Bituing Walang Ningning

Bituing Walang Ningning (1985)

No dreams are too high for those who believe. No stars are too far for those who reach out.

Dorina is an orphaned sampaguita vendor who dreams of becoming a big singing star like her idol, Lavinia. It later turns out that Lavinia is nothing like what Dorina thought she was. This disillusionment spurs the young girl to make it big as a singer and eventually become Lavinia’s chief rival.

Date of release
1985-02-14
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (6)
Runtime
2h 6m
Genres
Music, Drama, Romance
Director
Emmanuel H. Borlaza

Casting

Interesting facts

Bituing Walang Ningning is a 1985 Philippine musical drama film directed by Emmanuel Borlaza from a komiks serial written by Nerissa G. Cabral and adapted into a screenplay by Orlando R. Nadres. The film stars Sharon Cuneta, Christopher de Leon, and Cherie Gil, with the supporting cast includes Tommy Abuel, Jay Ilagan, Joel Torre, and Chanda Romero.

Production

The film was the pet project of Mina Aragon, wife of Viva Films founder-executive producer Vic R. Del Rosario Jr.

The role of Lavinia was offered to the then-up-and-coming singer Zsa Zsa Padilla as her film acting debut. She declined due to her friendship with Sharon Cuneta. Padilla would later star in the 2006 television adaptation as Dorina's mother, a character that does not exist in the film.

During filming, Sharon Cuneta, newly married to Gabby Concepcion, was pregnant with her first child, KC Concepcion. The production crew made efforts to conceal her pregnancy, including using props and body doubles, as well as utilizing half-body shots.

Halfway through shooting, director Emmanuel Borlaza suffered a heart attack and was told to rest. Leroy Salvador, who directed Cuneta in Sa Hirap at Ginhawa, also for Viva Films, was assigned to direct the unfinished sequences. He asked not to be credited for his work. The same year, Salvador directed Cuneta and Gil in another musical for Viva Films, Sana'y Wala Nang Wakas, released on July 30.

The iconic line "You're nothing but a second-rate, trying hard copycat" was originally written in the script as "You're nothing but a good imitator." The original line was later changed to its well-known one when Tommy Abuel suggested the word "copycat", which sounded "catchy" by Cherie Gil, who later added the phrase "trying hard".

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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