Lea Salonga

So it was, it was a really good story.

Um, It was interesting because I remember when I went to see Lea Salonga, the place was filled with older Filipinos.

And

at Buena

Raf, ready to chop it up? Let's cook, Dale.

Okay, Raf, we will start as we always do.

Let me know what your one cool movie thing of the week is.

We were chatting about this offline, but TIFF is doing...

Yeah.

And, you know, it was after just an insane run that Disney was going on after a bit of a fallow period and sort of the 80s, you know, in a lot of people's minds.

They then starting in 89 went Little Mermaid, then Beauty and the Beast, then Aladdin, then Lion King, then Pocahontas, all from 89 to 95.

What a run.

And, you know, they end up getting sucked into this world populated by Aswang, which are essentially Filipino mythological creatures, the most prominent of which is the Manananggal, which is, you know, this vampire-like creature in traditional Filipino mythology who the top and the bottom separate and they fly around and try to suck your blood.

A little bit more PG-friendly in the movie, obviously, but the Manananggal, or Manang as he's called in the film, is played by Lea Salonga, the one and only who, you know, voice of jasmine voice of mulan uh singing voice um and you know there was a whole you know there's a whole thing about like okay like the the memories that you have the the price that they have to pay to get back uh off off the island back home to so that uh one of them can make their flight home is to give up memories of their friendship right and the question is like If the way to get better is to forget who you are, to forget where you came from, and give up your memories, that's the idea.

Memories make you who you are.

Would you guys agree? Yeah.

I'm curious.

What was the reception like of this film back in the Philippines? You know, looking at this cast, you've got an incredibly stacked Filipino cast where it feels like every top Hollywood name that is Filipino heritage is in this film because you've got her as one of the main voices who's half Filipino, Manny Jacinto.

Lea Salonga, as you said, Dolly DeLeon, Joe Coy, Eugene Cordero, Nico Santos.

Like this is a very stacked cast.

for uh exactly exactly

watch you know and like a rewatch i think it has a lot of re-watchability too like the trolls movies that i've watched over and over and kpop demon hunters which i watch over and over and over i think that my only like overall like not in the mythology space or in the accent space, but my overall as a film critique, they could have had catchier, like more song numbers, given that it's her and it's also Lea Salonga and then Beanie, there was a soundtrack.

But I understand there are these things that are like...

The thing about trolls in K-pop Demon Hunters was that the songs were part of the conception of the movie.

Okay, here are the

facts about Lea Salonga.

Miss Saigon, Little Tramp, King and I, Aladdin, Mulan, Wait, Aladdin, so was she Jasmine?

I think she probably was the voice of Jasmine, I think.

president.

Lea Salonga.

Perfect.

Vice president,

He can be my singing voice.

Listen, we'd all love to duet with Lea Salonga.

Linda Cardellini.

Linda Cardellini.

It's as if I'm just, it's just coming out of me.

Funny thing though, when I wrote that song, my motivation to sing that, to write that song, was I wanted to write a song for Lea Salonga.

And

I said, I have never

written anything for Lea Salonga.

So I just

said, I started

Rule of cool.

What do we like? Or, and e- and even, like, just as an example, uh, the Manananggal, or Manang, Lea Salonga's character, she's the most iconic, uh, I think aswang of that mythology.

O- one of them.

And just this unique kind of characteristic of this vampire woman who has, has this ability to split in half.