''American Adobo'' is a 2002 Filipino

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

film directed by

Laurice Guillen Laurice Ilagan Guillen-Feleo (born January 31, 1947) is a Filipino actress, film and television director, and college professor. Early life and acting career Guillen studied at St. Theresa's College, Cebu City, earned an AB English degree before ...

and starring

Cherry Pie Picache Cherry Pie Sison Picache (born May 27, 1970) is a Filipino actress who has starred television and in mainstream and independent films and has worked as a print and TV commercial model for Palmolive, Camay, and Eskinol. Cherry Pie is notable ...

, Traci Ann Wolfe,

Christopher de Leon Christopher Strauss de León (born October 31, 1956) is a Philippine film actor and politician. He is recognized as the “''King of Philippine Drama''” has appeared in over 120 films since the early 1970s. Regarded as an "acting genius" and ...

Dina Bonnevie Geraldine Schaer Bonnevie-Savellano (, formerly Sotto and Penson; January 27, 1961), known by her stage name Dina Bonnevie, is an actress in the Philippines. Before joining Philippine showbiz, Bonnevie was first runner-up in the Miss Magnolia 19 ...

Ricky Davao Frederick Charles Davao, professionally known as Ricky Davao (born May 30, 1961) is a Filipino actor, television director, and industrial management engineer (graduated from Mapua Institute of Technology. He is the husband of actress Jackie Lou ...

Paolo Montalban Paolo Montalban (born May 21, 1973) is a Filipino-American actor and singer best known for his performance in the 1997 Disney television film, '' Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella'' as Prince Christopher, opposite Brandy as Cinderella. He repris ...

, Randy Becker, and

Sandy Andolong Melisande "Sandy" Andolong-de Leon (born Melisande Pinga Andolong; January 16, 1959) is a Filipino actress and producer, where she is mostly seen on GMA Network. She has also been currently seen on ABS-CBN TV programs. Personal life Sandy An ...

. The screenplay was written by Vincent Nebrida. It tells the story of five

Filipino-American Filipino Americans ( fil, Mga Pilipinong Amerikano) are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos and other Asian ethnicities in North America were first documented in the 16th century as slaves and prisoners on ships sailing to and from New ...

friends living in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

dealing with love, sex, friendship, careers, and cultural identity. The title was derived from

adobo or (Spanish: marinade, sauce, or seasoning) is the immersion of cooked food in a stock (or sauce) composed variously of paprika, oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar to preserve and enhance its flavor. The Portuguese variant is known as . ...

, a very popular dish in the Philippines. The film was released on January 16, 2002 in the Philippines and January 25 in the United States.

Plot

Tere Sanchez (

) is an accountant who is in her early forties, single, and not especially happy about it. Tere is an excellent

cook Cook or The Cook may refer to: Food preparation * Cooking, the preparation of food * Cook (domestic worker), a household staff member who prepares food * Cook (professional), an individual who prepares food for consumption in the food industry * ...

, and often throws dinner parties for her friends, and the arrival of her old friend Lorna (Sol Oca) from

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

is all the reason she needs to invite her friends over for a

feast A banquet (; ) is a formal large meal where a number of people consume food together. Banquets are traditionally held to enhance the prestige of a host, or reinforce social bonds among joint contributors. Modern examples of these purposes i ...

. Mike (

Christopher De Leon Christopher Strauss de León (born October 31, 1956) is a Philippine film actor and politician. He is recognized as the “''King of Philippine Drama''” has appeared in over 120 films since the early 1970s. Regarded as an "acting genius" and ...

) is a former political journalist who is now enjoying the fruits of a lucrative career as a

newspaper editor An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The highest-ranking editor of a publication may also be titled editor, managing ...

, but he wonders if he left his principles behind along the way; he's also feeling unfulfilled in his marriage to Gigi (Susan Valdez-LeGoff). Gerry (

) is an

advertising copy Copywriting is the act or occupation of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy or sales copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or ...

writer who is afraid to tell his friends and family that he's

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

, though circumstances may well drive him out of the closet. Raul (

) is a good-looking womaniser who prefers to date Caucasians, and lacks a certain amount of emotional maturity. And Marissa (

) is on the surface a well-to-do social butterfly; however, deep inside she's woefully insecure, and is afraid to confront her boyfriend Sam (Randy Becker) about his constant

infidelity Infidelity (synonyms include cheating, straying, adultery, being unfaithful, two-timing, or having an affair) is a violation of a couple's emotional and/or sexual exclusivity that commonly results in feelings of anger, sexual jealousy, and ri ...

. Meanwhile, Lorna confesses that while she's married to a wealthy man in Manila, she's terribly unhappy, and is considering staying in America as an illegal alien.

