Yuddy, a Hong Kong playboy known for breaking girls' hearts, tries to find solace and the truth after discovering the woman who raised him isn't his mother.
Linda, in her 70's, is a Chinese citizen who has been living in the Philippines since the Japanese occupation of their homeland. For a while, it was like she was building the perfect Chinese Family raising three children together with her Husband, Felipe, and a business tycoon who worked hard to increase their wealth to millions. A mysterious phone call from the unknown shaken their home that leads to their bankruptcy. Tragically, Felipe went in coma for 7 years and left Linda devastated. She tries to keep her family together until a revelation totally broke their home apart.
After years of separation and longing; Ramon visits Doroteo, his brother, hoping to make up for the lost time that they could have spent with each other.
A story of a woman miner from the mountains of Benguet, who struggles to balance life as a miner and a single parent. “Butas” takes you to a journey in the life of a mother who struggles to make ends meet but is hopeful to provide a better life for her son. Due to poverty, she is forced to work in a foreign country but comes back to the Philippines after her husband dies from a mining accident.
Minjae is a Korean-Filipino teenager who is often discriminated against for being mixed-blood. His utmost desire to belong to the homogeneous and hierarchical Korean society is tested when his single Filipina mother decides to send him to the Philippines one winter day.
Pandanggo has three stories with parallel themes converging in one event, the Kasilonawan Festival in Obando: a career woman learning to dance tango who is torn between her dance partner and live-in partner has to choose the man who will satisfy her dream of raising a family; a wife whose wish to conceive a baby boy to make her husband happy brings her feet to the festival, but fate has other plans of bringing the child into her life; and a modern woman who, amidst her medical condition that might render her childless for the rest of her life, finds connection with an ancient lore about fertility.
A young woman tired of being the rebound girl makes rules for herself to avoid that situation. But she is immediately challenged when she makes a connection with another heartbroken young man.
Mikey, a young, discreet, gay man from the affluent class, spends five years in a city jail while hearing his case for drug pushing. Inside prison, Mikey holds back to adapt to the culture and stratification among inmates. Eventually, Mikey becomes a ‘Mayor’ (ring leader) to a group of gay inmates called “Gang-da”. Together, they thrive to survive the dangers of several gang riots, the mundane, and the decay of human dignity.
A woman returns to the village of Kagbunga in the Bikol region carrying the ashes of her only son via the old train that circles her universe like the tandayag, the primordial serpent. In a filial act of mourning, she will reckon and reconcile the thin line that exists between tragedy and transcendence and prove and that even the most broken life can be restored to its moments.
Two women in a remote Muslim community confront an escalating blood feud and reach deep into themselves in hopes to undo the feud stretching back generations.
A story of Ilyong, recently-dead man killed by the police, after he was caught stealing. This is the beginning of his story, his death. Soon after, he was brought into a sleazy funeral home, run by Violet, a greedy homosexual who has learned to survive by renting out the dead bodies in his funeral home to Simon. Along for the ride is Jojo, a police officer who is under the payroll of Simon and who supplies the dead bodies for Violet to take care of and make money from. Violet has two workers, On-on and Dyograd.
A story of an over-the-hill prostitute whose life savings are stolen during the Holy Week.
A young woman works as a secretary for a high class escort service, and is drawn into the intrigues of a client and the man who has fallen in love with her.
Jesusa, a barren woman comes to her wit’s end when her philandering husband moves in with his latest mistress. Left only with her stepdaughters, she succumbs to the sordid ways of the neighborhood drug addicts
A single mother suffers a devastating stroke leaving her teenage daughter and 7-year-old son to care for her, testing the family's strength to hold things together as their roles are reversed.
A granddaughter brings joy on Christmas morning by mending her Filipina grandmother’s beloved Mickey plush and decorating her house with Filipino Christmas lanterns ‘parols’; reviving a family tradition and evoking memories of Christmas past. In partnership with Make-A-Wish. Featuring "Love Is A Compass" by Griff.
In the picturesque island of Cuyo, Palawan, an illegal Taiwanese fishing vessel docks carrying the fisherman named Muo Sei, a man looking for something or someone with the name Ploning. He has from sunrise to sundown to look for this "Ploning".
A story about three children struggling in a depressed neighborhood with their means of survival arriving from the package given to them by their parents who works abroad.
Gene works for the local underworld syndicate but always treats his abductees with kindness. He begins a dangerous affair with ex-bar girl Dolor, who's routinely beaten by her rich husband. When the cops move in on Gene's gang and Dolor's husband winds up dead, the couple flees with the law and their enemies in hot pursuit.
On Christmas Day, 15 year old David finds out that his boyfriend, Jonathan has taken another lover. The discovery leads him on the brink of depression making him think of ways to have him back at all cost. He has invited Jonathan to see him on this day for the last time.