Click here to return to the book’s landing page. To read the links below in desktop mode (recommended), click here. Titles (312 so far, from 131 directorial entries), if numbered and linked by ampersands (“&”), are sufficiently related and will thereby share the same singular review in their respective descriptions and synopses.

Click on the following to navigate more quickly through the list: B; C; D; E; F; G; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; Q; R; S; T; V; Z.

Abaya, Matthew: Vampariah, 2016.

Abe Yutaka – see de Leon, Gerardo, & Abe Yutaka.

Abrahan, Giancarlo: Dagitab, 2014; Sila-Sila, 2019.

Acedillo, Vic Jr.: Ang Nerseri, 2009.

Aguiluz, Tikoy: Boatman, 1985; Segurista, 1995; Biyaheng Langit, 2000.

Alix, Adolfo Jr.: Tambolista [as Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.], 2007; Imoral [as Adolfo B. Alix Jr.], 2008; Isda, 2011; Porno [as Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.], 2013; Madilim ang Gabi [as Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.], 2017.

Altarejos, Joselito: Ang Lihim ni Antonio, 2008; Unfriend [as J Altarejos], 2014; Jino to Mari, 2019.

Aunor, Nora: Greatest Performance [as Guy; unfinished], 1989.

Avellana, Lamberto V.: Anak Dalita, 1956; Sarjan Hassan, 1958; Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, 1965; The Evil Within, 1970.

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Barbarona, Arnel: Tu Pug Imatuy, 2017.

Bayani, Ruel S.: No Other Woman [as Ruel Santos Bayani], 2011.

Bernal, Ishmael: Pagdating sa Dulo, 1971; Lumapit … Lumayo ang Umaga, 1975; Ligaw na Bulaklak, 1976; Nunal sa Tubig, 1976; Nonoy Marcelo’s Tisoy!, 1977; Ikaw Ay Akin, 1978; Salawahan, 1979; Aliw, 1979; Manila by Night, 1980; Pabling, 1981; 1) Relasyon, 1982 & 2) Broken Marriage, 1983; Himala, 1982; Working Girls, 1984; Hinugot sa Langit, 1985.

Bernal, Joyce: 1) Booba [as Binibining Joyce Bernal], 2001 & 2) Masikip sa Dibdib: The Boobita Rose Story [as Binibining Joyce Bernal], 2004; Kimmy Dora: Kambal sa Kiyeme [as Binibining Joyce Bernal], 2009.

Bernardo, Sigrid Andrea: Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita (Anita’s Last Cha-Cha) [as Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo], 2013; Lorna [as Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo], 2014; UnTrue [as Sigrid Andrea P. Bernardo], 2019.

Borlaza, Emmanuel H.: 1) Bukas Luluhod ang mga Tala, 1984; 2) Bituing Walang Ningning, 1985; Stolen Moments, 1987.

Brocka, Lino: Tubog sa Ginto, 1970; Stardoom, 1971; Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang, 1974; Maynila: Sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag, 1975; Insiang, 1976; Jaguar, 1979; Bona, 1980; Cain at Abel, 1982; 1) Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim, 1984 & 2) Orapronobis, 1989; Miguelito: Batang Rebelde, 1985; Babangon Ako’t Dudurugin Kita, 1989; Hahamakin Lahat, 1990; Gumapang Ka sa Lusak, 1990.

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Cabreira, Junn P.: Beloy Montemayor Jr.: Tirador ng Cebu, 1993.

Castillo, Celso Ad.: Asedillo, 1971; Daluyong at Habagat, 1976; Burlesk Queen, 1977; Celso Ad. Castillo’s Totoy Boogie, 1980; Uhaw na Dagat, 1981; Paradise Inn, 1985.

Castro, Jade: Zombadings 1: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington, 2011; LSS, 2019.

Cayado, Tony: Mga Ligaw na Bulaklak, 1957.

Chionglo, Mel: Playgirl, 1981; Sinner or Saint, 1984; 1) Nasaan Ka Nang Kailangan Kita, 1986 & 2) Paano Kung Wala Ka Na, 1987; Babaing Hampaslupa, 1988; Developing Stories: Lucia, 1992; 1) Sibak: Midnight Dancers, 1994 & 2) Burlesk King, 1999 & 3) Twilight Dancers, 2006; Iadya Mo Kami, 2016.

Chui Chung-San, Alan, & Yuen Bun: Mabangis na Lungsod, 1995.

Conde, Conrado: Talipandas, 1958.

Conde, Manuel: Genghis Khan [credited to Lou Salvador], 1950.

Cruz-Alviar, Mae: Bride for Rent [as Mae Czarina Cruz], 2014.

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Dayao, Dodo: Midnight in a Perfect World, 2020.

Dayoc, Sheron R.: Halaw, 2010.

de Castro, Eduardo: Zamboanga: A Fanciful Tale of Moro Sea Gypsies, 1937.

de Guia, Eric – see Tahimik, Kidlat.

de Guzman, Susana C.: Lupang Pangako [incomplete], 1949.

dela Cruz, Abbo Q.: Hubad na Pangarap, 1987.

Dela Cruz, Emmanuel: Sarong Banggi, 2005.

de Leon, Gerardo: Sisa, 1951; Dyesebel, 1953; Pedro Penduko, 1954; Sanda Wong, 1955; Terror Is a Man [as Gerry de Leon], 1959; The Moises Padilla Story, 1961; El Filibusterismo, 1962; Women in Cages [as Gerry de Leon], 1971.

de Leon, Gerardo, & Abe Yutaka: Dawn of Freedom, 1944.

De Leon, Mike: Itim, 1976; Kakabakaba Ka Ba?, 1980; 1) Kisapmata, 1981 & 2) Batch ’81, 1982; Sister Stella L., 1984; Bilanggo sa Dilim, 1986; Bayaning 3rd World, 1999.

Deligero, Keith: Iskalawags, 2013; Lily, 2016; A Short History of a Few Bad Things, 2018.

de los Reyes, Maryo J.: Schoolgirls, 1982; Diosa, 1982; Bagets, 1984; Kaya Kong Abutin ang Langit, 1984; Anak ni Waray vs. Anak ni Biday, 1984; Dinampot Ka Lang sa Putik, 1988; Magnifico, 2003.

del Rosario, Joey: Kahit Pader Gigibain Ko, 1998.

Deramas, Wenn V.: Ang Tanging Ina, 2003.

Diaz, Lav: Hesus, Rebolusyunaryo, 2002; Florentina Hubaldo, CTE, 2012; Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan, 2013.

Diaz-Abaya, Marilou: 1) Brutal, 1980 & 2) Moral, 1982; Karnal, 1983; Sensual, 1986; May Nagmamahal sa Iyo, 1996; Milagros, 1997.

Dulay, Zig Madamba: Bambanti, 2015.

Dulu, Dolly: The Boy Foretold by the Stars, 2020.

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Espia, Hannah: Transit, 2013.

Esteban, Tata: Alapaap, 1984.

Estella, Ramon A.: Kembali Saorang, 1957; Samseng, 1959; Saudagar Minyak Urat, 1959; Pusaka Pontianak, 1965.

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Fajardo, Lawrence: Amok, 2011; Posas, 2012; The Strangers, 2012; Imbisibol, 2015.

