It has been more than a decade since Spanish telenovelas reached Philippine shores and became very very popular it ruled Pinoys’ daytime and even primetime viewing habit for several years. Who could forget the famed and legendary Thalia who first captured our hearts in the MariMar craze back in 1995? Few months later, and because of MariMar’s tremendous success, her other telenovelas started airing too. The likes of Maria Mercedes, Maria la del Barrio, Rosalinda, and Quincenera. And it didn’t stopped there, more and more latin soaps kept pouring in and invaded our country after that. The ones I remember watching were Alondra, Por Un Beso, La Traidora, Chabelita, Doble Cara, among others. The list would go on. Admit it, at one point or another, we were once a telenovela freak.
And now, after the Koreans/Chinese/Taiwanese replaced the Spaniards in changing our tv viewing, I thought that I am so over with those telenovelas. Or so I thought. You may now find it cheesy but my guilty pleasure is watching this Latin soap airing in AbsCbn titled El Cuerpo Del Deseo. I got interested in the story, not the usual ones you get to see nowadays or even before, that’s why I checked it out on its first day. Since I am usually home by 1pm and its timeslot is 345pm, I get to regularly watch it. And mind you, I am now hooked! And so are my mom and the twins haha! The story’s conflict is gripping you wouldn’t want to miss an episode. It will welcome you to an exceptional and enthralling world of lies and deceit. The characters were unforgettable and despite of the good story, there were also funny moments that will never fail to make you laugh. Indeed, spanish telenovelas has a way of capturing Filipino hearts. Anyway, here are some pictures I got online and some information I have searched in Wikipedia about this series:
El cuerpo del Deseo (The Body of Desire) is a Spanish-language telenovela produced by Telemundo and RTI Colombia. This limited-run series is about a man who comes back from the dead and discovers dark secrets about his beautiful ex-wife and daughter. It first aired in 2005 and was a smash hit on Telemundo.
Major characters
Pedro Jose Donoso– a wealthy industrialist who,thinks he has everything he ever wanted. He has a gorgeous young wife, despite the age difference and opposition from his only daughter, Ángela.
Salvador Cerinza – a farmer who lives a sad life with his stingy wife Cantalicia and their son Moncho. Then everything changes when he suffers a mysterious accident.
Isabel Arroyo– a sensual, ambitious woman who loves her husband,Pedro Jose, at least on the surface.
Andrés Corona – Pedro Jose’s right hand man and Isabel’s secret lover. Two-faced, astute and ruthless, he will do anything to take everything Pedro Jose’s owns.
Ángela Donoso– the only daughter of Pedro Jose, who returns from abroad when she discovers his engagement to Isabel. She also has feelings for Andrés.
Story and production
The story features Pedro José Donoso (Andrés García), a wealthy old man in love with a gorgeous younger woman, Isabel Arroyo (Lorena Rojas). He dies suddenly, but returns to Earth through transmigration: (the passing of a soul into another body after death), in the body of Salvador Cerinza (Mario Cimarro), a handsome (yet poor) family man. Pedro José searches for everything he lost, uncovering secrets, truths and deceptions. Ultimately, he must set things straight and save those who truly loved him.
This melodrama about wealth, youth and power was filmed in Miami. It is a remake of Julio Jimenez’s En Cuerpo Ajeno (“In a Foreign Body”), a 1992 RTI Colombia serial. In 2006, NBC commissioned Cuban author Erick Hernandez Mora to write a follow-up novel, El deseo ajeno (Possessed By Desire), which was published by Simon & Schuster.
Universal Studios released an abridged 720-minute version of the saga on DVD in 2006. Telemundo announced an encore of the complete run beginning May 29, 2007 on its daytime lineup, but decided not to air it.
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I didn’t know it literally meant “Body of Desire”, and that we were three years late in airing it here in the Philippines. I tried watching some scenes on YouTube and I got more excited to see it. I so love watching Spanish language movies so probably I’d get hooked even more. Much more that I am now thinking of buying a dvd copy to finish it ahead of time, because I think some scenes were cut by ABS. Never had I been this so serious in watching a telenovela since La Viuda De Blanco 
, which had a 1-year run in ABC5 some 11 years ago? haha! I was in highschool when I followed it. This one has an incomparable story and amazing, haunting characters! It was also originally from Colombia, and I just found out that Telemundo also had its version of this telenovela year 2006. Which I think doesn’t come any closer to the original version, which I can tell just by looking at its pictures. Well, back to El Cuerpo, some further researching made me learn that it has 143 episodes which will probably run for almost a year. And that it was written by Julio Jimenez, the same one who wrote La Viuda de Blanco! Amazing! I hope to get a hold of a dvd copy very soon! Can’t wait to have a marathon. So, to end this entry, I’ll include video clips of El Cuerpo’s and La Viuda de Blanco’s intro part. Or in spanish, “Entrada”.
Muchos gracias, mi amigo! 😉
The P Spot 