A lawyer asked the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) committee to investigate Vice Ganda’s movie entry at the event.
During a press conference during the launch of MMFF on July 26, Atty. Ferdinand Topacio, who’s also an owner of Borracho Film Production, said that Vice’s movie, “And The Breadwinner, is…” was copied from a movie from 1995.
The movie Topacio mentioned was the 1995 movie of Rogelio Dela Rosa and Emma Alegre titled “Higit sa Lahat.”
“Based on the synopses that I’ve heard, ‘yung pelikula ni Vice Ganda, the plot appears to be the exact duplicate of the 1955 film ‘Higit sa Lahat’ starring Rogelio Dela Rosa and Emma Alegre,” said Topacio.
“Could you please look into that and if there are possible consequences as to copyright, etc…Pakitingin lang po if this is a case of plagiarism,” he added.
Boots Anson-Rodrigo of the Movie Workers Welfare Foundation (Mowelfund) and Don Artes of Metro Manila Development Authority said that they would study the complaint of Topacio.
Meanwhile, the producer of Vice’s movie insisted that the story of “And the Bread Winner Is…” was original.
They also argued that there would be a chance that some stories may be similar to others.
“Sa panahon ngayon, may makakapareho at makakapareho ka talaga. Like lahat naman ng story ngayon ay ‘Romeo & Juliet’, ‘di ba?” said Percy Intalan.
It can be recalled that Topacio was one of the critics of the movies being published by Vice.
“Gumastos kami ng 33 million para sa ‘Mamasapano.’ Ang hirap bawiin because of the climate of the local film industry. Dominated kasi ‘yung local industry ng foreign films. Yon ang number one,” he said.
“Number two, ‘yung mga movies na walang katuturan. Katulad ng mga movies ni Vice Ganda. ‘Yon ang namamayagpag e,” he added.