| Otso-Otso Pamela-Mela-Wan | |
| Director: | Jerry Lopez Sineneng |
| Screenplay: | Mel Mendoza-Del Rosario |
| Music: | Jessie Lasaten |
| Cinematography: | Ricardo Jose Trofeo |
| Editing: | Marya Ignacio |
| Studio: | Star Cinema[1] |
| Released: | [2] |
| Country: | Philippines |
| Language: | Filipino Mandarin |
Otso-Otso Pamela-Mela-Wan is a 2004 Filipino comedy film starring Bayani Agbayani and Vhong Navarro. The title was inspired from the two novelty dance songs popularized by the main actors: "Otso-Otso" and "Pamela", respectively.[3]
In a hospital in 1976, a lone nurse guards newborn babies when a freak storm, earthquake and power outage happens and the babies are mixed up and given to different families.
In the present, Amboy and Boy, sons by different families are treated as outcasts, Boy is out of place on his family because he has no talent in singing, while Amboy lacks academic intelligence. Meanwhile in Chinatown, Mao and Dao, who are spoiled by their mother, Mrs. Go, resist attempts at arranged marriages according to Chinese customs. Boy and Amboy flee to Manila after they misinterpret their unwitting rescue of the Mayor from an assassin's bullet through the otso-otso dance as an attack on them, while Mao and Dao go to Ilocos Norte to hitch a boat ride to Taiwan.
They ride separate Partas buses, and meet their alternate identities while on stopover in Tarlac, while the Nurse tries to chase them. As they arrive on their destinations, confusion arises. Mao and Dao, who are mistaken for Boy and Amboy, became instant heroes and fit into their "families", especially with Mao having a good singing voice and Dao being intelligent. When Dao is asked to recreate the Otso-Otso dance, he instead creates the Pamela-Mela-Wan dance.
After being turned over to Mrs. Go after the nurse's distraction causes their bus to crash, Boy and Amboy, mistaken for Mao and Dao, try to adjust to the Chinese style of living before learning in a newspaper about their heroism and realizing that Mao and Dao have been mistaken for then. After telling Mrs. Go the truth, they return to Ilocos to confront Mao and Dao, persuading them not to push through with their escape to Taiwan and go back to Mrs. Go, while Mao and Dao convince their alter-egos to stand up to their families, for which they realized that they are loved all along.
Boy, Amboy and their families along with Mao, Dao and Mrs. Go attend the Mayor's thanksgiving celebrations, where the latter survives another assassination attempt. The townspeople are confused when the foursome appear, but the Nurse arrives and tells them that the twins were switched due to the aforementioned accident, with Mao being a twin of Boy and Dao being a twin of Amboy. Mao and Dao comfort a distraught Mrs. Go, saying that she will always be their mother before returning to their biological families in celebration and perform their dances.
In the epilogue, the Nurse tracks down Mrs. Go's son, who is raised by an African family, and is overjoyed as she realizes that he is the last baby she has to find.