Fernandez, Gregorio: Kontrabando, 1950; Prinsipe Teñoso, 1954; 1) Higit sa Lahat [as Dr. Gregorio Fernandez], 1955 & 2) Luksang Tagumpay [incomplete], 1956; Hukom Roldan [as Dr. Gregorio Fernandez], 1957; Malvarosa [as Dr. Gregorio Fernandez], 1958.

Fiola, Bagane: Baboy Halas: Wailings in the Forest, 2016.

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Gallaga, Peque: Oro, Plata, Mata, 1982; Virgin Forest, 1985; Scorpio Nights, 1985.

Gallaga, Peque, & Lore Reyes: 1) Tiyanak [as Lorenzo A. Reyes], 1988 & 2) Aswang, 1992; Sonata, 2013.

Gallardo, Cesar: Geron Busabos: Ang Batang Quiapo, 1964.

Garces, Armando: Sino ang Maysala?, 1957.

Garcia, Eddie: Saan Nagtatago ang Pag-Ibig?, 1987.

Garcia-Molina, Cathy – see Garcia-Sampana, Cathy.

Garcia-Sampana, Cathy: One More Chance [as Cathy Garcia-Molina], 2007.

Gosiengfiao, Joey: La Paloma, 1974; Underage, 1980.

Guillen, Laurice: Kasal?, 1980; Salome, 1981; Init sa Magdamag, 1983; Kung Mahawi Man ang Ulap, 1984; Sumayaw Ka Salome, 1992; Dahil Mahal Kita: The Dolzura Cortez Story, 1993.

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Ignacio, Louie: Area [as Luisito Lagdameo Ignacio], 2016.

Illenberger, Tara: Brutus, ang Paglalakbay, 2008; High Tide [as Tara Barrera Illenberger], 2017.

Intalan, Perci M.: Dementia, 2014.

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Jadaone, Antoinette: That Thing Called Tadhana, 2014.

Jamora, Marie: Ang Nawawala, 2012.

Jarlego, Ike Jr.: Tigasin, 1999.

Jeturian, Jeffrey: Pila-Balde, 1999; Tuhog, 2001; 1) Bridal Shower, 2004 & 2) Minsan Pa, 2004; Kubrador, 2006; Ekstra, 2013.

Jover, Ralston: 1) Da Dog Show [as Ralston G. Jover], 2015 & 2) Hamog [as Ralston G. Jover], 2015; Rene Villanueva’s Hiblang Abo [as Ralston G. Jover], 2016; Bomba [as Ralston Gonzales Jover], 2017; Latay (Battered Husband) [as Ralston Gonzales Jover], 2019.

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Kayko, Sixto – see Roño, Chito S.

Khavn: 1) Ang Pamilyang Kumakain ng Lupa, 2005 & 2) Ang Napakaigsing Buhay ng Alipato, 2016; Pusong Wazak: Isa Na Namang Kwento ng Pag-ibig sa Pagitan ng Kriminal at Puta, 2014; Desaparadiso: Corrido at Buhay na Pinagdaanan nang Tatlong Principeng Magcacapatid na Anac nang Haring Fernando at nang Reina Valeriana sa Cahariang Berbania, 2015; Balangiga: Howling Wilderness, 2017.

Kim Bong-han: The Golden Holiday, 2020.

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Lamangan, Joel: Hubog [as Joel C. Lamangan], 2001; Walang Kawala [as Joel C. Lamangan], 2008; Burgos, 2013.

Lamasan, Olivia M.: Minsan, Minahal Kita, 2000; Milan, 2004.

Lana, Jun Robles: Die Beautiful, 2016.

Lao, Armando: Biyaheng Lupa, 2009.

Laxamana, Jason Paul: The Day After Valentine’s, 2018.

Lerner, Irving: Cry of Battle, 1963.

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Mambo, Rico – see dela Cruz, Abbo Q.

Marcos, Pepe: Tubusin Mo ng Dugo, 1988.

Mardoquio, Arnel: Ang Paglalakbay ng mga Bituin sa Gabing Madilim, 2012.

Marquez, Artemio: The Untold Story of Melanie Marquez, 1987; Sa Puso Ko Hahalik ang Mundo, 1988.

Martin, Raya: Independencia, 2009.

Martinez, Chris: Here Comes the Bride, 2010.

Matti, Erik: On the Job, 2013.

Meily, Mark: Crying Ladies, 2003.

Mendoza, Brillante: 1) Foster Child, 2007 & 2) Tirador, 2007; Serbis [as Brillante Ma. Mendoza], 2008; Lola [as Brillante Ma. Mendoza], 2009; Ma’ Rosa, 2016.

Miike Takashi: The Guys from Paradise, 2000.

Milan, Willy, & Fernando Poe Jr. – see Poe, Fernando Jr., & Willy Milan.

Monteras, Treb II: Respeto, 2017.

Montgomery, George: Samar, 1962.

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Natividad, Toto: Totoy Guwapo: Alyas Kanto Boy, 1992; Amang Capulong: Anak ng Tondo, Part II, 1992; Ka Hector, 1994; Wangbu, 1998; Notoryus, 1998; 1) Double Barrel (Sige! Iputok Mo.), 2017 & 2) Riding in Tandem, 2017.

Navoa, J. Erastheo: Totoy Buang: Mad Killer ng Maynila, 1992.

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O’Hara, Mario: Tatlong Taóng Walang Diyos, 1976; 1) Condemned, 1984 & 2) Bulaklak sa City Jail, 1984; Bagong Hari, 1986; Pangarap ng Puso, 2000; Babae sa Breakwater, 2003.

Ongkeko-Marfil, Ellen: Boses, 2008; Indigo Child, 2016.

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Palisoc, King: Tandem, 2015.

Paolo, Steve – see Esteban, Tata.

Parungao, Monti: 1) Bayaw [as Monti Puno Parungao], 2009; 2) The Escort [as Monti Puno Parungao], 2011.

Pascual, William: Takaw Tukso, 1986.

Pasion, Francis Xavier: Jay, 2008.

Perez, Elwood: Silip, 1985; Bilangin ang Bituin sa Langit, 1989; Ang Totoong Buhay ni Pacita M., 1991; Otso, 2013.

Perez, Roman Jr.: Sol Searching, 2018.

Poe, Fernando Jr.: 1) Ang Panday [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 1980 & 2) Pagbabalik ng Panday [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 1981 & 3) Ang Panday: Ikatlong Yugto [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 1982 & 4) Ang Panday IV [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 1984; Ang Maestro [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 1981; Ang Dalubhasa [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 2000.

Poe, Fernando Jr., & Willy Milan: Kahit Butas ng Karayom … Papasukin Ko [as Ronwaldo Reyes & Wilfredo “Willy” Milan], 1995.

Poe, Fernando Jr., & Augusto Salvador: Eseng ng Tondo [as Ronwaldo Reyes], 1997.

Portes, Gil: Gabi Kung Sumikat ang Araw [as Gil M. Portes], 1983; ’Merika [as Gil M. Portes], 1984; Bukas … May Pangarap [as Gil M. Portes], 1984.

