Lipad Darna Lipad

Released: March 23, 1973

Plot Description: After a long period of absence, Vilma Santos resurrected Filipino version of Wonder Woman, Darna, in a fantastic trilogy. Despite the lack of height familiar with previous Darnas, Vilma Santos’ bubbly youthful portrayal as Darna and the alter ego character Narda radiated the screen against Philippine cinema’s senior screen queens, Gloria Romero as the “Babaing Impakta (Vampire Woman),” Celia Rodriguez as “Babaing Ahas (Snake Woman),” and Liza Lorena as “Babaing Lawin (Hawk Woman).” The film was release on March 23, 1973 to a massive crowd in Metro Manila. Tagalog Ilang Ilang Production who produced the film reportedly distributed Darna dolls and Coca-cola drinks to the moviegoers. The film was a trilogy that focuses on the fights scenes between the Darna and her nemesis with great effect and with the help of Darna’s equally perky young brother, Ding portrayed by child star, Angelito. The special effect that’s way ahead of its time in were in full bloom in this film and the make-up goriness particularly Gloria Romero’s was a proof that Filipinos are creative and talented way ahead of Hollywood or even Bollywood.

The Reviews: "...Vilma, now 20, still looking virginal and sweet kicked 70's phenomenal superstar Nora’s butt at the box office and earned her box-office wings via this monumental hit. The Emancipation of Baby Vi. Mariah Carey could not agree more. There was no turning back since then. The Fantasy Queen was born. Forty three year old Tita Gloria gamely and bravely accepted the role of Ms. Luna, teacher by day and Manananggal by night. Movie Queen Gloria was deglamorized and became the evil incarnate as a vampire. Amalia Fuentes was the original movie queen who bravely accepted a daring role such as a vampire that won her a FAMAS statuette in Gerry De Leon's Ibulong Mo Sa Hangin, and changed her goody-two-shoe image forever. Was she the original queen of reinvention that gave Vilma an idea to do the same via the landmark movie Burlesk Queen? Hmmm... For the first time, La Santos was billed above La Romero. Times have changed. The tables were turned. Vilma Santos is the New Box-Office Champ and Tita Glo and Co. could only "bow" to the Reel/Real Queen: Ms. Rita Gomez, Helen Gamboa, Boots Anson-Roa, Barbara Perez and others did not have second thoughts to do a movie with the resurgent Vilma. Who wouldn't want to be famous again and have fun working with the most hardworking and versatile actress? In my book, the aerial Good versus Evil fight of Vilma and Gloria as Darna and Impakta was one of the most thrilling and unforgettable scenes of my movie-going life. How I wish the movie resurfaces from Indonesia or from Timbuktu and my Vilma collection will be complete. That will be heaven! Where, oh, where is that classic movie? The Manananggal episode of Lipad, Darna, Lipad was so good that the two have to followed up their success via Anak Ng Aswang..." - Mario Garces (READ MORE)

"1972 - Lipad, Darna, Lipad...di ko na nakuhang mag-supper and hurriedly went to Coronet 2 bagama’t the film had already started eh uber sa dami ang mga fans sa loob at labas ng sinehan. nakapwesto ako sa dilantera ng sinehan para malapitan kong matanaw sa pagdaan si Ate Vi dahil premier night ng pelikulang Lipad Darna. Nagsalubong ang kilay ko in exasperation nang lapitan ako ng mayordoma ni Johnny Wilson na kalapit-bahay namin sa Paco. May mga kasama sya at tinanong kung Vilmanian din daw ako. Sabi ko’y napadaan lang ako at paalis na nga. tiempong gumagawi ako sa may likuran nang biglang nagkagulo ang mga tao sa pagdating ni Vilma. Ang ganda nya! naka-costume pero naka-kapa para di gaanong malantad ang katawan nya. tuwang-tuwa pa naman ako nang muntik na akong masagasaan. Nasa gitna na pala ako ng E. Rodriguez at namura pa ako ng driver. Potah! Gumawi tuloy ako sa kabilang kalye at kahit malayo ako’y masaya pa rin ako. Sa pakiramdam ko’y ako ang kinakawayan nya. mangilan-ngilan kami sa kabilang kalye na kakaway-kaway rin sa kanya. i went home happy but bone-weary and hungry. kaya lang, nasinturon ako ng tatay ko. Di tuloy ako nakakakain. This sucks! But i will tell nothing of the story of Lipad, Darna, Lipad. Alam kong napanood na yon ng sambayanan. I just have to say kudos to Ate Vilma, she’s so awesome as Darna. There were Gloria, Celia and Liza...all of the evil creatures you need to see in order to make them truly appear as the antagonists of Darna. The story itself is too rich and wonderful, just enough of humor, just enough of banter. The box-office result made history. Almost everyone joined the jubilant partying that is Vilma. She worked hard for it...and effectively captured our national psyche...on her way on top. Some actresses also dared Darna roles, unfortunately, they lacked originality and creativity that we might just view them as a form of flattery. Iba pa rin ang Vilma! Inevitably, it was time for Vilma to take the helm, talagang panahon na nya at wala ng makakaawat pa sa kanyang pagsikat.  She was set to eclipse her contemporaries, including the brown girl from Iriga City." - Bobby Lopez (READ MORE)

