lead role of Di-an.
As a quiet seemingly harmless lass who turns out to be a psychological damaged predator to the guy she secretly loves, Chloe has several sex scenes with leading man Arron Villaflor who she practically rapes while he is tied up in bed.
We tell her she easily surpassed Kathy Bates’ Oscar winning performance in the 1990 film, “Misery”, because Bates never got to have sex with her captive, James Caan, while she had her way with Arron not just once but several times.
In “Misery”, Bates played a nurse who gets to care for her favorite author, Caan, when he had an accident and she takes him to her remote cabin where she makes him her prisoner.
This is also the gist of “Ligaw na Bulaklak” (there’s another “Ligaw na Bulaklak” local film in 1976 directed by Ishmael Bernal but they are not at all connected in any way), where Chloe plays Di-an, who lives in a solitary hut in a remote rural area.
Arron is Kevin, a popular actor who gets lost while driving his car on his way home from an out of town location shooting.
His car gets stuck in the mud and he meets an accident when he slips and his head unfortunately hits a big rock on the ground.
When he regains consciousness, he is already in bed in Chloe’s home and she turns out to be a big fan of his movies and is so obsessed with him.
She would watch his movies on DVD and give pleasure to herself while Arron is doing sexy bedscenes with his perennial screen partner (Sheila Snow.)
Just like “Misery”, “Ligaw na Bulaklak” becomes a thriller in its last half hour as Arron tries his best to escape and get away from his captor who will not let him go.
Both Arron and Chloe do a good job in their respective roles.
Jeffrey Hidalgo does multi-tasking in this movie.
He co-wrote the story with Lou Gopez and Dennis Marasigan, with the latter writing the full script.
He and Dennis also do acting jobs as the two useless cops who are looking for Arron after he goes missing.
What will Direk Jeffrey say when detractors would accuse him of his movie just copying “Misery”?
“We don’t hide na it’s inspired by ‘Misery’,” he says. “It’s actually a homage to ‘Misery’ but, if you’d notice, marami na kaming binago.
"For one, the ending is totally different from ‘Misery’. Tapos, may back story yung character ni Chloe along with Jeric Raval, who plays a mysterious mute man in her life.
"A movie is just like a song. Maraming paulit-ulit na melodies and the difference na lang is in the treatment and execution.”
Former Viva Hot Babe Sheree Bautista is part of the movie and plays a special role as the mother of Chloe who appears in the flashback scenes to shed light on Chloe’s background.
She has a hot love scene with a nameless guy and she says this is the last time she’d do a sexy flick.
“I want to thank Viva for all the projects they’re giving to me, but I want to take a break for a while, kasi my teenage son told me to rest muna,” she says.
“Dito sa ‘Ligaw na Bulaklak’, nahirapan ako kasi my character was killed at nakahiga ako sa lupa with fake blood, na matamis kaya kinagat-kagat ako ng langgam.”
As for Jeffrey Hidalgo, he started as a singer, then went into acting, and is now into directing. So which one is nearest to his heart?
“Right now, given the choice, directing is really on top of the priorities in what I enjoy doing.
"I find much more satisfaction in filmmaking.”
And to prove this, he now has a new film to direct, “Salawahan”, with one of the current Vivamax Queens, Angeli Khang. Meantime, don’t miss ‘Ligaw na Bulaklak’ that will start streaming this Friday on Vivamax.