Posadas, Francis: Amanos: Patas ang Laban [as Francis “Jun” Posadas], 1997; ’Di Puwedeng Hindi Puwede! [as Francis “Jun” Posadas], 1999.

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Quintos, Rory B.: Kailangan Kita, 2002.

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Raquiza, Jun: Krimen: Kayo ang Humatol, 1974.

Red, Jon: Still Lives, 1999.

Red, Mikhail: 1) Birdshot, 2016 & 2) Neomanila, 2017.

Relucio, Brandon, & Ivan Zaldarriaga: Di Ingon ’Nato, 2011.

Reyes, Efren: Ang Daigdig Ko’y Ikaw, 1965.

Reyes, Jose Javier: Minsan May Isang Puso, 2001; Kung Ako Na Lang Sana, 2003.

Reyes, Lore – see Gallaga, Peque, & Lore Reyes.

Reyes, Ronwaldo – see Poe, Fernando Jr.

Richardson, George – see Suarez, Bobby A.

Rivera, Marlon N.: Ang Babae sa Septic Tank, 2011.

Romero, Eddie: The Passionate Strangers, 1966; Savage Sisters, 1974; Ganito Kami Noon … Paano Kayo Ngayon?, 1976; Banta ng Kahapon, 1977.

Roño, Chito S.: 1) Private Show [as Sixto Kayko], 1984 & 2) Curacha: Ang Babaeng Walang Pahinga, 1998; 1) Itanong Mo sa Buwan, 1988 & 2) La Vida Rosa, 2001; Bakit Kay Tagal ng Sandali?, 1990; Alyas Stella Magtanggol, 1992; Bata Bata Paano Ka Ginawa?, 1998; Caregiver, 2008; Signal Rock, 2018.

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Salvador, Augusto: Ikasa Mo … Ipuputok Ko, 1990; Masahol Pa sa Hayop, 1993.

Salvador, Augusto, & Fernando Poe Jr. – see Poe, Fernando Jr., & Augusto Salvador.

Salvador, Leroy: Badlis sa Kinabuhi, 1968; Beloved, 1985.

Salvador, Lou – see Conde, Manuel.

Sanchez, Sherad Anthony: Huling Balyan ng Buhi o ang Sinalirap nga Asoy Nila, 2006; Jungle Love, 2012.

Santiago, Pablo: Amado Pagsanjan’s Asiong Salonga, 1961; 1) Pepeng Kaliwete, 1982 & 2) Annie Sabungera, 1982.

Santos, Teodorico C.: Taufan [as T.C. Santos], 1957.

Sayles, John: Amigo, 2010.

Siguion-Reyna, Carlos: 1) Hihintayin Kita sa Langit, 1991 & 2) Ikaw Pa Lang ang Minahal, 1992; Ang Lalake sa Buhay ni Selya, 1997; Tatlo … Magkasalo, 1998.

Silos, Manuel: Biyaya ng Lupa, 1959.

Solito, Auraeus: Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, 2005.

Somes, Richard V.: Yanggaw, 2008.

Suarez, Bobby A.: They Call Her … Cleopatra Wong [as George Richardson], 1978; Red Roses for a Call Girl, 1988.

Suzara, Romy: Pepeng Shotgun, 1981; Tinik, 2013.

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Tahimik, Kidlat: Mababangong Bangungot, 1977.

Tarog, Jerrold: Heneral Luna, 2015.

Topacio, Soxy: Ded Na si Lolo [as Soxie Hernandez Topacio], 2009.

Torres, Mar S.: Jack en Jill, 1954.

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Vander Tolosa, Carlos: Giliw Ko, 1939.

Velasco, Veronica: Nuuk [as Veronica B. Velasco], 2019.

Villaluna, Paolo: Pauwi Na, 2016.

Villamor, Irene: Meet Me in St. Gallen, 2018; Ulan, 2019; On Vodka, Beers, and Regrets, 2020.

Villegas, Dan: Hintayan ng Langit, 2018.

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Zaldarriaga, Ivan – see Relucio, Brandon, & Ivan Zaldarriaga.

Zapata, Dominic: Boy Pick-Up: The Movie, 2012.

Zialcita, Danny L.: T-Bird at Ako, 1982; Palabra de Honor, 1983.

Zuasola, Remton Siega: Ang Damgo ni Eleuteria, 2010.

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Original Digital Edition (2023)
Cover design by Paolo Miguel G. Tiausas
“Bomba” © 2019 by Mina Saha
[Click on pic to enlarge]

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The textual contents on this page, although still under development, have been embargoed. Please await the forthcoming PDF file. Thank you for your interest.

National Library of the Philippines CIP Data

David, Joel.
11011Canon Decampment / Joel David. — Original Digital Edition. — Quezon City : Amauteurish Publishing, [2023], © 2023.
11011146+x pages ; 15×23 cm

11011ISBN 978-621-96191-8-9 (pdf)

110111. Motion pictures — Criticism and interpretation — Philippines. 2. Motion pictures — Philippines. 3. Film criticism. I. Title.

791.4375111111011PN1995.67.P51111110112023111111011P320230298

US Copyright Office Certificate of Registration:
TXu 2-402-907
“Canon Fire!” and mini-reviews
separately registered as TXu 2-054-744

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Contents
© 2025 by Amauteurish Publishing &
College of Social Sciences, Inha University
All Rights Reserved

Introduction

Canon Munitions: From the Beginning to 2020
Note: This list is ordered chronologically according to premiere or initial release date, each of these 130 entries followed by the inclusive years of the directors’ selected films as well as by the total number of selected titles. For an alphabetical arrangement of directors, including each entry’s film(s) and year(s) of release, click here. Not all commentaries and synopses are complete as of this time.

Eduardo de Castro (1937: 1 title)
Carlos Vander Tolosa (1939: 1 title)
Gerardo de Leon & Abe Yutaka (1944: 1 title)
Gerardo de Leon (1951-71: 8 titles)
Susana C. de Guzman (1949: 1 title)
Gregorio Fernandez (1950-58: 6 titles)
Manuel Conde (1950: 1 title)
Mar S. Torres (1954: 1 title)
Lamberto V. Avellana (1956-70: 4 titles)
Tony Cayado (1957: 1 title)

Armando Garces (1957: 1 title)
Ramon A. Estella (1957-65: 4 titles)
Teodorico C. Santos (1957: 1 title)
Conrado Conde (1958: 1 title)
Manuel Silos (1959: 1 title)
Pablo Santiago (1961-82: 3 titles)
George Montgomery (1962: 1 title)
Irving Lerner (1963: 1 title)
Cesar Gallardo (1964: 1 title)
Efren Reyes (1965: 1 title)

Eddie Romero (1966-77: 4 titles)
Leroy Salvador (1968-85: 2 titles)
Lino Brocka (1970-90: 14 titles)
Celso Ad. Castillo (1971-86: 6 titles)
Ishmael Bernal (1971-85: 15 titles)
Jun Raquiza (1974: 1 title)
Joey Gosiengfiao (1974-80: 2 titles)
Mike De Leon (1976-99: 7 titles)
Mario O’Hara (1976-2003: 6 titles)
Kidlat Tahimik (1977: 1 title)