"...Maturing as a scriptwriter and film director, in 1973, commercially successful Lipad, Darna Lipad! was released. Award-winning actress Celia Rodriguez essayed the role of Medusa-like villainess, Valentina, nubile Vilma Santos played the Filipino supergirl (a role that launched her in a series of Darna flicks). To Filipino film industry insiders, Perez is known as the most sought-after movie director of his generation..." - Nickie Wang (READ MORE)

"...Elwood Perez and Vilma Santos collaborated in seven films (Ibulong Mo Sa Diyos 1988, Lipad Darna Lipad 1973, Magkaribal 1979, Masarap Masakit ang Umibig 1977, Nakawin Natin ang Bawat Sandali 1978, Pakawalan Mo Ako 1981, Pinay American Style 1979). The first one was the trilogy that he co-directed with two other director, Borlaza and Gosiengfiao (these three are the most underrated and under appreciated directors in the Philippines), the remake of Mars Ravelo comic super hero, Darna in Lipad Darna Lipad. The film was a record-breaking hit Box-office Film. They follow this up with a more mature projects as Vilma started to switched her image from sweet to a mature versatile actress, pairing her with Christopher DeLeon in five films starting with Masarap Masakit Ang Umibig in 1977. The Perez-Santos-DeLeon team produced seven blockbuster hits that gave Vilma two FAMAS best actress awards that secured her elevation to FAMAS highest honour, the FAMAS Hall of Fame award. She won in 1979 for Pakawalan Mo Ako and 1988 for Ibulong Mo Sa Diyos..." - RV (READ MORE)

"...This four-time FAMAS-winning actress is best remembered for her role as the slithering Dr. Valentina Vrandakapoor in the 1973 film Lipad, Darna, Lipad. In the iconic movie, she donned the reptile headdress for the Medusa-inspired character and gave Darna (Vilma Santos) hell. Although she's been appearing in less villainous roles, Celia Rodriguez is still active in both movie and television these days. She played a supporting character in Darna's latest TV incarnation, with Marian Rivera as the super heroine..." - Spot.ph (READ MORE)

Ibulong Mo Sa Diyos

Released: February 4, 1988

The Plot: When her boyfriend leaves for Japan on a singing contract, a dancer is so distraught she does not see the car that hits her. The driver pretends to be a helpful passer-by; they fall in love and gets married. Only bringing her to a more complicated life. - Regal films (READ MORE)

The Reviews: This films can very well be this year's best compedium of caricatures and contrivances, and Vilma Santos has greatly suceeded in tarnishing her silver star with an hysterical homage to bothersome bathos. This abysmal melodrama begins and ends with a slight promise of something short of superb senselessness. Unfortunately, it breaks the promise; yet it rabidly recreates a deluge of disasters gladly survived by the superhuman will to ruthlessly exploit the baser sentiments of the moviegoers. True enough, the plot works and hurls Santos' Monica into a miasma of perfectly orchestrated tragedies thus eliciting a fanaticism that enchants the heartland of sighing domestics and swooming dummies. And once more, sense and sensibility are lost in the celluloid cartograph of caricatures. Everything, indeed, is wrong in this film. The story is dreadfully downbeat. The screenplay is incredibley talky and torturously maudlin with dialogues aspiring for grandiosity yet indulfeing in petty praochial prattle. Grossly inspired by the Fifties classic Magnificent Obsession, this film wantonly lingers through a comatose celebration of tears and middle-class hysteria.

