September 1, 2026
It was the Hwang Dynasty in China. The Emperor (Audie Gemora) had one daughter named Ruo Hwa (Candice Tan). She was better known as "Plump Blossom" because of her chubby cheeks and frame, symbols of good health and prosperity. She had six meals between her breakfast and her dinner. Instead of her royal duties, she would rather spend her days in the kitchen, helping Chef Bao (Gutch Gutierrez) and his staff prepare the food.
One night, Ruo Hwa saw the chef tending to the wounds of a seriously injured young man. He was Yu Jian (Don Puno), who turned out to be a young general in the army protecting the palace from its enemies. Unmindful of her station and reputation, Ruo Hwa took care of him and nursed him back to full consciousness. Thinking that she was a kitchen maid, the handsome soldier with abs like a jade pillow soon developed a close friendship with her.
Likely inspired by Disney animated films, Hwang also included animal sidekicks who can communicate with their masters. For Ruo Hwa, it was a dignified Pekingese dog named Yuan Yuan (Yeng Her) to whom she confided her secrets. For General Jian, it was a battle-scarred carrier pigeon named General Feathers (Chad Williams), who served to bridge their long-distance love affair. With their witty banter and wisecracks, they provided much comic relief.
This is the feature-length directorial debut of Kapitana Films producer Rossana Hwang, who also wrote the screenplay. This passion project of hers was certainly an audacious undertaking for three reasons. First, the language of this film is English (with Chinese subtitles), which may be misinterpreted as classism. Second, her story was based in historic China, odd for a Filipino filmmaker to do considering the WPS issues. Third and most controversial of all, she openly admitted that she used "AI-assisted" tools in this film, as obvious from the trailer.
It is unfortunate for Hwang that whatever quality her movie has, it would likely always be criticized for its use of AI -- especially since it is the first Filipino-produced film released in cinemas to openly admit using AI tools. Hwang cited budget constraints as her reason to use AI, but even then, AI remains to be a sensitive red flag topic when it comes to creating art. AI is perceived to be the "lazy" way to do animation as it can take over the frame-by-frame work of human animators that would cost way more time and money.
The final frame called this film "a hybrid production combining traditional animation techniques with emerging AI-assisted tools and workflows. There were human creatives behind the scenes: Rene Francis Hermoso as Chief Animator, Pedro Chuidan for VFX, Justin Zapata and Franz Niedo for character sculpting. As for the songs, Hwang and Ken Aoki were credited as lyricist and arranger, while Candice Tan, Maria Buenaventura, Paulina Yeung and Paeng Sudayan as the vocalists. The voice actors were likewise all credited accordingly.
Putting aside all the AI hullabaloo (impossible now, I know), this film may still find its limited niche among Generation X, they who share the same world view as Hwang herself. There were admittedly moments that were delightful, moving, cute and "kilig" sprinkled throughout this film which our aunties or titas will like and enjoy. How the film industry and the viewing public will view the seemingly inevitable role of AI in filmmaking in succeeding years still remains to be seen. Rossana Hwang just boldly dared to cross that Rubicon earlier.
