''Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me'' (English title: ''Star-Crossed Love''; ) is a 2011 Philippine romantic-

sex comedy Sexual comedy (also known as, sex comedy and erotic comedy) is a genre in which comedy is motivated by sexual situations and love affairs. Although "sexual comedy" is primarily a description of dramatic forms such as theatre and film, literary wor ...

film based on Eros S. Atalia's 2009 novel of the same name. The film was directed by Erick C. Salud (in his feature-length directorial debut) and its

adapted screenplay A film adaptation transfers the details or story of an existing source text, such as a novel, into a feature film. This transfer can involve adapting most details of the source text closely, including characters or plot points, or the original sou ...

was written by Jerry B. Gracio. The storyline revolves on a

casual sexual relationship Casual sex is sexual activity that takes place outside a romantic relationship and implies an absence of commitment, emotional attachment, or familiarity between sexual partners. Examples are sexual activity while casually dating, one-nig ...

between two college students, Intoy ( Edgar Allan Guzman) and his classmate Jenny ( Mercedes Cabral). As an independent production, the film was an official entry to the 7th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival where it was nominated for Best Film, while Edgar Allan Guzman was awarded Best Actor.

Plot

Karl Vladimir Lennon J. Villalobos, nicknamed "Intoy", is in his third year in

state university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

when he meets Jenny, an attractive and affluent transferee from a private university. Despite being popular among the male students, Jenny chooses to befriend Intoy, much to his astonishment and confusion as he does not consider himself attractive. When Jenny asks Intoy about his sex life, he confesses his virginity. Jenny then seduces Intoy, to which he reluctantly acquiesces. They head to a motel where they shower together and have sex. Jenny and Intoy begin spending time together often, which makes their classmates suspect that they are a couple; Intoy vehemently denies this. In reality, Intoy and Jenny are "friends with benefits": they go on dates and have sex without any romantic affections. This agreement goes on until their senior year. They eventually get to know each other better through their dates and pillow talks. One day, Jenny decides to end Intoy's "benefits", which he seemingly accepts without any questions much to her surprise and exasperation. Intoy secretly refuses to accept Jenny's condition but nonetheless he pretends to concede; he has already developed feelings for Jenny and he fears that she will leave him if she finds out. After a week of ignoring each other, Jenny unexpectedly approaches Intoy and reinstates his "benefits". They resume their original agreement until Jenny becomes mysteriously moody, and Intoy vainly tries to console her. As Intoy is about to profess his love, Jenny tells him the truth: she is

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

, but assures Intoy that he is not the baby's father. Jenny then cuts all contact after that day. After Jenny's disappearance, Intoy contemplates their relationship and regrets not professing his love earlier. As a graduation present, Intoy receives from his parents. He decides to spend all the money on a prostitute, a

trans woman A trans woman or transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity and may experience gender dysphoria (distress brought upon by the discrepancy between a person's gender identity and their ...

hostess, and plenty of beer: all in a futile attempt to forget about Jenny. Intoy eventually graduates and prepares to look for a job. He slowly begins to move on with his life and accept the fact that he will never see Jenny again.

Cast

* Edgar Allan Guzman as Karl Vladimir Lennon "Intoy" J. Villalobos * Mercedes Cabral as Jennifer "Jenny" Evangelista *Mel Kimura as Intoy's mother * Simon Ibarra as Intoy's father * Tolyts "Shalala" Reyes as Bugaw () *Evelyn Vargas as Ms. Physics *Beverly Salviejo as Ms. Literary criticism *Mhalouh Crisologo as Ms. Ethics *Jojo Saguin as Joy *

Joseph Bitangcol Joseph Bitangcol (born March 28, 1984) is a Filipino television and film actor. He is one of the first batch of the reality talent search '' Star Circle Quest'' on ABS-CBN. Career He started when he joined the reality talent search of ABS-CBN wh ...

as Classmate #1 *Lucky Mercado as Classmate #2 *Joe Vargas as Classmate #3 *Christian Tan as Classmate #4 *Ian Lazibal as Classmate #5 *Alex Tiglao as Mr. Political science *Ardie Bascara as Jenny's ex–boyfriend *Victor Medina as Benson *Julie Anne Castro as Venus *

Luis Alandy Adrian Louis Castro Alandy (born February 7, 1980), also known as Luis Alandy and Adran Alandy, is a Filipino actor and model. His first acting role was as David in the TV series ''Pangako Sa 'Yo''. He has since appeared in soap operas, as we ...

as taxi driver *Kiki Baento as floor manager

Production

The film is based on the 2009 bestselling novel ''Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me'' by Eros S. Atalia, a Palanca awardee and professor of

Filipino language Filipino ( ; , ) is the national language of the Philippines, the main lingua franca, and one of the two official languages of the country, along with Philippine English, English. It is only a ''de facto'' and not a ''de jure'' standard langu ...

at the

University of Santo Tomas The University of Santo Tomas (UST; ), officially the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines or colloquially as ''Ustê'' (), is a Private university, private Catholic school, Catholic researc ...

. Producer Noel Ferrer and screenwriter Jerry Gracio (also a Palanca awardee) approached Atalia and declared their intention to option the rights for his book. Atalia agreed and cooperated with Gracio and the production crew to help keep the film loyal to its source material. Cinemalaya was initially reluctant to produce the film since the source novel had a

nonlinear narrative Nonlinear narrative, disjointed narrative, or disrupted narrative is a narrative technique where events are portrayed, for example, out of chronological order or in other ways where the narrative does not follow the direct causality pattern of the ...