The direction listlessly lapses into the familiarity tacky Perez autism, but neither elegant nor eerie. From the opening production number to the last shot of the film revealed that particularly plebeian Perez panache. The Di Na Natuto sequence then becomes an encyclopedia of shots inspired by aspirational advertisements of toothpaste, softdrinks, jeans, and walkmans. Those isolated shots of Gary Valenciano against the San Sebastian stained glass rose window are obviously common man's fantasy. Valenciano (Gilbert) and Santos' (Monica) final confrontation in a scene straight out of a radio soap series. Yet there is an eminently indiscriminate luxe in the film's visuals. And the production design scuttles from nouveau baroque hysteria to decotif humdrum. Even the Fabregas film scroe sweetly swings from pedestrian pop to neoclassic pretense. Evidently, the film style is anxiously eclectic and nervously apopleptic. Miserably, all the actors failed in their grand gesture to play caricatures instead of characters. Despite Valenciano's evident poetic grace, his Gilbert emerges as a scarecrow of what should have been a divine anti-hero. It's a pity that he can't definitely pinpoint Gilbert angst. Thus he limps into a heartful of hollow anger and affected languor.

And the effete pretty boy caricature of Eric Quizon's Emil doesn't offer any salvation either, even if he literally gives his eyes to Monica. Quizon's reading of the Emil role is clearly based on the shallow assumption that nice boy die young, and with brain cancer or other such maladies requiring high tech cure yet. Despite his shallowness of conviction, however, Quizon manages in a few isolated scenes though to imbue his role with ephemeral terror. In another variation of caricature, Miguel Rodriguez's Mario is too dark for comfort. The updated yet needlessly overblown rendition of his character as caricature truthfully affirms a directorial styel that borders between irritation and consternation. Armida Siguion Reyna has justly succeeded in echoing her cinematic lifework of caricatures, this time, as Portia. And Nida Blanca's rendition of maternal massochism ruefully regresses into moronic moroseness. Barbara Perez's Elvie is largely languishing in love's limbo. Eddie Garcia's Emmanuel Vera becomes a fitting monument to guilt and philanthropy corroded by massive ineptitude emanating from the actor's performance, Perla Bautista is sublimely reduced to a prop, a piece of dust, a whiff o wind. Even Vangie Labalan's maid character promises great caricature.

But Nadia Montenegro, at least, has the promise of an almost perfectly wrought character. Too bad, her Connie is cheerfully relegated to hounding Emil and feeding him sweet nothings. Shamefully, only the way Vilma Santos is photographed and her face are the film's glimpses of divine magnificence. She is superficially iridescent here. It's a pity such iridescence doesn't emanate from her character's sould, but from the delightfully overindulgent lights of the cinematographer. Santos does manage, in at least three instances, to emerge from the limbo of her self-consciousness. Still, she largely remains in the dark as to the true significance of divine light in her character's life. On the whole, the film should have been more effective as a radio show. Cinematic carnage such as this really deserves divine indifference. - Henry C. Tejeros, Manila Standard, Feb 29, 1987 (READ MORE)

"...Vilma hit the jackpot. After 11 nominations with four wins, her twelfth nomniation produced her an unexpected win. It elevated her to the hall of fame status. All artist who wins five automatically put them to the hall of fame list. It is a big honour but prohibit any one on the list to compete in the future for the same category. Regal films’ Ibulong Mo Sa Diyos, directed by Elwood Perez was a surprised winner. Not only it earned Vilma her fifth award as best actress, it also gave the late Miguel Rodriguez a best supporting actor award and the best director for Perez. Technical awards were also given to Ricardo Jacinto, cinematography, Rey Maliuanag, production design, Gary Valenciano, theme song, and George Jarlego, editing. The late Nida Blanca was also nominated for best supporting actress..." - RV (READ MORE)

"...Elwood Perez and Vilma Santos colloborated in seven films. The first one was the trilogy that he co-directed with two other director, Borlaza and Gosiengfiao (these three are the most underrated and under appreciated directors in the Philippines), the remake of Mars Ravelo comic super hero, Darna in Lipad Darna Lipad. The film was a record-breaking hit Box-office Film. They follow this up with a more mature projects as Vilma started to switched her image from sweet to a mature versatile actress, pairing her with Christopher DeLeon in five films starting with Masarap Masakit Ang Umibig in 1977. The Perez-Santos-DeLeon team produced seven blockbuster hits that gave Vilma two FAMAS best actress awards that secured her elevation to FAMAS highest honour, the FAMAS Hall of Fame award. She won in 1979 for Pakawalan Mo Ako and 1988 for Ibulong Mo Sa Diyos..." - RV (READ MORE)