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Chronological information drawn from the now-defunct Singapore Film Locations Archive website:
1955 – Elephant Girl (Gadis Liar), dir. Eddy [sic] Infante, prod. Shaws & Malay Film Productions.
1957 – Kembali Saorang (One Came Back), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1957 – Taufan (Typhoon), dir. T[eodorico] C. Santos, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1958 – Anak Pontianak (Son of Pontianak), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1958 – Azimat (The Seal of Solomon), dir. Rolf Bayer, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1958 – Sergeant Hassan, dir. Lamberto Avellana, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1958 – Mata Hari (The Rape of Malaya), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1958 – “Singapore” segment of Obra Maestra, dir. Efren Reyes, prod. People’s Pictures.
1959 – Samseng (Gangster), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1959 – Saudagar Minyak Urat (Love Crazy), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1959 – Black Gold, dir. Rolf Bayer, prod. Shaw Brothers.
1963 – Raja Bersiong (King of Dracula), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Cathay-Keris.
1963 – Darah-Ku (My Blood), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Maria Menado Productions & Cathay-Keris.
1963 – Bunga Tanjong (Cape of Flowers), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Maria Menado Productions & Cathay-Keris.
1964 – Pontianak Kembali (The Pontianak Returns), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Maria Menado Productions & Cathay-Keris.
1964 – Melanchong ka-Tokyo (Holiday in Tokyo), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1964 – Dupa Chendana (The Enchanted Island), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
1965 – Pusaka Pontianak (The Accursed Heritage), dir. Ramon Estella, prod. Malay Film Productions.
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Text originally posted on Facebook on March 22, 2025:
The most tiresome and pricey viewing project I’ve set for myself (part of a years-long canon-revaluation project) is also the most rewarding: the Malay-language films made by Philippine directors. The reasons why Sir Run Run Shaw set out to recruit several accomplished local talents ought to be a separate account in itself, starting with how he wound up from Shanghai to Hong Kong to Singapore and then-Malaya. But what really concerns us here is the fact that almost all the films were preserved and are now stored at the Asian Film Archive. When it was still the Singapore Film Archive, it had a YouTube channel, which was how Teddy Co alerted me to their availability.
11011I did manage to save everything that they posted, but only two of them had English subtitles: one by Bert Avellana was noteworthy enough, though the more ambitious effort by his occasional scriptwriter, Rolf Bayer, was for the most part dismissible. An entry by Teodorico Santos, who wrote Sisa and Sawa sa Lumang Simboryo for Gerry de Leon, was accomplished enough and exists in the irony that nearly the rest of the Santos films, all made in the Philippines, are lost. Another significant matter is that information uploaded on the Internet Movie Database may be either incomplete or in significant error, whereas the SFA’s extensive holdings serve to affirm the correctness of their data.
11011Teddy said to pay special attention to the Ramon Estella entries, so I saved those for last, and he’s right. I’ve got only three more to complete my coverage, and he occasionally surpassed his kabayans, placing most of his work on the level of still-to-be-discovered masterpieces by Pinas film observers. Even more impressive is the fact that he worked superhumanly fast, completing his first entry in much less than a month, and had no trouble with any kind of genre assignment – even if in Pinas he became known for controversies with left-leaning material before he left for overseas work. No wonder Shaw prevailed on him to make more movies after his amazing debut, including a few contributions to the much-coveted pontyanak (horror) franchise.
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11011Initially I was planning on scouting for Malay speakers and asking them to translate for me. But then came AI and with it, a proliferation of textual services. I made the early mistake of looking for the least expensive transcription service and got ripped off; the credit company disabled overseas payments but I couldn’t renew my card until I got my visa back from immigration (I’d petitioned for a new status, is why).
11011This time I picked out a service that evaluators recommended, and got rewarded with far better and more comprehensive textual material. Free online translation services abound so I got the files changed (Malay to English), but that introduced a few problems, primarily because our language families tend to be gender-neutral. Fortunately, even with the earlier service, inadequate titling worked out because the languages are similar enough; several Malay words resemble those of our languages. It just slowed down my initial viewing, since I had to constantly refer to the subs to correct them.
11011The culture of reserve is understandably more pronounced among our neighbors, so Filipinos had the advantage of setting up provocative situations and responses. My fave among the Estellas is Saudagar Minyak Urat (1959), which is creditable enough to match my best memories of the now-lost Manuel Conde movies. The fact that he was also an accomplished painter and musician accounts for a significant part of his abilities, but for sure there’s a whole lot more in his bio to uncover. Make room then for two severely neglected names in our pantheon – Yoyong Fernandez (who has enough available product to convince anyone willing to watch, courtesy of LVN stalwart Mike De Leon) and now the completely overlooked Ramon Estella.
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Addendum – The obituary note on Teddy Co posted on the Ámauteurish! blog on November 1, 2023, after which I dedicated the Canon Decampment entry on Ramon A. Estella to him:
Teddy Co is a name you’ll encounter at unusual junctures in my writing. Whenever we touched base, he’d proffer some essential info about an article or book I just published or on a topic I’d been looking up. We were acquaintances since freshman year at the national university, but I knew we shared a significant interest when we found ourselves enrolled in a film subject, years before our institute (later a college) offered its own program. He and his Chinoy batch mates entertained the rest of the class by making fun of the teacher’s artsy pretensions – something I’ll always remember about him, this willingness to laugh at sacred cows. During a serious moment, when we asked said teacher when the university would be making a full program available, she responded by saying that she didn’t believe just anyone should be able to study the field. Only the best ones she could find would be rewarded by her with scholarships to France. So when a program did become available, offered by a rival unit, and she kept insisting that only she had the right to offer it, you can imagine what Teddy had to say about that.
11011Teddy was one of those “difficult” friends from whom you might have to keep some distance, especially when your differences in ideologies or career choices prove irresolvable. But as if to make up for his absence, he’d provide some unusual collectible, stamped with his brand of impish humor. Along the way, you’d learn about how he’d been cultivating options in some neglected area of film practice – disappointing some other people you’d wish he’d been more considerate in handling. Then again he was always busy, juggling several concerns at any given time, and always on the mark about his participation in each one of them.
11011During our last extensive face to face, he mentioned two legacy projects he was working on, and right at that moment I knew no one else could pull it off like he could. One would have been an online website of the entire Filipino filmography, eliminating the necessity for the Western-favoring Internet Movie Database; the other would have been his memoir, an even greater contribution to world film lore, had he been able to complete it. But he moved too fast, even in his illness, where again I had to keep my peace when he made clear to me a few years ago that he intended to seek alt-medical cures. His last message mentioned how he realized I was the one friend he had the longest. That may be so, but I would have been a better one if I’d picked another round of our epic quarrels to argue about his treatment. He’s one of the very few who leave unfillable gaps when they go.
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