Regal Entertainment produced the first Mano Po film, known also as Mano Po 1: My Family. The film won twelve MMFF awards including Best Picture. The story revolves around a Chinese immigrant Don Luis Go (Eddie Garcia) whom at the young age left China to be with his Filipino wife Elisa (Boots Anson-Roa). They had two children Daniel (Tirso Cruz III) and Linda (Amy Austria). The Go family had three granddaughters Vera (Maricel Soriano), the eldest and heiress to the Go family business, Juliet (Kris Aquino) and Richelle (Ara Mina), the youngest and the blacksheep of the family.
Antonio Chan, a prominent Chinese businessman, had three women in his life: Sol, a Filipina; Lu Shui, a Chinese; and Belinda, a Filipino-Chinese. Antonio has children with all three women. A crisis shakes up the over-extended Tsinoy family prompting all the members to re-examine their values, their relationships, and confront issues that they have refused to face all these years. With Mano Po 2: My Home, Regal Entertainment continues the tradition established by the critical and box-office hit of the first Mano Po film. Features strong dramatic performances from a stellar ensemble cast, lush visuals, a reverberating musical score, an unforgettable theme song, and a heart-warming screenplay that eloquently captures the rich Tsinoy culture. Laugh, cry, and be touched by this family story about forgiveness, healing and undying love.
The third film marks the appearance of Vilma Santos as Lilia Chiong-Yang, an anti-crime crusader who was romantically torn between Michael (Christopher de Leon, in their latest team-up after Dekada 70) and Paul (Jay Manalo). The film won the 2011 Metro Manila Film Festival Best Picture Award. Santos won the best actress award in the said filmfest.
Produced by Regal's sister production MAQ Productions, Mano Po III marks the return of Joel Lamangan as the series' director. Lamangan, however, lost to Cesar Montano (for Panaghoy sa Suba) for winning the Best Director Award in the 2011 Metro Manila Film Festival.
The comedy-focused entry of the series focuses on concubinage. Zsa Zsa Padilla won the best actress award in the 2005 Metro Manila Film Festival. It is revealed that this film is officially called "Mano Po 4" after the release of Mano Po 5 due to the return of Padilla since My Home.
This series is more of a romantic comedy-drama rather than the earlier ones which center around serious drama. However, Angel Locsin's appearance as the leading role for this film is her last project with Regal Entertainment (not counting The Promise) followed by her transfer to ABS-CBN a year later. "Gua ai di" can be translated as "I love you" in the Philippine dialect of the HokkienChinese language, also known as "Fukien" in the Philippines.
The new tale marks the first project of Sharon Cuneta under Regal Films. This is also a reunion movie for Cuneta with Joel Lamangan (last worked in Walang Kapalit in 2003) and Christopher de Leon (last worked in Magkapatid in 2002).
The dramatic story focuses on billionaire Melinda Uy, who had a rags-to-riches story of hardships and triumphs as a Chinese-Filipino woman.
The story focuses on the relationship and modern generation of Tsinoys. The film started with Richard Yap, making him the first male lead protagonist in the entire series.
Actors with multiple film appearances
NOTE: Actors do not portray the same character in the other films.