Bobby A. Suarez (1978-88: 2 titles)
Laurice Guillen (1980-93: 6 titles)
Marilou Diaz-Abaya (1980-97: 6 titles)
Fernando Poe Jr. (1980-2000: 6 titles)
Fernando Poe Jr. & Willy Milan (1995: 1 title)
Fernando Poe Jr. & Augusto Salvador (1997: 1 title)
Mel Chionglo (1981-2016: 10 titles)
Romy Suzara (1981-2013: 2 titles)
Peque Gallaga (1982-85: 3 titles)
Peque Gallaga & Lore Reyes (1988-2013: 3 titles)

Maryo J. de los Reyes (1982-2003: 7 titles)
Danny L. Zialcita (1982-83: 2 titles)
Gil Portes (1983-84: 3 titles)
Emmanuel H. Borlaza (1984-87: 3 titles)
Tata Esteban (1984: 1 title)
Chito S. Roño (1984-2018: 9 titles)
Elwood Perez (1985-2013: 4 titles)
Tikoy Aguiluz (1985-2000: 3 titles)
William Pascual (1986: 1 title)
Abbo Q. dela Cruz (1987: 1 title)

Eddie Garcia (1987: 1 title)
Artemio Marquez (1987-88: 2 titles)
Pepe Marcos (1988: 1 title)
Nora Aunor (1989: 1 title)
Augusto Salvador (1990-93: 2 titles)
Carlos Siguion-Reyna (1991-98: 4 titles)
Toto Natividad (1992-2017: 7 titles)
J. Erastheo Navoa (1992: 1 title)
Junn P. Cabreira (1993: 1 title)
Alan Chui Chung-San & Yuen Bun (1995: 1 title)

Francis Posadas (1997-99: 2 titles)
Joey del Rosario (1998: 1 title)
Jeffrey Jeturian (1999-2013: 6 titles)
Ike Jarlego Jr. (1999: 1 title)
Jon Red (1999: 1 title)
Miike Takashi (2000: 1 title)
Olivia M. Lamasan (2000-04: 2 titles)
Joyce Bernal (2001-09: 3 titles)
Jose Javier Reyes (2001-03: 2 titles)
Joel Lamangan (2001-13: 3 titles)
Lav Diaz (2002-13: 3 titles)

Rory B. Quintos (2002: 1 title)
Wenn V. Deramas (2003: 1 title)
Mark Meily (2003: 1 title)
Khavn (2016-17: 5 titles)
Auraeus Solito (2005: 1 title)
Emmanuel Dela Cruz (2005: 1 title)
Sherad Anthony Sanchez (2006-12: 2 titles)
Brillante Mendoza (2007-16: 5 titles)
Cathy Garcia-Sampana (2007: 1 title)
Adolfo Alix Jr. (2007-17: 5 titles)

Joselito Altarejos (2008-19: 3 titles)
Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil (2008-16: 2 titles)
Francis Xavier Pasion (2008: 1 title)
Tara Illenberger (2008-17: 2 titles)
Richard V. Somes (2008: 1 title)
Soxy Topacio (2009: 1 title)
Raya Martin (2009: 1 title)
Vic Acedillo Jr. (2009: 1 title)
Monti Parungao (2009-11: 2 titles)
Armando Lao (2009: 1 title)

Chris Martinez (2010: 1 title)
John Sayles (2010: 1 title)
Sheron R. Dayoc (2010: 1 title)
Remton Siega Zuasola (2010: 1 title)
Lawrence Fajardo (2011-15: 4 titles)
Marlon N. Rivera (2011: 1 title)
Jade Castro (2011-19: 2 titles)
Ruel S. Bayani (2011: 1 title)
Brandon Relucio & Ivan Zaldarriaga (2011: 1 title)
Dominic Zapata (2012: 1 title)

Marie Jamora (2012: 1 title)
Arnel Mardoquio (2012: 1 title)
Erik Matti (2013: 1 title)
Hannah Espia (2013: 1 title)
Sigrid Andrea Bernardo (2013-19: 3 titles)
Keith Deligero (2013-18: 3 titles)
Mae Cruz-Alviar (2014: 1 title)
Giancarlo Abrahan (2014-19: 2 titles)
Perci M. Intalan (2014: 1 title)
Antoinette Jadaone (2014: 1 title)

Zig Madamba Dulay (2015: 1 title)
Ralston Jover (2015-19: 5 titles)
King Palisoc (2015: 1 title)
Jerrold Tarog (2015: 1 title)
Matthew Abaya (2016: 1 title)
Paolo Villaluna (2016: 1 title)
Louie Ignacio (2016: 1 title)
Bagane Fiola (2016: 1 title)
Jun Robles Lana (2016: 1 title)
Mikhail Red (2016-17: 2 titles)

Arnel Barbarona (2017: 1 title)
Treb Monteras II (2017: 1 title)
Irene Villamor (2018-20: 3 titles)
Jason Paul Laxamana (2018: 1 title)
Roman Perez Jr. (2018: 1 title)
Dan Villegas (2018: 1 title)
Veronica Velasco (2019: 1 title)
Kim Bong-han (2020: 1 title)
Dodo Dayao (2020: 1 title)
Dolly Dulu (2020: 1 title)

Conclusion

Index

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Di Ingon ’Nato

English Title: Not Like Us
Language: Cebuano
Year of Release: 2011
Directors & Screenwriters: Brandon Relucio & Ivan Zaldarriaga
Producer: Cinema One Originals

Cast: Rez Cortez, Franco Reyes, Mercedes Cabral, Donna Gimeno, Jeffrey Ogario, Gabriel Jon Abanto, Gregg Tecson, Marlon Hofer, Bernard Catindig, Aya Ng, Nathaniel Rubio, Cara Muaña Rosende, Ria Araneta, Lito Cardeño, Daday Melgar, Joe Monteño, Ligaya Rabago, Vingenr Tan, Lord Padua, Diane, Mata, Rita Sabal, Ronyel Compra, Dodong, Fatima Padua, Aurora Pacure

Lauro, the captain of a remote barangay or village in Cebu Province, is alerted by some of his constituents to a deadly infectious outbreak, tracked from mysterious instances of residents or outsiders getting killed in apparently violent ways. His daughter, who works as medic in the barangay health center, is able to determine that the diseased return to life after they die and acquire a hankering for human flesh. A priest and a pagan healer contend in having the right explanation (and consequent solution) for the phenomenon, but their use of magic doesn’t stop the illness from spreading. In a parallel development, Istoy, a farmer, sees one such hacked-up body. When his wife is attacked by a neighbor, he uses his bolo to kill the assailant. His wife worries that he committed a crime, but he becomes more anxious when her condition rapidly deteriorates.

The zombie-apocalypse subgenre is so overfamiliar that one could already predict how its elements of contagion and consequent social breakdown could function in any sample. But Di Ingon ’Nato’s impoverished agricultural context provides a resonance that compatriots and invaders alike might do well to learn from: “Filipino farmers hacking the undead,” as co-director Ivan Zaldarriega half-jokingly stated in a journal interview with genre specialist Andrew Leavold. Beyond the admittedly distressing representation of the repressed, historical incidents after the film’s release added retrospective value on stations both national (the practice of extrajudicial killings during the authoritarian regime of a Visayan President) and international (the intensification of the global Covid-19 pandemic). A narrative that turns on unstoppable contagion that results in widespread and arbitrary casualties would be hampered by severely constricted budgetary resources, a problem that Di Ingon ’Nato, alongside countless other indie productions, confronted. The filmmakers atypically resolved this quandary by taking advantage of their limitations: minimizing the casting of professional performers, shooting in remote locales, apportioning the use of gore in judiciously effective closeups, furnishing sound effects for subtle and well-timed blasts. Along with a few careful strokes at character development, the effect curiously results in an embrace of the monstrous—more pronounced than in the usual zombie-apocalypse outing. With the possibly permanent loss of what may be Philippine cinema’s supreme zombie film, Celso Ad. Castillo’s Kung Bakit Dugo ang Kulay ng Gabi (Night of the Zombies, 1973), Di Ingon ’Nato compensates satisfactorily enough; the fact that both are set in rural locales, as are several other horror entries in this list, could have made for productive analysis if the Castillo film could be recovered and considered as the others’ predecessor.

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Tambolista

English Translation: Drummer
English Title: Drumbeat
Year of Release: 2007 / B & W
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr. [as Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.]
Screenwriter: Ave Regina S. Tayag
Producers: Cinema One Originals & Ignite Media

Cast: Jiro Manio, Coco Martin, Sid Lucero, Anita Linda, Fonz Deza, Ricky Davao, Susan Africa, Simon Ibarra, Jhersie Young, Zyra dela Cerna, Mosang

Jason and Billy, whose parents have to stay in a hospital when their mother delivered their sister, invite their neighbor Pablo after he leaves his rental space because his landlord caught him in bed with his wife. All are short of money: Billy needs to spring for an abortion for his girlfriend, Jason wants to buy a drum set so he can play for a band, and Pablo has to find a new place to stay. The brothers get by doing favors for their neighbors while Pablo offers his body to prospective clients of either gender. When the eccentric and quarrelsome elderly lady across the street asks them to exchange smaller bills for her money, they cook up the idea of burglarizing her.

An appreciation for Tambolista can be enhanced by situating it in the tradition of the multicharacter youth films of the previous millennium. The male-focused entries tended then to depict the characters’ hijinks, carefree and harmless; but as a millennial product, released toward the end of a still-democratic era, the film enables us to see how neoliberalism has finally caught up with the very citizens we’re expected to shield from the harsh realities of modern existence. Director Adolfo Alix Jr. observed twin strategies, one old-timey and one forward-looking, to enhance his material: in shooting in black and white, he facilitates a throwback to the social-realist treatments of the First Golden Age, while in fractalizing the temporal order of events, he provides an equivalent of the social media-engendered confusion and distractedness that would increasingly afflict young people. The combination is unexpectedly yet remarkably effective, but also, in being too new-fashioned yet old-looking, accounts for how easily the film could be overlooked in comparison with his other output. Tambolista, rather than any number of prematurely acclaimed works, is where to start with this restless, unpredictable, admittedly uneven filmmaker.

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Imoral

English Title: Immoral
Year of Release: 2008
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr. [as Adolfo B. Alix Jr.]
Screenwriter: Jerry Gracio
Producer: Bicycle Pictures

Cast: Katherine Luna, Paolo Paraiso, Arnold Reyes, Edgar Allan Guzman, Perla Bautista, Kristoffer King, Adriana Agcaoili, Cherrie Madrigal, Angeli Bayani, Adrian Racho, Agnes de Guzman, Rolly Palmes, Armando A. Reyes, Maxie Evangelista, Melvin Catubag, Kennyron Aroffo, Jerome Zamora, Marcie Rosario, Lisa Arnaiz, Herwey Naredo, Jojo Manalili, Johnson Orca

Finding they cannot afford the living spaces they want to rent, Abi and Dante allow their friend Jonathan to get a residence for them. He introduces Abi as his wife and Dante as his brother-in-law to the religious landlady, when in fact Dante is the lover that he and Abi share. Jonathan pays for the rent using his income as construction foreperson while Dante barely scrapes by as a cab driver, longing for the time when he can leave for overseas work. Aside from defending their arrangement with her mother and sister, Abi makes sure that Dante doesn’t lose hope from their destitution and strives to be a friend to Jonathan, whose friendship with a construction worker incites Dante’s jealous rage. A sudden and unexpected windfall, however, threatens to throw their lives into disarray.

Before the internet-assisted boys’ love (BL) craze disseminated throughout Southeast Asia and reached the Philippines during the lockdown period of the last global pandemic, gay cinema was a specialized trend that actually occasioned the country’s first digital-format theater screenings. The films did not differ all that much from the then-forthcoming BL entries, which in turn also mirrored the same masculinist middle-class limitations of several new “queer” cinema samples from the US. Imoral may initially resemble the typical essentially conservative text in being low-end, domestic-focused, and anti-feminine, but it makes enough subtle adjustments to distinguish itself as one of the rare gay films with social awareness, more responsive actually to indigent conditions. It doesn’t shy away from class- and gender-based discord, but it also finds ways of uncovering how less-privileged citizens attain measures of acceptance on their own terms, with the striving for basic decency always an ideal within reach, if difficult to grasp. The one character tactfully rejected by the central trio is the pushy proselytizer who owns their space—a sign that better days may yet be in the offing for the gender outlaws in our midst.

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Isda

English Title: Fable of the Fish
Additional Language: Bikol
Year of Release: 2011
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr.
Screenwriter: Jerry Gracio
Producers: Cinemalaya Foundation & Phoenix Features

Cast: Cherry Pie Picache, Bembol Roco, Anita Linda, Rosanna Roces, Angel Aquino, Alan Paule, Evelyn Vargas, Arnold Reyes, Jess Evardone, Darlene Anderson, Pamela Juan, Angeli Bayani, Leon Miguel, Bjorn Aguilar, Kerbie Zamora

Merlina Sagaral and her husband Miguel migrate from distant Pangasinan province. They rent space in a landfill where the residents scrounge for materials they could resell. The wives talk about how having a child enables them to keep their husbands; despite being elderly, Lina longs to bear a child when her landlady shares news of her own pregnancy. Eventually Lina shows signs of gestation and Miguel, who gets angry when his neighbors tease him about infertility, is overjoyed. Lina’s birth pains occur during a typhoon, when their floor is flooded, but her baby leaps into the water and is discovered to be a fish. A TV reporter takes an interest in Lina’s story and becomes her friend, but Miguel cannot accept that he fathered a non-human child and becomes an alcoholic. When the couple discover an anonymous victim of extrajudicial killing dumped on the landfill and look for anything valuable he might have on him, they find a stash of money that enables them to upgrade their living condition.

Despite its English title, Isda unfolds as a straightforward realist narrative, and uses the fantastic premise of (for want of a better term) monstrous childbirth as its means of providing an intimate account of the lives of a dispossessed elderly couple. Even the fact that they could get pregnant is miraculous enough, considering the travails of migration as well as the health hazards of living amid the methane emission of the landfill. Yet the cast’s proficient realization of the absurd, essentially comic situation in which their characters are lodged, promotes a mounting empathy that acquires conflictive dimensions when the central couple find their marriage foundering because of the unusual nature of their offspring. As portrayed by Cherry Pie Picache, whose rendition of benevolence is unmatched among local actors, Lina becomes the character whose devotion to her fish-child is full-fledged—making understandable how the women in her orbit share in her maternalistic concerns and even how her husband occasionally finds himself bending to her will despite his shame and resentment. The film material itself takes off from a tabloid report that turned into a short-lived urban legend, but the means by which its collection of talents reified what would have otherwise remained an incredulous account is the movie’s singular hook, line, and sinker attraction.

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Porno

Year of Release: 2013
Director: Adolfo Alix Jr. [as Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.]
Screenwriter: Ralston Jover
Producers: Cinemalaya Foundation, Phoenix Features, Deux Lux Mea Films

Cast: Adriana Gomez, Janvier Daily, Yul Servo, Rosanna Roces, Bembol Roco, Yumi, Alan Paule, Carlo Aquino, Peggy Rico Tuazon, Lucky Mercado, Bong Villanueva, Ronnel Lintag, Star Ledesma, Jeremy Ian, Nasser Lubay, TJ dela Paz, Ricky Davao, Anita Linda, Ermie Concepcion, Armando A. Reyes, Divine Tetay, Angel Aquino, Paul Holmes, John Arkin Tan, Liza Diño, Brent Michael Borro

A man and woman in a motel room enact an excessive form of sadomasochistic activity. A separate couple, Xander and Mimi, have what appears to be a less unusual encounter, with Xander servicing Mimi for money; later Digos arrives and berates Xander, who’s been temporarily spirited from prison, for failing an assassination assignment. Aleks, who professionally dubs silent footage surreptitiously taken of couples in motel rooms, is teased by his female colleague and criticized by their employer for lacking in authenticity in his voice-overs; he nevertheless persists with his private webcam flirtations. Finally Alessandra (Alex for short), a star attraction in her workplace’s Follies de Mwah shows, has to figure out a way to interact with the upcoming birthday celebration of her estranged son, who hasn’t seen her since before her gender transition.

Although a 16mm. print of Celso Ad. Castillo’s Nympha (1971) might still be tracked to the inconsiderate borrower who failed to return it to the government film archive, it would be safe to conclude that no sample from the first era of pornographic film production (building up to the declaration by Ferdinand Marcos Sr. of martial law in 1972) can be accessed. A few titles fortunately remain from the next period, coinciding with the struggling years of the dictatorship through the early years after the people-power revolt in 1986. Porno though can be classed with a number of globally celebrated mindfucks, even if it doesn’t adhere to all the definitional requirements of the genre as spelled out in Linda Williams’s seminal volume Hard Core (1989). The multiversal chain of events invites diverse and conflictive readings—a result of deliberate asymmetrical and ambivalent plotting, per scriptwriter Ralston Jover (Facebook Messenger, March 9, 2025). The final episode, where the trans woman character’s nickname resembles that of the preceding episode’s sexually troubled young man, either can provoke a reconsideration of the film’s entire narratory design, or it can incite nothing more momentous than a shrug. Both responses would be equally appropriate for a film whose concern for the complications of sex work that contemporary working-class natives confront on a daily basis necessarily has to bypass the niceties of moral and anecdotal orderliness.

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Madilim ang Gabi

English Title: Dark Is the Night
Additional Language: Cebuano
Year of Release: 2017
Director & Screenwriter: Adolfo Alix Jr. [as Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.]
Producers: Sound Investment Equity LLC, Deux Lux Mea Films, Oro de Siete Productions, Ukon Films, Swift Distribution

Cast: Phillip Salvador, Gina Alajar, Bembol Roco, Felix Roco, Jason Abalos, Archie Alemania, Angel Aquino, Angeli Bayani, Perla Bautista, Iza Calzado, Sebastian Castro, Manuel Chua, Alssandra de Rossi, Julio Diaz, Flora Gasser, Cherie Gil, Laurice Guillen, Ben Isaac, Angelina Kanapi, Kristoffer King, Anita Linda, William Lorenzo, Sid Lucero, Zanjoe Marudo, Jess Mendoza, Mikoy Morales, Kenken Nuyad, Kenneth Ocampo, Elizabeth Oropesa, Alan Paule, Ross Pesigan, Cherry Pie Picache, Rosanna Roces, Jeremy Sabido, Arvic Tan, Erlinda Villalobos, Cris Villonco, Kirst Viray

Sara, who functions as enforcer for Kidlat, the neighborhood drug lord, worries when the effects of the war on drugs declared by then-President Rodrigo Duterte result in the extrajudicial killing of several of her neighboring acquaintances. Her son Felix, a drug user, worries when he hears that his mother’s name is on a law-enforcement kill list. With her husband Lando, she pleads with Kidlat to be relieved of her designation and requests exemption from having to pay for their last batch of sachets of shabu or methamphetamine. Kidlat imposes a final assignment, which Sara attempts to bypass, but when Felix fails to return home, she and Lando contact the police force for help.

Cinéma vérité is better known among regular audiences as the practice of developing a film fiction around events as these unfold in real life. The French New Wave auteurs who popularized it actually drew from a documentarian, Jean Rouch, who made films in Africa. Not surprisingly, our major Second Golden Age practitioners took to the approach after it proved feasible in the New American Cinema. Celluloid production, however, was both too pricey and clunky to enable seamless integration of documentary footage with staged scenes. This in no way should diminish the triumph of Madilim ang Gabi, although it makes understandable how critical evaluators could believe that its bona fides are inadequate in relation to its predecessors, or that better samples will presently be presented. The timeline and locales cannot be denied: the film was made as soon as President Rodrigo Duterte declared and implemented his disastrous war on drugs, with the actors roaming the slums of Manila to be able to capture the authenticity of historical realities that appalled observers everywhere. The use of name thespians even in minor roles becomes understandable in retrospect—authorities would think twice before harassing production activities that involved prestige performers, with Gina Alajar and Phillip Salvador retreading the doomed working-class characters they played in Lino Brocka’s Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim (My Country, 1984) but with a more realistic twist: as in the previous year’s war-on-drugs entry, Brillante Mendoza’s Ma’ Rosa, poverty implicates everyone in the state’s fascistic affirmations, whether they’re guilty of drug-trade involvement or not. MaG relies on an informed audience’s recollection of scene highlights from antiauthoritarian film-texts, and may be accused of drawing in possibly more then-current issues than the narrative could sustain. But its cinéma-vérité accomplishment abides and proves that we can look forward to more laudable attempts in the foreseeable future.

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Midnight in a Perfect World

Year of Release: 2020
Director & Screenwriter: Dodo Dayao
(From a story by Dodo Dayao & Carljoe Javier)
Producers: Globe Studios & Epicmedia Productions

Cast: Jasmine Curtis-Smith, Glaiza de Castro, Anthony Falcon, Dino Pastrano, Bing Pimentel, Soliman Cruz, Dolly de Leon, Charles Aaron Salazar, Brian Sy, Aljhon Agnila, Nate Agustin, Rolly Catchuela, Elmar Flores, Timmy Harn, Patti Lapus, Joey Pinera, Jerico Ramota, Veronica Reyes, Jeriko Tan, Hank Valentine

In an unspecified future that still resembles the present, when the country has attained a level of developmental sanguinity, four friends decide to venture outdoors despite the possibility of a localized midnight blackout and their awareness that a mutual acquaintance has disappeared. They go to a club to score a new kind of powerful hallucinogenic drug but after their seller is killed, they leave the place. A power outage causes them to panic and they run along with a crowd of strangers fleeing from a death squad. One of them, Tonichi, knows of a safehouse where they could hide; but when they arrive, they realize he’s no longer with them. His panicked phone calls make them realize he’s lost. As they attempt to figure out their hiding place, they meet Alma, an older lady who says she’d already been to two other safehouses. They plan to go outdoors to save Tonichi but then Glenn gets left behind. Mimi and Jinka have to rely on each other for survival, not just from the death squad but also from a monster that lurks in the darkness.

Midnight in a Perfect World embodies the exception that proves the rule: that independent cinema should not necessarily be valorized just for existing, or else it raises the vexed predicament of dismissing a mainstream that had proved capable of containing great work in the past. It sets up the challenge of working in sci fi-horror, a generic hybrid routinely associated with developed economies because of its technological assumptions. What an adequately exposed practitioner like Dodo Dayao has figured out from existing samples provides the key for his audacious approach: that, on a certain level, the social impact of late capital does not differ much from one culture or period to another. The spaces, services, and law-enforcement policies for underclass citizens will be recognizable to anyone whose political sensibilities are sufficiently rooted in the here and now. From this point moving forward, the apparent limits of indigent production get transformed into useful resources, with darkness, squalor, inhospitable outdoors and constrictive indoors, and barely adequate hardware serving to intensify the atmospherics of fear. The attentive readings of an age-grouped collection of responsive performers draw us into a series of geographical and narrative culs-de-sac, while the seemingly unrelated prelude initiates the slasher structure that more or less gets observed along the way; the standard global-indie earnest demonization of lumpen characters that marred his debut feature has also apparently decamped for now. Once we realize that the confusion—of the characters and therefrom the audience—becomes an essential component of the presentation’s promise of pleasure, we’re well on our way.

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Bambanti

English Title: Scarecrow
Additional Language: Pangasinan
Year of Release: 2015
Director & Screenwriter: Zig Madamba Dulay
Producers: Sinag Maynila, Solar Entertainment, Center Stage Productions

Cast: Alessandra de Rossi, Shamaine Buencamino, Micko Laurente, Julio Diaz, Delphine Buencamino, Lui Manansala, Erlinda Villalobos, Celio Aquino, Kiki Baento, Abegail Edillo, Jillian Pearl Paraggua, Noli Tamayo, Cristina Agustin, Ofelia Utanes, Verna Riza Agonoy, Santiago Norberte, Ligaya Rivera, Jeffrey Rivera, Angeles Reginaldo, Helson Cadiz, Jerival Guanco

After her husband was killed by unidentified assassins, Belyn performs laundry tasks for her better-off sister-in-law Martha, in order to continue the elementary education of her two children and nurse the youngest. She takes her son Popoy along with her because she can count on his intelligence to help her. One day, however, Martha realizes that her teen daughter’s expensive watch is missing. A fortuneteller says that a boy and his mother took it, so she queries Popoy, who denies committing the theft. Martha files a complaint with the village officials and the townfolk begin to turn on mother and son.

Zig Madamba Dulay’s extensive practice in film storytelling has prepared him for the standard low-budget exercise on which Bambanti is premised. Proceeding like any typical indie production, the film draws its strength from the delivery of its narrative’s central trio of mother, son, and sister-in-law. Dulay’s point of departure, however, lies in allowing the familial and community players to enact their roles as concerned bystanders without casting aspersions on any of them, in contrast with the way that several contemporaneous entries succeeded with the local elite and even foreign markets by indulging in the victim-centered demonization of Manila’s Others. So the film’s plot twists, when they arrive, prove as much surprising to the attentive viewer as they do to the characters, and underline the insight that so much potential in this type of material has been wasted in the past because of the essentially exploitative approach of filmmakers who wished to impress their colleagues and superiors at the expense of the hapless folk they trained their equipment on.

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Hintayan ng Langit

Additional Language: English
English Title: Heaven’s Waiting
Year of Release: 2018
Director: Dan Villegas
Screenwriter: Juan Miguel Silverio
(Based on his one-act play)
Producers: QCinema International Film Festival, Globe Studios, Quezon City Film Development Commission

Cast: Eddie Garcia, Gina Pareño, Kat Galang, Joel Saracho, Mary Joy Apostol, Jomari Angeles, Geraldine Villamil, Dolly de Leon, Francis Mata, Karl Medina, Che Ramos, Mel Kimura, Reynald Raissel Santos, Errine Danan, Neil Guillen, Martin Lazaro, Hadaneeah Cubico, Monina Fe Meraces, Jonel Pusing, Miguel Mascareñas, Nina Ybanez, Miko Yu, Angelica Tapia, Elizabeth dela Cerna

Upon his arrival, Manolo’s informed by the halfway place’s concierge that the room allotted to him has been damaged, so he’ll have to share sleeping quarters with someone he used to know. He finds out that it’s Lisang, who used to be his girlfriend before he married someone else several decades ago. After remembering how he died, he figures out that he’s in Purgatory, awaiting a final trip to a higher realm along with the other residents. What he wonders about is why Lisang keeps delaying her own ascent, even committing an infraction in his presence.

Hintayan ng Langit would literally translate as “heaven’s waiting room,” so the idea of Purgatory, problematic even to enlightened Catholics, serves as the closest possible equivalent of the concept of a way station in the afterlife where the recently deceased could resolve their personal issues before attaining a state of eternal peace and happiness. Those with enough historical awareness might also recall that colonial-era Spanish clergy earned for the local church incalculable wealth and property based on instilling the fear of purgatorial suffering on vulnerable wealthy natives, in order to claim their inheritance right before they expired. The challenge for the filmmakers therefore lay in selling the fantasy—which the narrative unexpectedly performs by fusing classical values with a covert modern sensibility. Traditionalists will have to be inordinately picky to find fault with HnL’s visual design as well as the first-time pairing of two studio-era old-timers known for both their consummate skills and their willingness to tackle daring roles: their extended exchanges and individual monologues are reserved for the film’s climactic section, and unsurprisingly they make it worth the trouble. The modern element, in terms of Hollywood samples, requires a recollection of which American film came closest to HnL’s example. In general, US productions could not resist resending their dead characters back to the real world, so even in these terms, HnL remains distinctive; but the first American film to focus on a woman’s post-life predicament was Gerard Damiano’s The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), arguably the first undisputed masterpiece of the Golden Age of Porn.[1] It shouldn’t be too surprising that what was so unusual for Americans that it could only be initially made on the fringes of their industry became standard fare for Pinas cinema in the late twentieth century, after the collapse of the country’s authoritarian adventure.

Note

[1] The title once appeared in the decadal Sight & Sound survey of 2002; I was the respondent who entered it, along with another X-rated title, The Opening of Misty Beethoven (Radley Metzger a.k.a. Henry Paris, 1976). See “Sight & Sound ’02,” Amauteurish (May 30, 2014), amauteurish.com/2014/05/30/sight-sound-2002/.

