One of the thrilling moments avid Kapamilya viewers have been waiting for has finally happened!
Around five months since its original premiere last March, the highly anticipated teleserye of 2020 – Ang Sa Iyo Ay Akin – finally began airing on Monday, August 17, as part of Kapamilya Channel’s primetime block. And it didn’t fail to give us a promising beginning!
The explosive premiere
Tagged as #ASIAAPasabogNaSimula, the show started off by showing us a glimpse of how idyllic the friendship is of its lead characters Marissa Pineda and Ellice Ceñidoza, brilliantly portrayed by seasoned actresses Jodi Sta. Maria and Iza Calzado, respectively. We saw them zooming along the busy road of the fictional town of La Cascara while riding on Ellice’s posh top-down and bantering with one another.
As Marissa watched from afar how Ellice and her dad Jorge (Lito Pimentel) lovingly talk from afar, we could see the longing in her eyes to experience the same, or perhaps live the same luxurious life that her best friend has. And we’re able to prove that later on as she admiringly gazed at the beauty of Ellice’s pearl necklace and even put it on while the latter was busy pulling out the nice clothes from her cabinet that she would give her. Besides, she also told her mom, Lucing (Maricel Soriano) that their life could have been similar to the Ceñidozas if only her own father is still alive since their families used to be business partners.
Despite the difference in their social status, Ellice made sure that Marissa would look glamorous as she is and would receive the same treatment that the people around them are giving her, as what we had seen during the party. She even showed her support to her as she introduced her to Victor Montelibano (Albie Casiño), the scion of a political clan in their town, who apparently was Marissa’s crush.
However, instead of having a fun time with him, what Marissa got was only heartbreak as he told her to find a man that’s on the same level as she is and even embarrassed her in front of his friends. Rubbing salt to the wound was when she saw Ellice and Victor together, making her feel that her best friend betrayed her. That caused a little misunderstanding between them, with Marissa calling Ellice as “plastic” and “malandi,” so the latter fumed out and made her allegations true by pretentiously flirting with Victor.
Hurt, Marissa walked away and, unbeknownst to her, Ellice was following her to the shore. However, Victor kept on tailing Ellice as well and attempted to rape her. Defending herself, she forcefully kicked him that made him lost his balance and hit his head on a rock. He was dead on-the-spot.
The two ladies escaped from the scene and headed back to Villa Ceñidoza in distraught. Knowing the huge impact of the accident to her bestfriend, Marissa told Jorge that she would own up to Ellice’s unintentional crime in exchange that he would not let her be incarcerated, just like what he promised to his daughter. The next day, things went on as planned in spite of Lucing’s protests.
They may be already in their 40s, but Jodi and Iza did a great job in “luring” us that they’re still in their 20s because of how youthful they look. But more than their ageless beauty, it’s definitely their acting that made us fall in love with the both of them.
She might have only appeared for a few minutes, but the Diamond Star Maricel Soriano had already compelled us with her dramatic chops, especially on the last scene wherein she rends our hearts as a mother who’s trying to protect her daughter from a mistake she actually didn’t commit.
The rest of the supporting and guest ensemble also impressed us with their respective performances – veteran thespian Lito Pimentel as the loving father Jorge, Alex Castro as the good-looking yet shy long-time admirer of Ellice named Francis, and Albie as the arrogant and rude young man Victor – making every scene extra riveting.
Of course, the actors would not shine without the guidance of the primetime series’ writer Keiko Aquino and director FM Reyes, as well as the rest of the production staff.
Interactive dramatic show
Aside from its already fantastic start, Ang Sa Iyo Ay Akin went on to amaze us with how they turned it into an interactive show, apart from being a narrative by making the lead cast Iza, Jodi, and Sam Milby appear in each gap for the “Ang Sa Iyo Ay Akin Unscripted” segment, straight from their respective abodes.
There, they reminisced some of the fun and memorable moments they had while doing some of the scenes, such as when Iza accidentally bumped the car she was driving in the opening scene while manoeuvring it on the very last good take.
They also read some of the live tweets, comments, messages from the online viewers who were watching the pilot episode on Kapamilya Channel and Kapamilya Online Live with them. We could note as well how creating the said series has made the three stars be closer to one another with how comfortable they were in throwing banters with one another and with how Jodi and Iza have been repeatedly calling one another as “my love”.
Furthermore, they went on to share that there are scenes that took them almost a day or two to perfect, just like that rape scene which, according to Iza, had to be done almost the whole night.
Jodi also expressed how proud and amazed she is of ABS-CBN for radically changing the landscape of teleserye viewing and for coming up with new, awesome ways to still serve the Filipino people.
Viewers’ rave reactions
JRB Creatives, the production unit behind this wonderful new drama, made sure that our wait would definitely be worth it as the pilot episode didn’t fail to rouse the viewers with the impeccable execution of every scene and the compelling performances of the actors.
Here are some of the rave reactions from the Twittizens: