Working Girls (2010)

Continuing the tradition of national artist Ishmael Bernal's benchmark film Working Girls after 25 years, Working Girls 2010 depicts the role of women in the new millennium. Seven women of different backgrounds, stories, and personalities entwine in a colorful story of family, love, and life--Dr. Cleo Carillo (Eula Valdes) is a very well-known cosmetic surgeon to celebrities. Her clients include high-profile beauty queens and socialites such as Marilou Cobarrubias (Ruffa Gutierrez) and Betchay Magbutay-Cavendish (Carmi Martin). She is successful in her field and enjoys being in the spotlight, but her success is not without intrigues and lawsuits, things that are well-known to her star client Marilou Cobarubbias (Ruffa Gutierrez), who started as a simple girl who was trained to be a beauty queen. She married an old business tycoon and eventually became a widow. But her husband's daughter from his first wife, Amanda dela Vega, is determined to bring her down by arranging that she inherits nothing but a nearly-bankrupt business. She struggles to learn how to stand on her own, something which Tere Villanueva (Iza Calzado) has been doing since she was young. Tere is the ideal nurse: sweet, smart, and caring to her patients. She becomes close to an old patient, Amelia Marcelino, and fears that she might end up like her, facing the possibility of dying alone. She also suffers a lingering broken heart because of her failed relationship with her one great love Leon (Jao Mapa). But fate dictates that Tere is assigned a new patient: Leon's terminally-ill wife. Ada Villanueva (Jennylyn Mercado), Tere's cousin, shares Tere's heartache and pain after rejecting the marriage proposal of her child's father--who promptly got engaged to someone else. She works hard as a call-center agent to provide for her son, but has little time to actually spend with him. Taking care of a child is nowhere near the priority of Dara dela Vega (Bianca King): beautiful, sophisticated, and US-educated, she becomes overconfident--arrogant, actually. This brings on wrath and cold treatment from her coworkers. Tobz (Carlo Aquino), Ada's call-center colleague, is the boyfriend of an ambitious girl who claims that she is a successful and glamorous model: Wendy Casuga (Christine Reyes). She idolizes beautiful women who become high-profile socialites, just like Marilou Cobarrubias. She is often seen in auditions and VTR's to fulfill her dream of being famous. Melvin (Antonio Aquitania) is the husband of Paula Cabigting (Eugene Domingo). Affected by the US recession, he returned to the Philippines jobless, eventually becoming a bum. Paula works hard to manage her online business selling fake designer bags because she cannot even rely on her husband to drive her around delivering goods to her customers, so she must hire a service vehicle owned by Nelson Obleta (Ricky Davao), beginning a complicated relationship. This is the story of seven lovely, highly-entertaining working girls, each with her own story to tell, connected by coincidence or destiny. Strong, independent, and driven to succeed, they are also women who just want to be understood and loved.