The blemishes in the thrilling crime drama were sufficiently compensated by its imaginative take of the classic Filipino epic poem, where Coleen Garcia is the Adarna that the three Berbanian princes were after.
VIVA Films
Actors: Coleen Garcia, JC Santos, Diego Loyzaga, Mark Anthony Fernandez, Jay Manalo, Mickey Ferriols, Sharmaine Buencamino, Ronnie Lazaro, Soliman Cruz, Meg Imperial
Genre: Action, Drama
Premise: Seeking justice, a daughter of a drug lord vows to take revenge on the family that killed her father – her target: the patriarch and his three sons adoptive sons. (Vivamax)
Running time: 103 minutes
Director: Jon Red
Watch it on: web.vivamax.net, Vivamax app
Why You Should See It:
Crime and violence make merely a tinge in this new Vivamax feature. When they do, however, the mess they leave is bloody and filled with a conundrum.
Jon Red, who wrote the screenplay for several remarkable films such as Astigmatism (2004) and Ilusyon (2005), and directed several ABS-CBN dramas, including Eva Fonda (2008) and Tonyong Bayawak (2010), took inspiration from the 16th-century epic poem Ibong Adarna and gave it a fresh spin.
In Adarna Gang, Ronnie Lazaro and Sharmaine Buencamino-Centenera are Fernando and Valeriano, head of the Castillo family.
They are the rulers of their own Berbanya, a bustling drug empire built from scratch by Fernando, and his trusted friend and second-in-command, Jose (Soliman Cruz).
For his wife, Maria (Mickey Ferriols), and his daughter, Adriana (Coleen Garcia), Jose intends to part ways with Fernando and begin a new life away from the dangers and chaos of drugs in Marinduque.
It’s a promise he intends to keep. What he intended to be his last gig with the Castillos led to his death instead.
Adriana, who hoped to see the fulfillment of her father’s promise–effectively transformed into a vengeful being, with her wrath directed toward the Castillos.
One day, she summoned enough courage to shoot Fernando in front of a church, although she only managed to send the Castillo figurehead to a hospital bed.
The Castillo matriarch, Valeriana tapped her three adopted sons–Juan (JC Santos), Pedro (Mark Anthony Fernandez), and Diego (Digelo Loyzaga) to pursue her husband’s assailant.
The three received proper training from their father’s most trusted man played by Jay Manalo, who seldom speaks in this film.
Complications ensued in Valeriana’s plans to fend off Adriana’s plans, as the differences among the three sons ultimately prohibited them to fulfill their task.
As a Vivamax film, Adarna Gang feels obliged to let some of its stars bare skin.
In her first-ever action drama role, Garcia had to share a sexy scene with JC Santos.
However, her character’s sexual displays got toned down as paled in comparison to the likes of AJ Raval and Angela Kang. That said, she has undoubtedly one of the more developed characters of the film, alongside JC Santos, whose Juan sported the most tangible character development among the three sons.
5 – Excellent
4 – Very Good
3 – Good
2 – Tolerable
1 – Terrible
‘Adarna Gang’ now streams on Vivamax. Watch the official full trailer below:
