The Real Queen....the Other Queen.

The REAL Queen
The Other Queen
by Arnel Resma Ramos

In Kaya Kong Abutin Ang Langit, she was a woman of avarice. As the gamine Inday Bote, she tickled our funny bones. In Saan Darating Ang Umaga?, she reduced us to tears as the daughter forced by a tragedy to mature way beyond her age. Three disparate characters, one solitary thespian -- the luminously versatile Maricel Soriano.

Notorious for her candor in a world of duplicitous sweetness and put-on smiles, she has been widely unpopular, with the most derogatory of titles heaped upon her, from Taray Queen to the Bad Girl of local filmdom. But through it all, Soriano has seemingly endured. She has lingered where lesser stars would have long vanished into oblivion.

It is a common consensus that the 80's belonged to Sharon Cuneta. Some movie observers even believe the so-called megastar was the sole queen of that decade. Soriano has often been dismissed as the "other queen".

But there was a time in the late 80s when the "other queen" dominated the box-office, turning out one mammoth blockbuster after another. But for some strange, mysterious reason, she was left uncrowned.

Maricel, affectionately nicknamed Marya, started out as a screen tyke. She became a household name thanks to her role as Dolphy's youngest child Shirley Puruntong in what was perhaps the longest-running sitcom on local TV, John en Marsha.

She dazzled the film world next as a teen idol. Together with William Martinez of the toothy smiles, she became part of one of the most memorable love teams in the history of local movies, with riotous films like Galawgaw and Pabling and the unabashedly romantic Hindi Kita Malimot in their combined filmography.

She bid the scene farewell for a while in the early 90s to plunge into a marriage that proved to be disastrous, dissipating into thin air after less than two years. With her failed marriage behind her, she bounced back to the top with amazing resoluteness.

In 1992, she delivered what is arguably her most splendid portrayal to date as the lonely heiress in Ikaw Pa Lang Ang Minahal, a reworking of the Olivia de Havilland classic The Heiress. Without her brilliant performance in it, the movie would have ended up as no more than a grand though somewhat hackneyed melodrama. Soriano lifted it out of the commonplace with her awesome transformation from a mousy spinster to an assertive woman.

Then came the award-giving season for that particular year. Soriano attended every awards night but in each of them, she went home empty-handed, save perhaps for a broken heart and a crushed spirit.

Her career suffered a decline when her much-touted acting vehicle, Mila, an artistic misfire, failed to lure the moviegoers into the theaters.

But Soriano, like the legendary phoenix of Greek mythology, remains a formidable presence amid a dying industry. Without her, the movie firmament is not as bright, not as shimmering.

Her numerous followers look up to her as a tower of strength. More than her acting prowess, her chameleon-like ability to shift from comedy to drama with enviable ease, Soriano is a constant reminder for those who are on the edge of hopelessness that battles are meant to be fought, head-on, no matter what the outcome.

We wish to take this one chance to celebrate the joy of watching Maricel Soriano on both the big and small screens for almost three decades now --- always aglow, always moving.

For how can one erase in the memory the many faces of Maricel Soriano, the actress? Of how she ran in the rains after being deserted by her opportunistic lover in Ikaw Pa Lang Ang Minahal. Of how she smiled through her tears while entertaining a suitor in The Graduates. Of how she brought the house down as
the triplets in Maria Went to Town.

These images will stay in the mind, indelible and immune to the ravages of time.