Search - Otra (2002) (3pc) (Full Sub Dol Chk Sen) on DVD

La Otra

Felicia Vences | California | 02/19/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is a great novela!! Yadhira Carrillo as both Cordelia and Carlota she is great as both of them and juan soler is a good leading man. The storyline is good as well. Two women who look exactly alike and are in love with the same man and one of the ladies tries to take the place of the women is peer genius. I hope they release juan soler's other novela angela. He waseal good in that too. But enjoy!!!"

**spoiler alert** Mexican Gothic Telenovela

Lupita G. | Grand Rapids, MI USA | 06/29/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Overall, I thought that this telenovela was well done, the plot was expertly executed, and Juan Soler and Yadhira Carrillo did a fantastic job in their respective roles.
Like a previous customer said, Yadhira Carrillo has that uncanny ability to cry overflowing tears at the snap of a finger. She played Carlota very realistically, conveying to the viewers the suffering and the depression the character felt. In portraying Cordelia she switched gears and played a conniving and superficial character, much the opposite of the sweet and docile Carlota. As always Jacqueline Andere played marvelously as a villain, cold-hearted mother and killer, as well as Sergio Sendel as another villain who uses his charms to lure innocent people for his own perverted use. Juan Soler did an outstanding job, especially with those scenes when the character of Alvaro was quite confused between Carlota and Cordelia. I believed that he was going to go crazy because he didn't know what was really happening, who died and who was still alive.
Now...here comes the spoilers...so an alert here for those that haven't watched it:
Unfortunately I didn't get to watch "La Otra" in its entirety on Univision, and this was the very first time I watched it. So, I knew it was going to be very much edited to have this telenovela on 3 DVDs. That being said, although I did follow the storyline, and knew what was happening, I felt that there were some subplots and characters that were missing. Although I must say that I googled "La Otra", and read some well-written summaries, and knew that there were some parts missing. But, nonetheless, here are some things that stood out for me:
1) I knew that in some way Roman Guillen (Carlota's half-brother) would be involved with Bernarda (Carlota's mean-spirited mother). This is very obvious if you look on the back cover of the DVD. I know Roman, as Raul, uses Bernarda to exact revenge for stealing his father's inheritance. But this subplot is totally taken out of this version. So, exactly I don't know what happens.
2) Who is Julieta? Was she another innocent woman that Roman used to exact revenge? And why does Carlota tell her that she's like a sister to her? I know that Bernarda hit her with the car, and caused Julieta to lose her baby, at least that's what Roman accuses Bernarda before she kills him at the side of the road. So Julieta's story doesn't even appear here, not until the end.
3) Although they talk about Eugenia's son Librado, they don't show him at all, I don't know if he really appeared on the telenovela; also, the fact that Santos married Eugenia to give her baby a name is totally taken out of the story. It's only mentioned, but we are never given a full explanation.
4) Also, we see in flashbacks that Cordelia caused Alvaro's mother, Lupita, to have a heart attack and die, but we never really meet her on the story. Just see her in two scenes.
**end of possible spoilers**
There are many other little questions that really don't matter to be put in here, but those are four big ones. Also, I titled this review "Mexican Gothic telenovela" because that is what I felt I was watching. Even if there weren't any ghosts, or it wasn't set in dark places or had any supernatural effect, it still conveyed that "Gothic" element. Let me explain: with the house in Queretaro, which is an old colonial city in central Mexico, it's an old house, evidently from colonial times; the inside is dark, because of it's wooden dark-panneled walls, old-fashioned furniture. It didn't seem like a house set in the 21st century. This is also the case in La Santisima, Alvaro's family hacienda: old-fashioned 19th century furniture (or so it seems), dark wood walls, and the dark bungalow, with its airy and flowy bedroom veils where it seemed sometimes a ghost may appear. Oh, and let's not forget the Hitchcock-like haunting theme music throughout, with it's dark and somber cello and spine-tingling violin. Chopin's romantic piano music also lends to this "Gothic" theme, very beautiful but very haunting, almost melancholy and--sometimes--outright depressing. I'm not sure if this was the case in its original version, but boy this was quite obvious in this version. I have a little "complaint" about this too. Most if not all telenovelas, even if it's a serious plot-driven one, usually has a slice of comic relief to break the seriousness of a story. Although I may totally wrong because this was edited out, I didn't see any comic relief at all. It was just haunting, dark and somber all throughout. A few funny characters or comic scenes would've helped! For example, if you watched "Amarte Es Mi Pecado" (another Yadhira Carrillo telenovela) it was also a serious-driven telenovela, but it had its comic relief through the likes of Silvia Pasquel playing a very funny villainess and Casilda a very funny character with its hideous teeth; let's not forget Casilda's aunt and her strange characteristic of wearing different wigs. That was very much a comic relief, and it gave us a break from the main plot. But I didn't see this in "La Otra", unless there were funny characters and scenes in its original version that may have been edited out completely from the DVD version. If this is the case, then shame to those who edited it, it may have made this DVD version a lot better if they included some comic relief. All in all, I thought this was a wonderful telenovela, very realistic, although I can't imagine having another person being a double of me in spite of not being twins. I think that was the only unrealistic thing about it, but very much a central theme to this novela. The settings were beautiful, the acting was very real, the villains were devilishly good, and that music...God, that music really made this telenovela that much atmospheric, it made me feel melancholic, and it just gave me the chills just listening to it. The use of Chopin's work is also very well done. The only thing I have against it is the editing of important subplots and characters and the lack of comic relief and characters. But, I still highly recommend this one, one of the many very well done Mexican telenovelas!"

One of the best telenovelas of recent times

C.A. | TX United States | 02/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This was a very well written, acted, directed, and captivation telenovela. It had all the great ingredients and very wonderful actors in it. I agree with the previous review, this was one of Juan Soler's best acting. I also hope that they release Angela soon. Angelica rivera and Juan Soler were awesome in that telenovela!!"

A Great Telenovela!

J. Brewer | 11/02/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I buy and watch Mexican Telenovelas as a student of Spanish so I know them all. Though the story line is a bit chopped up in various places in "La Otra" from the editing process.... this is still a great novela with a great story and very interesting to watch with excellent acting. To top it off, this is one of the few novelas that has a soundtrack that actually doesn't suck. The music and sound track are very well done and not irritating like so many others. If you were going to have a collection of 5 telenovelas out of the hundreds that exist, this should be one of the five."