April 16, 2024
Back when they were in high school in 1996, Annie (Heaven Peralejo) was a new transferee fresh from the province and being bullied by the mean girls. Chona (Bea Binene) welcomed her into their gang called "Sunny." The members included: fake eyelashes fan Dang (Abby Bautista), shopaholic Gwen (Ashtine Olviga), nerdy writer Janet (Ashley Diaz), beauty queen wannabe Becky (Heart Ryan), and icy magazine covergirl Sue (Aubrey Caraan).
In the present time, Annie (Vina Morales) learned that Chona (Angelu de Leon) had cancer and little time left to live. Chona requested Annie to gather their gangmates together for a long-overdue reunion. Annie gladly accepted, and found most of her friends. Dang (Candy Pangilinan) sells insurance, Gwen (Sunshine Dizon) married a rich playboy, Janet (Tanya Garcia) and Becky (Katya Santos) fell on very tough times. Sue can't be found.
This film was an adaptation of a hit Korean film (yes, another one) with the same title released way back 2011. Written and directed by Kang Hyeong-cheol, the original "Sunny" wound up as the second highest grossing Korean film of 2011, and still holds as the 13th highest grossing Korean film of all time. The story about dynamics of female friendship is universal, and could easily have been made by a Filipino filmmaker as well, but alas that was not the case.
Just earlier this year, "Road Trip" (Andoy Ranay, 2024) also tackled basically the same themes of friends gathering together upon the death of one of their gang mates. The writer and star of "Road Trip" was Candy Pangilinan, who was also one of the stars here in "Sunny" which also gathered together young stars of the 1990s to play the middle-aged characters. Morales and de Leon never lost their touch for drama despite a long absence on the big screen.
The high-school flashbacks were basically the same old stories about teen foolishness, beach outings, puppy love, adolescent angst, senseless bullying and gang rivalries. The stars, especially Peralejo and Binene, were effusively energetic, but there was nothing really new. Writer Mel Mendoza-del Rosario and director Jalz Zarate could have trimmed off some excess fat, like the labor rally bit or the repetitious scenes with bad girl Ellen (Andrea Babierra). 6/10
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