Although four of today’s most promising young stars—Albie Casiño, Joseph Marco, Kean Cipriano and Kylie Padilla—lead the cast of “Triptiko,” Miguel Franco Michelana’s feature film debut is far from your usual youth-oriented flick. Hugot lines and formulaic twists are replaced by unconventional narratives that might not necessarily agree with the preferences of the common Filipino viewer.
Albie, Joseph and Kean each play a different character in three different stories. In “Suwerte,” Albie experiences one mishap after another in a series of events that will determine his fate. Joseph, on the other hand, plays a professional model who realizes that his career might come to an end because of an incurable ailment in “Hinog.” Kean and Kylie play lovers in an unlikely love story in “Musikerong John.” Rounding up the cast are Jerald Napoles, Art Acuña, Pinky Amador, Jay Gonzaga and Karl Medina.
In an interview with InterAksyon before the premiere screening of “Triptiko” at the Venice Grand Canal Mall Cinema, the three leading men talked about the proximity of their roles to their real life identities, as well as the challenges involved.
“Well, my character is as passionate as I am. We’re both musicians. Very emotional yung character eh. Exactly like me. I’m a very emotional person,” Kean, who is also the frontman of the band Callalily, said.
“Para ilayo mo yung sarili mo dun sa character mo, yun yung challenge para sa akin. Kasi folk singer ako eh. Meron akong challenge during the shoot na hindi lumabas yung pagiging ‘rock’ nung boses ko, yung asta ko, pati the way I talked,” he added.
Joseph, however, found it a lot easier to ease into his role.
“For me, hindi naman talaga ako nahirapan kasi model yung pino-portray ko and I was once a model. But the thing is, yun nga, simula nung nagkaroon siya ng mga boils, nung mga pigsa, and laking tulong ng prosthetics, I could really feel na it’s painful. It’s such a good thing na nakatulong sa akin yun,” Joseph said.
Albie found his role more difficult than usual, but the challenges he encountered were of a different kind.
He explains, “My character and I, we’re both millennials, a happy-go-lucky guy. I guess he’s very similar to me. Most of my challenges in this movie were physical challenges. Like I had to runaround, I had to do a lot of jumping, and stuff. Those were my challenges.”
Kean, Albie and Joseph admit that their roles are very relatable, but the situations their characters get into are completely out of this world. They found the material extraordinary, and this prompted them to agree to be part of the film.
“It’s just that the script itself is very unique, Albie shared. “Ten pages into the script, I wanted to do it right away.”
“Actually, me too. I got so excited. Like what I said, it’s really different. It’s so exciting. Like you don’t [always] get that chance to play a character like that. So we really grabbed it,” Joseph said.
Kean, who plays the lead in what is arguably the most memorable episode, confided that he initially had no idea if and when the film would be released, given that it was a crowdfunded project.
Kean, however, had faith in the script and readily took on the role. “Bakit namin ginawa yung job without us knowing yet kung saan siya ipapalabas noon? Ano talaga eh, magaling magkuwento yung director namin. Dun pa lang sa unang kita namin, alam ko na na maganda yung material na hawak namin.”
“Triptiko” is graded A by the Cinema Evaluation Board. It will be shown in cinemas nationwide as part of the Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino from August 16 to 22.
