King Palisoc, the director of the upcoming musical drama Song of the Fireflies, wants you to know that the project has been years in the making. “There were so many hiccups,” Palisoc said in an interview with Rolling Stone Philippines. “We were lucky, but we had to learn how to get good at making pivots.”
Set in 1980, Song of the Fireflies features original music composed by National Artist for Music Ryan Cayabyab. The film was inspired by the real story of the Loboc Children’s Choir (LCC), an internationally acclaimed choral group based in Bohol. Film producers Girlie Rodis, Celeste Legaspi, and Rachel Alejandro (who’d previously collaborated on the 2017 musical Ang Larawan) set out to tell a story focused on the choir and their choirmaster, Alma Taldo, played by singer Morissette in her acting debut.
The film has already seen praise and acclaim from international audiences. Song of the Fireflies made its world premiere at the 2025 Manila International Film Festival, screened alongside the 10 full-length feature entries of the 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival. Just this May, the film received the Platinum Remi Award at the 58th WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, seeing a sold-out screening.
A Ticking Clock
Song of the Fireflies was originally slated for a 2020 release, but Palisoc recalled how the production encountered a series of setbacks. “We’d been shooting scenes since 2018, and we even shot a trailer in 2019, but then the pandemic happened,” said Palisoc. “We had to keep waiting, pushing, and delaying.”
“I think ‘yong biggest challenge, and I can’t reiterate this enough, was time,” continued Palisoc. “80 to 90 percent of the film’s cast were children, and by the time the pandemic hit, our cast was already locked in. We already had Noel [Comia Jr.] and Krystal [Brimner] as our leads, and we weren’t sure when we could resume filming. Our cast was getting older by the day, and every day felt like a ticking clock.”
Then super typhoon Odette hit Bohol in 2021, making it even more difficult for the film’s team to shoot scenes on location. Filming eventually resumed in 2023, but by then, the cast had aged by a few years, and the story had to be adjusted. “We were lucky that Noel and Krystal still looked like they were in their teens,” said Palisoc, “but we had to pivot the story to be about 15 to 16-year-olds instead of 12 to 13-year-olds.”
“Plus, we were running out of money,” recalled Palisoc. “Our funds were cut down because of the pandemic and because we’d spent so much on making the trailer, so we had to really compress and tighten the script to make it more economical.”
Music As Priority
Palisoc emphasized that music was always central to the film’s vision. “From having [Cayabyab] working so hard on the score, to Morissette and Rachel being part of the cast… we always looked to music [and how it pushed] the story forward,” said Palisoc.
Palisoc’s deep musical sensibility runs throughout his work. He began his career directing music videos, leaving a lasting visual mark with iconic local acts like Ely Buendia, Rico Blanco, and UDD. “I grew up with music,” said Palisoc. “My dad was a musician, a composer. I was a bit of a musician myself a long time ago, but I think I enjoyed the creativity of making films more. I learned a lot about how important music is when you’re trying to build a narrative, and I think that foundation really helped guide me with [Song of the Fireflies].”
Hard Work Paid Off
Palisoc also recalled pushing for the film to be shot on location in Bohol, where the actual choir was formed. He also emphasized the need for the cast to speak in Boholano, a dialect of Cebuano. “The dialect was something we were really conscious about,” said Palisoc. “In fact, that was one of the reasons why Morissette even agreed to do the film. She has a special attachment to projects set in the Visayas region, especially because she’s from Cebu. With the story being set in a neighbor of Cebu, and having a lot of the story told in Bisaya, the film hit very close to her.”
“While we were working on the script, we really wanted to find a way to capture that energy of rural life,” said Palisoc. “Not just through the visual, but how they spoke. Even though Morissette can speak naturally, there were adjustments because Boholano is different from Cebuano. For the other actors, they had to learn from scratch. We had translators and dialect coaches on set to make sure that, even if the actors couldn’t get the wording 100 percent right, they could still capture the tone.”
Palisoc emphasized that the film’s dedication to preserving its Bohol roots was also very important, as it provided a necessary context to the story. “I remember we had a private screening of the film [in Bohol],” said Palisoc, “and it was funny because the reactions of the audience were so different compared to those in the private screenings we held around Manila. They laughed more. They understood the jokes better. I think it felt real to them.”
Song of the Fireflies premiered in Philippine cinemas nationwide on June 25.