Cast

Main roles

as Mike *

as Marissa *

as Gerry *

as Tere *

as Raul * Randy Becker as Sam *

Keesha Sharp Keesha Ulricka Sharp ( née Fletch; born June 9, 1973) is an American actress and film / television director. She began her career appearing on television dramas, before her regular role as Monica Charles Brooks in the UPN/The CW comedy series, ...

as Debbie *

as Emma

Supporting roles

* Gloria Romero as Gerry's Mom * Susan Valdez-LeGoff as Gigi Manalastas * Sol Oca as Lorna * Wayne Maugans as Chris * Martha Millan as Candy Manalastas * Lordi Villanueva as Lydia * Jojo Gonzales as Frank * Luis Pedron as Nonong * Jason Verdadero as Mark * Marcel Simoneau as Sal * Traci Ann Wolfe as Denise

Symbolism

Adobo or (Spanish: marinade, sauce, or seasoning) is the immersion of cooked food in a stock (or sauce) composed variously of paprika, oregano, salt, garlic, and vinegar to preserve and enhance its flavor. The Portuguese variant is known as . ...

is a very popular dish in the Philippines and aside from being a hearty viand in the film, it also serves as a symbolism of the clashes in the different struggles of the characters. Acidic

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to eth ...

, salty soy sauce, meat,

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

pepper Pepper or peppers may refer to: Food and spice * Piperaceae or the pepper family, a large family of flowering plant ** Black pepper * ''Capsicum'' or pepper, a genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae ** Bell pepper ** Chili ...

, all are combined in a pot to produce adobo. In the film, despite the conflicts in their characters, in the end, everything ended up well, just like a well cooked adobo.

Production

The film started out with a conversation in 1995 between Tony Gloria and Vincent Nebrida that there should be films depicting Filipino life in the US. Two months later Vincent finished a screenplay called "Magic Adobo" but only received attention from movie executives in April 1999, after four years since its conception. The entire movie was filmed in chilly October 2000 on location in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Queens Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long ...

, and Long Island, including a summertime pool party scene which required the actors, who were shivering between takes, to wear skimpy bathing suits outdoors. The scenes were filmed over a span of twenty days.

Release

The film has been Rated-R by the

MPAA The Motion Picture Association (MPA) is an American trade association representing the five major film studios of the United States, as well as the video streaming service Netflix. Founded in 1922 as the Motion Picture Producers and Distribu ...

for sexual situations, nudity and strong language.

Box office

The film had a very limited release in the United States on January 25, 2002 in 7 theaters for 3 consecutive days. The crew acquired a Mayor's permit to shut down the Queensboro Bridge for the premiere night of the film. The film gross $41,001 on its opening day ranking it on 54th spot and by 3 days of screening the film went on to gross a total of $342,855 in the United States. The film was released on VHS and on DVD on May 30, 2003 by First Look Pictures. The DVD featured an English and Spanish subtitles.

Critical response

On review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds a rating of 30% based on 23 reviews, and an average rating of 4.6 out of 10. The site's consensus states: "The characters and situations seem borrowed from overwrought sitcoms." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

it has a weighted average score of 30 out of 100 based on 10 reviews, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". John Anderson of the ''

New York Newsday ''New York Newsday'' was an American daily newspaper that primarily served New York City and was sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The paper, established in 1985, was a New York City-specific offshoot of '' Newsday'', a Long Island ...

'' stated that "American Adobo is a tasty dish of a movie. A tender film with genuine insight into the urban heart. The way it treats the totally non-ethnic aspects of life--love, loneliness, dying, friendship--is what makes this Filipino film so attractive and also so American." Kevin Thomas of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' stated that, "American Adobo is an intimate, good-humored comedy with lots of heart. Delicious and very funny!" while Andy Klein of '' San Francisco Weekly'' stated that, "American Adobo is sophisticated and entertaining. A solid step forward for the emerging Philippine-American cinema." Oliver Carnay of ''Asian Journal'' stated that "

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

is rich, funny and entertaining. A gem reminiscent of

Eat Drink Man Woman ''Eat Drink Man Woman'' () is a 1994 Taiwanese comedy-drama film directed by Ang Lee, from a script co-written with James Schamus and Hui-Ling Wang.Howe, Desson.‘Eat Drink Man Woman’" ''The Washington Post''. 19 October 1994. Retrieved on 2 ...

." The National Board Review was also very positive about the film saying, "A wonderful movie with a lot of heart. Among the year's top foreign language films" while Stephen Holden of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' was less positive about the film stating that, "American Adobo certainly doesn't lack emotional energy, but it has two or three more plots than it can handle and plays like a compressed, strident soap opera."

Accolades

Official selection

* 2002 San Diego Asian Film Festival * 2002 Los Angeles Cinema Indios Festival * 2003 Women's International Film Festival, South Korea * 2003 Fukuoka International Film Festival, Japan

Los Angeles Cinema Indios Festival

* Winner best actor for Christopher De Leon * Winner special achievement award

Star Awards

* Nominated best actor for Ricky Davao * Nominated best new actor for Paolo Montalban

FAMAS Awards

* Winner best supporting actress for Cherry Pie Picache

Gawad Urian Awards

* Nominated best actor for Ricky Davao * Nominated best actress for Cherry Pie Picache * Nominated best actress for Dina Bonnevie * Nominated best director for Laurice Guillen

Filipino Heritage Awards

* Winner most promising talent, Paolo Montalban

Extreme Awards

* Nominated best picture

References

External links

Official
* * * {{mojo title, americanadobo Star Cinema films 2000s Tagalog-language films Films about Filipino Americans Films set in the United States Films about immigration to the United States Philippine LGBT-related films Asian-American LGBT-related films Comedy films about Asian Americans Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City 2000s English-language films Films directed by Laurice Guillen 2000s American films