; this required Gracio to fix the screenplay's timeline. The novel also contained a lot of commentary by the protagonist, which Gracio adapted into

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

. In a 2011 interview for the ''

Philippine Daily Inquirer The ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'' (''PDI''), or simply the ''Inquirer'', is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded broad ...

'', director Erick Salud claimed to have followed the book to the letter, with only a few updated lines by Gracio. Though he has been in television production for around twenty years, this was the first feature film by director Erick Salud. This allowed the film to compete in Cinemalaya's New Breed category, which is exclusive for newbie directors; they were also entitled to Cinemalaya's

₱ The Philippine peso sign (₱) is the currency symbol used for the Philippine peso, the official currency of the Philippines. The symbol resembles a Latin script, Latin letter P with two horizontal strokes. It differs from the currency symbol u ...

500,000 grant. Around ₱1.5 million to ₱1.8 million was spent on the film's production. Lovi Poe,

Kaye Abad Katherine Grace "Kaye" Cosme Abad-Castillo (born May 17, 1982) is a Filipino actress. Abad started in 1993 and is a member of ABS-CBN's Star Magic. She was launched as a member of Star Circle (now Star Magic Batch 3) in 1996. Career Kaye Aba ...

, Pauleen Luna, and Danielle Castaño were all considered for the role of Jenny. However, it was Mercedes Cabral (the third choice) who landed the role as she was willing to do the risqué scenes. Prior to

principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

, Edgar Allan Guzman sustained

third-degree burns A burn is an injury to skin, or other tissues, caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, friction, or ionizing radiation (such as sunburn, caused by ultraviolet radiation). Most burns are due to heat from hot fluids (called scalding), solids, ...

on his right hand after a

go-kart A go-kart, also written as go-cart (often referred to as simply a kart), is a type of small sports car, close wheeled car, open-wheel car or quadracycle. Go-karts come in all shapes and forms, from non-motorised models to high-performanc ...

racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

accident. This required the reshoot of some scenes.

Release

''Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me'' premiered at the 7th Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival held on July 15 to 24, 2011. Prominent film producer

Lily Monteverde Lily Yu Chu-Monteverde (19 August 1938 – 4 August 2024), known as Mother Lily and professionally credited as Lily Yu Monteverde, was a Chinese Filipino film producer and businesswoman. Monteverde was one of the first Filipina movie produc ...

was impressed by the film after seeing it at Cinemalaya, and offered to purchase its distribution rights and release it commercially under her Regal Films. After Cinemalaya, special screenings were held at the UP Film Institute,

University of the Philippines Los Baños The University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB; ), also referred to as UP Los Baños or colloquially as Elbi (), is a public research university primarily located in the towns of Los Baños and Bay in the province of Laguna, some 65 kilo ...

, and

De La Salle University De La Salle University (), also referred to as DLSU, De La Salle or La Salle, is a private, Catholic coeducational research university run by the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools with main campus in Taft Avenue, Malate, Man ...

. ''Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me'' was commercially released on September 28, 2011, by Regal Films. Around 25 to 30 cinemas screened the film, mostly in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

. The film was later screened at the

Hawaii International Film Festival Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

in October 2011.

Reception

Box office

In his

column A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...

for the ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'', film director Jose Javier Reyes reported that the film—along with '' Ang Babae sa Septic Tank''—were "favorites" in the 7th Cinemalaya, with 90% attendance in most screenings, becoming "neck-and-neck top-grossing contenders". In an interview a few hours after the Cinemalaya awards night, Edgar Allan Guzman claimed they were the second highest-grossing film of the festival. ''Ang Babae sa Septic Tank'' director Marlon Rivera confirmed that his film, and ''Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me'' were the two highest-grossing films of the 7th Cinemalaya.

Critical response

Glenn Atanacio of the ''Philippine Entertainment Portal'' wrote that the film "will keep your senses alive for weeks, and get you daydreaming about those good ole college days". He also stated that Cabral's acting talents were "sorely underutilized" while Guzman needed to rehearse his delivery of jokes. Ibarra C. Mateo of ''

GMA News GMA Integrated News (simply known as GMA News; formerly known as RBS News Department, GMA Radio-Television News and GMA Rainbow Satellite News; and later GMA News and Public Affairs) is the news division of the Philippine media company GMA Networ ...

'' praised the film's direction, script, and cinematography. He wrote: "''Ligo na Ü, Lapit na Me'' summarizes in 85 minutes the various facets of the sexual, emotional, and psychological status of today's adolescents". The

Cinema Evaluation Board The Cinema Evaluation Board (CEB) is a body of the Film Development Council of the Philippines, tasked with grading Filipino films by quality. It is represented in the Philippine Film Export Services Office. The CEB was established in 2003, su ...

gave the film a "B" rating, and praised Guzman and Cabral's performances, as well as director Erick Salud for "capturing well the angst and foibles of post-modern love on our campuses today".

Accolades

Planned sequel

During the film's special screening for the ''

Inquirer Inquirer or The Inquirer may refer to: *'' The Inquirer'', a British technology news website * ''The Inquirer'' (Liberia), a Liberian newspaper * ''The Inquirer'' (Perth) a newspaper published in Perth, Western Australia, between 1840 and 1855 *'' ...

'' Film Club, producer Noel Ferrer announced that a sequel will be produced. It will be based on Eros S. Atalia's novel ''It's Not That Complicated: Bakit Hindi pa Sasakupin ng mga Alien ang Daigdig sa 2012'' published in May 2012.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ligo na U, Lapit na Me 2011 films 2011 romantic comedy-drama films Philippine romantic comedy-drama films 2010s sex comedy films Philippine independent films Films shot in Metro Manila Films set in Metro Manila 2011 directorial debut films 2011 independent films Philippine sex comedy films