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Pepeng Shotgun
English Translation: Shotgun Pepe
Year of Release: 1981
Director: Romy Suzara [as Romy V. Suzara]
Screenwriter: Edgardo M. Reyes
(From a story by Jojo Lapus)
Producer: Sining Silangan
Cast: Rudy Fernandez, George Estregan, Tetchie Agbayani, Bob Soler, Tony Carreon, Dick Israel, Ruben Rustia, Mark Gil, Joey Padilla, Baby Delgado, Romeo Rivera, Baldo Marro, Bomber Moran, Lucita Soriano, Nello Nayo, Cesar Esguerra, Larry Silva, Ernie Forte, Turko Cervantes, Yolanda Luna, Buddy Salvador, Pons de Guzman, Bobby Oreo, Jay Grama, Franco Rivero, Bobby Clinton, Pat Salvador, SOS Daredevils
For years, the Sablantes and the Medranos have bitterly feuded with each other. Their conflict worsens after Pepe Medrano accidentally kills Rex, a scion of the Sablantes. When Rex’s brother Manolo is elected as mayor through the use of dirty tricks, he orders for the murder of Pepe’s father. Driven by vengeance, both families refuse to rest until their blood feud has been settled.
Action, the most successful genre during the martial-law period, left only a few entries worth reconsidering, but this one remains exemplary for the subtlety of its critique of tyranny and its dignified sympathy for the persecuted. During the present, when even Hollywood films turn to computer-generated imagery effects as a matter of course, one could continue to marvel at a whole set of now-eroded skills in gunfight effects and martial-arts performances, all deployed with a grace and timing—and the occasional dash of humor—which today’s post-production houses could draw years of lessons from. Pepeng Shotgun also represents the peak confluence of several otherwise always-competent practitioners, from its production company to its director, writer, and lead performer, but the entire enterprise is literally held together by its always-impressive editor, the late Ike Jarlego Jr. During a year when critics were divided between two arthouse samples and wondered what either seemed to have missed, the modest charms and unpretentious skills display of Pepeng Shotgun has endured more satisfyingly because it had the answer: a connection with its audience.
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Tinik
English Translation: Thorn
Year of Release: 2013
Director: Romy Suzara [as Romy V. Suzara]
Screenwriter: Raymond Diamzon
(“Based on a story by Romy V. Suzara & Jose Carreon, and screenplay by Emmanuel H. Borlaza” per closing credits)
Producers: Red Sun Production & Film Development Council of the Philippines
Cast: Ricardo Cepeda, Lemuel Pelayo, Alexis Navarro, Bembol Roco, Lance Raymundo, Angeli Bayani, Menggie Cobarrubias, Le Chazz, Afi Africa, Antonette Garcia, Terence Baylon, Francis Rex, Jeremy Ian, Ahwel Paz, Cholo Teja, Rrnelle Delgado, Esrom Ferrero, Ma. Lourdes I. Grulla, Arman Vargas Saquido, Ruby Flores, Khen F. Aldovino, Ace Castro, Anna Mayer Piton, Clarenz Dann Toovey A. Dacumos, Ma. Danzhiela Teeney A. Dacumos, Leidee Ramos, Anthony Alfonso, Roberto Balicas, Roger Velilla, Rene Maglinte, Victor Taniegra, Gelmore Hydia, Esrom Ferrer, Jasper Santos, Bryan Geollegue, Aldren Sorima, Raymond Diamzon
After Mike’s partner is killed in trying to protect him from a homophobic attack, he vows to focus on his fashion-design activities. While jogging with friends, he notices Danny, a young man coaching some basketball players. Mike takes charge of sponsoring the neighborhood game of Danny’s team, which results in Danny’s estranged father reconciling with his son. Although acknowledging Danny’s heterosexual preference, he hires the young man as his live-in driver and finances his return to school. He also coaches his star model, Alexis, even while being aware that she lives with an elderly sugar daddy. Although Danny initiates sex with Mike, he finds himself drawn to Alexis and explains to Mike that he aspires toward a conventional family with kids. When Alexis’s benefactor leaves for a foreign trip, Mike tips off another of her admirers so he could pay her a visit. The admirer’s visit results in violent complications that wind up involving Danny.
One might have to approach Tinik with the standard caution reserved for queer texts made by straight folk, although the time may yet arrive when the equivalent license granted feminist discourse—that nonwomen can participate and even excel in it—might not be long in coming, if Philippine (and global) culture continues being fortunate. What will of course remain mostly inaccessible will be the depiction of the internal dynamics at play in nonnormative desire, which is why the outstanding samples of queer films by straight men (e.g. Paul Verhoeven’s The Fourth Man, 1983, or Ōshima Nagisa’s Taboo, 1999) don’t even try, and instead use the opportunity of utilizing so-called perverse sexuality as a means of shedding light on Otherness. The equivalent local sample would be Celso Ad. Castillo’s Totoy Boogie (1980, the full title actually incorporating the filmmaker’s name), although the box-office disappointment of that entry, followed by underachievements by genre filmmakers, trained critical attention on “authentic” queer films by queer directors; one must also stress that this observation applies to gay-male films, rather than lesbian-themed works, made by straight-male Filipinos, since women and gay-male directors generally have a better run in tackling concerns over genders and sexualities. Tinik does not aspire to metonymic commentary and confines itself to the expected humanist pleas for tolerance and understanding. But Romy Suzara was completing a decades-long career as a commercially successful practitioner, and applies his considerable accumulation of skills, plus empathy for the queer personalities who populate movie circles, in devising an impassioned and class-conscious drama centered on a successful fashion designer and the earnest and still-maturing out-of-school youth he falls for. He already knew from familiarity with noir material not to rely on virtue signaling and provides both lover and object with problematic decisions, with the poignancy of their final image of togetherness representing an ironic though well-earned triumph all its own.
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