It was one of the boldest decisions that he had to do to “honor the story above all else.”
In a post on his account on X, formerly Twitter, filmmaker Jun Lana revealed a potion of the behind-the-scene process in making the 2025 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) 3rd Best Picture, Call Me Mother.
He particularly shared the story about the ambitious parker scene involving lead actor Vice Ganda.
Lana wrote, “As a filmmaker, what you choose not to put in the final cut is often as crucial as what stays in. These photos are from a scene in “Call Me Mother” that we spent weeks planning and an entire day shooting,” with him sharing four pictures taken during production.
“It was a massive parkour sequence: Twinkle, in a desperate dash to get her child to the hospital, runs out of the shower in nothing but a towel. Trapped in a narrow alley packed with cars caught in traffic, she realizes that her only way forward is to bypass the pavement entirely, launching into incredible parkour stunts and mid-air flips over the traffic below,” he described how the scene was supposed to look like.
He then called it as a “logistical beast,” and narrated, “While we were filming inside the house, parkour rehearsals were happening simultaneously outside to ensure the choreography aligned with our storyboards, plan the camera angles, and prioritize the safety of Meme (Vice).“
“We had a huge setup: VFX teams, stunt directors, additional safety officers, and a high-end 3-camera rig. Through it all, Meme was a total trooper, wearing a harness and running on car roofs even as the rain began to pour,” the director shared.
Lana furthered, “It was visually spectacular. Everyone was excited to see Twinkle doing “impossible” parkour while perfectly balancing a towel on her head.”
But in the end he had to cut the scene from the final product.
“It wasn’t easy. I wanted to honor the hard work of my cast and crew and the investment of my producers, but while the scene worked on paper and was technically impressive, it felt tonally out of place once edited into the sequence. The absurdity was just too high, it risked derailing the grounded comedy we needed to make the eventual shift into heavy drama feel seamless,” he explained.
He also revealed some more sequences that were removed, which included Mara’s Squid Game style pageant training to the samurai confrontation of the PBB cast, which included Brent Manalo, Mika Salamanca, Klarisse de Guzman, Esnyr, and Shuvee Etrata. “[M]y editor Ben Tolentino and I were relentless,” he stressed.
To end, he imparted: “Ultimately, filmmaking isn’t about flexing the spectacle or showing off your technical range as a director. It’s about honoring the story above all else, even if that means leaving your most ambitious work on the cutting room floor.”