The table is set for a family reunion like no other! Netflix Philippines’ GANITO, GANYAN, GANOON held its much-anticipated media launch at Casa Buenas, Newport Mall, bringing together leads Jodi Sta. Maria and Agot Isidro, and the film’s director and screenwriter, Cholo H. Laurel, for an afternoon of good food, heartfelt conversations, and the journey of finding one’s way back home.

Photo credit: Netflix

Leading the official launch were the leads and two of the biggest actresses in Philippine entertainment – Sta. Maria and Isidro – who described their characters and walked the audience through what it felt like to prepare for the drama-heavy film. Isidro, who plays Paz, shared: “I made a grand homecoming to a family I did something to in the past. I was an absentee mother. I was the one who really opened the wounds of the family.”

Alongside her is Sta. Maria as Jo, a hyper-independent writer with big dreams: “Just when she thought she had it all together, biglang dumating ang isang ‘storm’ sa buhay niya sa katauhan ni Paz. Umuwi para manggulo. Paano siya ngayon mabubuhay sa presensya ng babaeng kilala niya bilang ‘ina’, pero hindi naman nagpaka-ina?” (“A ‘storm’ suddenly enters her life in the form of Paz, who comes home to turn everything upside down. How can she live with the woman she knows to be her ‘mother’, but who never truly acted like one?”)

Photo credit: Netflix

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Director Cholo H. Laurel, who makes his return to filmmaking with the movie after a 10-year hiatus, also talked about the value Netflix brought into the film and his creative process: “It was in 2018 when I felt that there was a chance to jump into the arena again. With Netflix — they had the proper budget, they had the proper organization. Inantay lang namin ‘yung tamang opportunity, kasi may requirement kami dito sa pelikula.” (“We waited for the right opportunity because we had a requirement for this film.”) That requirement meant bringing together the cast to play their respective characters in their location at Marinduque, with the majority of the scenes shot at Laurel’s home, Balai La-hi.

While packaged as a family drama, the creative team knew that it also had to highlight humor and show how moments of peace, no matter how rare, punctuate and coexist with the heavier ones—a true mark of a typical Filipino family. Laurel expands: “For drama to be effective as a tool, it has to be funny.”