Tanabata’s Wife

An adaptation of Sinai Hamada’s short story. A Japanese farmer living in the Cordilleras hires a Bontoc woman to work at his farm, and eventually marries her.

Based on the classic Philippine short story “Tanabata’s Wife”, set in the 1920’s. Tanabata-San is a successful Japanese immigrant farmer in La Trinidad Valley in Benguet, where the Japanese have been known to pioneer the planting of salad greens. Middle-aged and lonely, he hires a young feisty Bontoc woman, Fasang, as farmhand, and falls in love with her. They get married and have a son, but Fasang is attracted to the city lights of Baguio that is now taking shape, and to someone else.

Directors: Lito Casaje, Charlson L. Ong (as Charlson Ong)
Writers: Sinai Hamada (short story), Charlson L. Ong (screenplay) (as Charlson Ong)
Stars: Miyuki Kamimura, Mai Fanglayan, Kurt ‘Ayeo-eo’ Alalag