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The Day After Valentine’s

Additional Languages: Hawaiian & Baybayin (written)
Year of Release: 2018
Director & Screenwriter: Jason Paul Laxamana
Producer: Viva Films

Cast: Bela Padilla, JC Santos, Regine Tolentino, Jordan Castillo, Stacey Gabriel, Phoebe Villamor, Rayton Lamay, Hermie Go, Merwyn Abel, Aries Go, Rhedz Turner, Don Michael Roxas, Easy Ferrero, Ianne Oandasan, Lars Magbanua, Maverick Manalang

Lani, a salesperson at an ukay-ukay or secondhand clothes shop in Angeles City, proceeds to assist a customer, Kai, after she realizes he needs to buy arm sleeves to hide the scars of the self-harm he committed. He tells her that he decided to remain in the country after his family returned to the US, because of a woman he had fallen in love with but who broke up with him afterward. Following psychological advice she learned, Lani realizes she could use the native writing system, which Kai’s ex had taught him, to help him heal. Grateful for her intervention, Kai invites Lani to his home on the Hawaiian island of Lanai, where their relationship tenses up and raises questions for both of them.

The travelogue rom-com was bound to reach a level of maturity despite the antimainstream misgivings of local critics, partly because of the persistence of expert practitioners, but also because of the still-expanding overseas Filipino population and their wealth of still-to-be-tapped stories. The Day After Valentine’s exemplifies new potentials in the format, focusing on the first generation of overseas migrants—kids who could still return to their parents’ country of origin and find enough familiarity to be able to thrive by themselves. It also makes use of a cis-het partnership that may be the most satisfactory in Pinas film culture, both partners being equally matched in terms of appeal, intelligence, and chemistry. Their maturity (relative to the usual teenage age-group of local movie love teams) ensures that their teamups won’t generate hysterical responses, but that also enables their projects’ creatives to focus on discursive issues that can guarantee longer-term satisfaction. The manner in which TDAV steps beyond rom-com territory and transforms into social-problem drama may be so subtle that the realization might only arrive after the viewing experience. Whether we regard this type of innovation as useful or insignificant, the fact of its availability should be justification enough.

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Ded Na si Lolo

English Title: Grandpa Is Dead
Year of Release: 2009
Director & Screenwriter: Soxy Topacio [as Soxie Hernandez Topacio]
Producers: APT Entertainment, Directors Guild of the Philippines, Sine Direk

Cast: Roderick Paulate, Gina Alajar, Elizabeth Oropesa, Manilyn Reynes, Dick Israel, Perla Bautista, Rainier Castillo, BJ Forbes, Tony Cruz, Richard Quan, Mosang, Froilan Sales, Phil Noble, Diego Llorico, Rhen Escaño, Karylle Quijano, Dave Cervantes, Arpee Bautista, Perry Escaño, Richard Jason Paje, Rudy Meyer, Manny Castañeda, Cesar Cosme, Mike “Pekto” Nacua, John Feir, Gene Padilla, Deborah Sun, Gigette Reyes, Noel Cabangon, Jess Evardone, Nor Domingo, Edel Templonuevo

Lolo Juanito fails to wake up one morning. After his body is returned from the morgue, his grownup children have to gather together at his house for his wake and burial. They all resent Dolores, their eldest, for being the least affectionate sibling. Mameng and Charing bring their families to help out, while estranged son Junee arrives straight from a drag program. Finally the older son, Syano, brings a stranger to the funeral and makes the others realize they never really knew their parents that well after all.

Ded Na si Lolo underwent a trajectory of being overrated, then underrated; but in the period since its release, it deserves to be regarded as a fitting tribute to the highly regarded talents of Philippine Educational Theater Association stalwart Soxy Topacio. The narrative situation indicates an intimate familiarity not just with the score of performers in theater and TV that he worked with, but also with the reality of growing up in an urban working-class milieu. The plot would have challenged most film-trained directors, with characters who keep giving vent to their anguish, with dramatic fainting as one of the family’s quirks. Nosy neighbors and importunate superstitions, usually depicted as annoyances if not obstacles in local cinema, are presented with bemusement and acceptance of their inevitability. The narrative builds up to a quietly devastating final-act revelation, heartbreaking and heartwarming in equal measure, that evinces the kind of presence we lost with Topacio’s sudden demise.

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Ang Tanging Ina

English Title: My Only Mother
Year of Release: 2003
Director: Wenn V. Deramas
Screenwriters: Mel Mendoza-del Rosario & Keiko Aquino
(From a story by Mel Mendoza-del Rosario & Freddie M. Garcia)
Producer: Star Cinema

Cast: Aiai delas Alas, Connie Chua, Eugene Domingo, Edu Manzano, Tonton Gutierrez, Andoy Ranay, Alan Chanliongco, Jestoni Alarcon, Carlo Aquino, Nikki Valdez, Heart Evangelista, Marvin Agustin, Serena Dalrymple, Shaina Magdayao, Alwyn Uytingco, Jiro Manio, Marc Acueza, Yuki Kadooka, Jojit Lorenzo, Rommel Rellora, Anthony Griar, Nestor Balla, Angelica Panganiban, Dianne Tejada, Michelle Ayalde, Nikki Laurel, Liberty Lometillo, John Pratts, Jestoni Alarcon, Dennis Padilla, Edu Manzano, Tonton Gutierrez

Ina Montecillo falls into a pattern of discovering a handsome hunk eager to marry her, then suddenly losing said hunk in an accident and discovering her next marriageable prospect just when she lays her previous hubby to rest. After three husbands and a dozen kids, she decides to live as a single parent, to spare any future men whatever jinx she may be cursed with. Her BFF Rowena helps her in applying to any available job, but her burgeoning brood, the oldest members of whom are already of school age, demands her attention as well because of their growing-up pains.

One of a number of millennial-era victims of the punishing workload of TV-dominated film work, Wenn V. Deramas suffered further from the film-as-art ideology propagated by academe-based critic-instructors and mindlessly mouthed by practitioners—all of whom should have known better. Ang Tanging Ina’s revenge on this state of affairs actually sealed its fate as a permanently downgraded entry: not only was it produced by the most successful film studio since the end of the Second Golden Age, it was also the most profitable Filipino film project up to its time. It generated a number of sequels (although, strictly speaking, Deramas made only two that proceeded from ATI’s narrative premise); more significantly, and just as casually neglected, was the impressive development of his expertise in comedy, along with several of the talents in ATI. At the time of his demise, over a decade later, he seemed poised to rival Manuel Conde and Maryo J. de los Reyes, guaranteeing (if his and our luck hadn’t run out) one master for each of our Golden Ages plus himself as the current one. He remained prolific, to his tragic detriment, with ATI standing as proof of his then-nascent comedic gift: an ability to deliver complex expositions, an incomparable sense of timing, a fearlessness in extending setups and payoffs, and a sharp attunement to the quotidian concerns of the audience. Underlying the expected generic compromises and containment, ATI nevertheless maintains a drag-queer edginess in upholding a funny-looking elderly lady as the flamboyant master of a multifariously strenuous situation.

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