A Powerful Plot Twist

It was one of the last, if not the last, day of 2018. The cinema was notably nicer than any other. Me and my family were using up the tickets my mother's officemate got for the Metro Manila Film Festival, and we had already watched many other movies then.

We were watching Rainbow Sunset, which starred veteran actors Eddie Garcia, Gloria Romero, and Tony Mabesa. It had quite a unique plot, about the 84-year old former senator Ramoncito "Ramon" Estrella, who came out as gay and moved into his friend Alfredo "Fredo" Veneracion's house to take care of him, as he had cancer.

The movie then presents the disapproval of Ramon's children, who were then about to face their own problems then. What made me cry was the part when Fredo called Sylvia, Ramon's wife, and told her, "Ang daya ni Ramon," or "Ramon's unfair."

Turns out, Ramon died in his sleep, holding a speech for his daughter Georgina's 50th birthday that he didn't deliver, unfortunately, due to his children's disapproval of Ramon sitting next to Fredo. Then came scenes on Ramon's funeral, where Ramon's speech was voiced over, and the last minutes of the film, where Sylvia moved into Fredo's house to take care of him.

While Ramon's death was sad enough to make me cry, it was quite good to know that Ramon's children finally accepted Fredo, as they accompanied their mother in moving to Fredo's house, while giving gifts and saying "sorry" to their "Tiyo Fredo," or "Uncle Fredo." The last scene was a simple one, of which Sylvia feeds Fredo with soup.

Oh yes, I dearly remembered that film as the first film that made me cry. And that made me admire Eddie Garcia more, just in time for his untimely death the next year. And if it weren't that sad enough, Tony Mabesa died too, a few months after Eddie Garcia.