The leads, director, and other cast members welcomed press and content creators to the film’s exclusive media launch
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – August 12, 2026 – The table is set for a family reunion like no other! Netflix Philippines’ GANITO, GANYAN, GANOON held its much-anticipated media launch at Casa Buenas, Newport Mall, bringing together leads Jodi Sta. Maria and Agot Isidro, and the film’s director and screenwriter, Cholo H. Laurel, for an afternoon of good food, heartfelt conversations, and the journey of finding one’s way back home.
Leading the official launch were the leads and two of the biggest actresses in Philippine entertainment – Sta. Maria and Isidro – who described their characters and walked the audience through what it felt like to prepare for the drama-heavy film. Isidro, who plays Paz, shared: “I made a grand homecoming to a family I did something to in the past. I was an absentee mother. I was the one who really opened the wounds of the family.”
Alongside her is Sta. Maria as Jo, a hyper-independent writer with big dreams: “Just when she thought she had it all together, biglang dumating ang isang ‘storm’ sa buhay niya sa katauhan ni Paz. Umuwi para manggulo. Paano siya ngayon mabubuhay sa presensya ng babaeng kilala niya bilang ‘ina’, pero hindi naman nagpaka-ina?” (“A ‘storm’ suddenly enters her life in the form of Paz, who comes home to turn everything upside down. How can she live with the woman she knows to be her ‘mother’, but who never truly acted like one?”)
Director Cholo H. Laurel, who makes his return to filmmaking with the movie after a 10-year hiatus, also talked about the value Netflix brought into the film and his creative process: “It was in 2018 when I felt that there was a chance to jump into the arena again. With Netflix — they had the proper budget, they had the proper organization. Inantay lang namin ‘yung tamang opportunity, kasi may requirement kami dito sa pelikula.” (“We waited for the right opportunity because we had a requirement for this film.”) That requirement meant bringing together the cast to play their respective characters in their location at Marinduque, with the majority of the scenes shot at Laurel’s home, Balai La-hi.
While packaged as a family drama, the creative team knew that it also had to highlight humor and show how moments of peace, no matter how rare, punctuate and coexist with the heavier ones—a true mark of a typical Filipino family. Laurel expands: “For drama to be effective as a tool, it has to be funny.”
The topic of forgiveness runs through the film’s themes and rightfully asks whether one can truly have closure, despite not getting it. What GANITO, GANYAN, GANOON adds to the conversation is its authenticity and fearlessness in exploring such familiar family dynamics. As one of the film’s writers, Laurel explains: “(The film) prescribes that we have to resort to proper communication. It requires only that. That you talk. That you expose the wounds. It does not prescribe you to do anything: it does not prescribe you to forgive, to say that this is good, that it is bad – no. It just tells you that this is the Filipino family; these are what relationships are like. You decide.” Isidro echoed this sentiment, sharing her belief that ‘peace’ is only possible when it comes from within—from oneself: “I just turned sixty, mas ngayon, parang for everyone, ayaw na natin ng bagahe sa buhay. Naiisip mo na that the healing and forgiveness ay nanggagaling sa sarili. It’s really an inner work.” (“Now, for everyone, we don’t want baggage. You realize that healing and forgiveness come from within yourself.”)
The media launch also treated the audience to an exclusive clip that revealed the chaos of what awaits viewers – one of the two pivotal scenes that happened at the dining table.
GANITO, GANYAN, GANOON is more than just a story about a family; it is a reflection of the universal yet deeply Filipino dynamics that shape our relationships with the people closest to us and asks us to reflect on what you bring to the table and what looms after you’ve left it. It is an invitation to look back home—even when you’d rather stay away—and asks us to sit with uncomfortable feelings and people, trying to understand what it means to remember the same wounds differently.
For Isidro, this means knowing that all of our experiences are valid, because it happened; for Sta. Maria, it is a matter of feeling for the character that truly reflects the experiences and stories closer to one’s own. Laurel expands on the film’s exploration of tentative truths and the concept of having no absolutes in this film—and in life: “Walang absolute na tama, walang absolute na mali. There is good, there is bad, and there is real. And then you piece together why this is happening. Lahat tayo may pinanggagalingan, lahat tayo ay tao lamang.” (“There is no absolute right or wrong. There is good, there is bad, and there is what is real. And then you piece together why things happen the way they do. We all have our own stories and our own reasons for being the way we are. At the end of the day, we are all only human.”)
Other cast members – Gabriel Lazaro and Ruby Ruiz – were also in attendance and looped viewers into what to expect from their characters. Lazaro has this to say about his character Matti: “He’s kind of a troubled guy. Throughout the film, he’s also trying to discover his identity, kind of reconnecting with this side of his family as well.” Ruiz plays Des, the loyal helper who represents the mostly silent companion who bore witness to the family’s complicated relationship, “Para na din nilang kamag-anak; na parang surrogate mother din ni Jodi. Dahil nga wala si Paz. Ako ‘yung nakakakilala ng husto sa pamilya, despite all the odds, despite all the imperfections.” (“I am like a family member; like Jodi’s surrogate mother. I know the family inside out, despite all the odds, and despite all the imperfections.”)
GANITO, GANYAN, GANOON officially joins the myriad of local titles in and produced by Netflix Philippines, proudly bringing Filipino narratives that many people from around the world can experience through their screens. Sta. Maria has this to say about that experience: “Now, they get to see us. The Filipino people. A glimpse into our culture. Who we are as a people and as a nation. ‘yung great talent na meron ka.” (“The great talent that we have.”)
The afternoon brought together an intimate group of over 70 media professionals, special guests, and content creators to celebrate a story about family, forgiveness, and finding one’s way back home—an invitation to look beyond the narrative and see pieces of themselves in its characters, just a day before the film’s official launch on the platform.
GANITO, GANYAN, GANOON is now showing, available worldwide. Only on Netflix.
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