February 28, 2025
In September of 2019, Robert S. Tan of Blade Auto Center decided to release the second film he produced, entitled "12 Days to Destiny," free for streaming on YouTube. This film told the sweet story of how the love affair of Blade customer Camille Mendoza (Mary Joy Apostol) and Blade salesman Daniel del Rosario (Akihiro Blanco) began. Light, funny and cute, this turned out to be a big success, with stats now reaching 7M views.
To strike while the iron was hot, Tan decided to release the second installment of the Camille-Daniel love story, entitled "The Next 12 Days," within 9 months of the first film. This was a gutsy move to release a film during the early part of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2020, but it paid off as well. This was released in two parts, and tackled more serious issues that come between Camllle and Daniel that threatened to break them up.
Since the first film, Tan already envisioned this Destiny films to be a trilogy. The third film, entitled "The Last 12 Days," was first released last December 12, 2024 on VivaOne app pay per view. Just this February 2025, this new film was also released on YouTube like the first two films. Like the last film, this was also released in two parts, and tackled heavy topics like getting along with the future in-laws and dealing with dire health problems.
Camille's strict diva mother Carmina (Dovee Park), and Daniel's pragmatic farm-based mother Josie (Mabel Reyes) confront each other. Camille's friend Giselle (Veronica Gualberto) and Josie's suman-selling neighbor Belinda (Imy Sebastian) are introduced. Loyal sidekick characters, fellow Blade salesman Mark (Xander Pineda) and balut vendor Donato (Nel Estuya) were given more significant storylines to play in this finale.
Several of the Blade bosses, including Robert S. Tan himself, show up onscreen, and even had lines to deliver. There were also cameo appearances by Michelle Vito as Nelia, her character in Blade's first film "Dito Lang Ako" (2018), James Deakin as Camille's Australia-based father Miguel, and Cong. Bong Nebrija as a customer with wife trouble. Quirky Andres Balano a.k.a. Malayang Alagad played a traditional folk healer named Mang Empot.
The biggest factor for this series' success remains to be Mary Joy Apostol and Akihiro Blanco, who's chemistry held strong even after a five years hiatus. Their winsome screen presence make us root for them against anything that threatened their love. They delivered on their romantic scenes with so much humor and heart, even when a major tear-jerking issue still popped up in the last 30 minutes! This finale is the best installment of the whole trilogy. 7/10
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