In response to the Alessandra de Rossi - starrer '12'

By: Giselle Sanchez, Manila Bulletin

Last Wednesday, the movie “12” starring Alessandra de Rossi and Ivan Padilla came out in cinemas. It was written by the de Rossi herself with movie trailer gone viral. In the movie, the award-winning actress stated 12 reasons couples separate.

Alessandra de Rossi

Today I will focus on the opposite of that because not all couples are doomed for breakup. Since I recently celebrated my 17th wedding anniversary with my husband Emil Buencamino, let me give you 12 pieces of advice for couples to stay in love.

1. May forever kung masipag ka. The saying “walang forever” only applies to couples who are not willing to work on their marriage. When there is a problem, do not allow it to simmer. Talk about it before you go to bed. If the problem cannot be resolved overnight, work on it. Do not sweep it under the carpet.

2. Make time for each other. The word busy only happens when you allow it. Setting time for each other is still a choice.

3.  Laugh with each other, even if it is the corniest joke, laugh. The effort your partner makes to make you happy is enough.

4. Cry with each other. Make your partner your best friend, a shoulder to cry on. Someone you can open up to. Do not choose another person of the opposite sex to be your best friend. Choose your partner.

THE AUTHOR with husband Emil Buencamino

5. Dream with each other. It helps when your partner knows the desires of your heart and the status of where you are right now in your ambitions and goals. If the dream is far from being reached, your partner can give encouragement.

6. Always set a sexy time at least once a week. Ladies do not be embarrassed to plan your sexy time with your husbands. Do this before someone else plans a sexy time with your husband.

7. Love yourself. You cannot love others if you cannot love yourself. Take care of yourself. Exercise. Have a haircut. Dress up. Take a bath.

8. Physical contact is very important. Without physical contact, you will just end up as best friends and not lovers anymore.

9. Pride is the root of all evil. The reason you cannot forgive is because you love yourself too much. If you really love your partner and are willing to work on your marriage, you will have to learn to let go, let God, move forward.

10. Talk to each other. Communication is very important. Tell stories, books you’ve read, people you met. Without communication, you might as well just be strangers. And do it personally. Texts and e-mails are okay but a face to face conversation beats all bonding moments.

11.  Go on vacation with each other. Date each other to different places. Another place, another atmosphere helps build love and memories.

12. Pray with each other. God should be your third party. God can help unlock the healing of a hurting heart, a hard habit to break, an annoying attitude, a dying relationship. The only key is faith.

Going to the movies

TUE, MARCH 15, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINION

Klaus Doring

Film Review: Gods of Egypt

This week, for the first time ever, my wife took me to a cinema in Davao City.  Gods of Egypt in a 3D screening. It was my first experience with 3D seating, and was pretty fun. I hadn’t heard of Gods of Egypt, despite it having such a large budget and star crew, so I went in without expec-tation. It was so close to being so bad I loved it. Close, but no cigar.

Gods of Egypt is set in, controversially, not Egypt. In the very beautiful establishing shot at the beginning, you see this fantastical city with impressive buildings, which have been loosely based on what can be considered  Egyptian designs. This confused me, but as the film goes on, I realized that it wasn’t even earth, and I kind of wish I had known that from the start. A very minor thing, but it bugged me the entire way through the movie.

Now I really want to point out how much I wanted to enjoy this film. I loved Egyptian mythology as a child, I love fantasy as an adult. ‘Gods of Egypt’ had the concept and budget to be able to pull off something really amazing. It had elements of things I love seeing on screen. Gods transforming into beasts, rich scenery and with a diverse variety of settings – mythology. Yet despite having all the ingredients, the final dish was disappointing.

The plot is very simple. King is killed by evil brother, who takes over kingdom. Prince must go on a journey to defeat the evil new king and take his place as rightful ruler. Helped along by a mismatched sidekick. With such a classic plot line and colorful costume arrangement, I really would have expected the film to be marketed towards a family audience.

The film instead takes itself seriously to be an epic adventure, and the actors deliver the shoddy script with as much vigor as they can. Some scripts however will sound wooden no matter how much effort one puts into delivering it. The few jokes and banter that is written between the main characters Horas (Nikolaj Coster-Walda) and Bek (Brenton Thwaites) fall flat as I can only assume there is no chemistry between the two characters. That and their size difference, made by cgi, is a bit disconcerting.

Overall, I don’t really want to write much about this film. I felt like it had everything it needed to be something I really enjoyed, as a fan of Hollywood blockbuster films and Egyptian mythology. I’m still sort of dealing with the disappointment it left me in. I feel like you should see it in the cinema, simply to enjoy the beautiful scenery work, which won’t come across as well on TV.

The 3D experience was really interesting, possibly more so than the film. Going to the movies. Maybe once more. It’s something different than being a cable television subscriber. And, of course, it depends, which movie I am going to watch next time.

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Email: doringklaus @gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit www.germanexpat inthephilippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdorings classicalmusic,blogspot.com.