Raining on the 'Asiong Salonga' parade

A period action film in black and white, with an Ely Buendia song on the one hand, a Gloc-9 song on the other, with a supporting cast that includes Ronnie Lazaro and Ketchup Eusebio and Yul Servo and Baron Geisler, are reasons enough to celebrate “Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salonga Story.” But these are not what a good movie make, and while it has won the bulk of the Metro Manila Filmfest 2011 awards, that does beg the rhetorical question: since when has being the best of the MMFF lot meant being the best at all? 

 

And on a year when the one real drama film is disqualified for the same awards that “Asiong Salonga” has won, for a movie that’s contested by its own director Tikoy Aguiluz and editor Miranda Medina, the value of those awards can only be stamped with a question mark. Though it would’ve also been the many other questionable elements in this film that filled this movie theater with laughter, what had me shaking my head in dismay and disgust, ready as I was to bolt after the first close-up shot, was Asiong himself. Oh but what a waste of P190 pesos it would’ve been had I left. Not to say that it wasn’t a waste just because I stayed.

 

And if it isn’t even clear yet, I am not being a girl about “Asiong Salonga.” I love action films, can handle the gore and violence, and can watch any badly-acted-in Nicolas Cage movie, or every Bruce Willis film up until the 2010 irony that was “RED,” every psychotic John Travolta film, and do a marathon of Matt Damon’s “Bourne Identity.” Totally love the dark violence in Ishmael Bernal’s “Wating” about as much as I couldn’t get over Lazaro as “Ishmael” directed by Richard Somes in 2010. 

 

No, it wasn’t the gore and violence that did “Asiong Salonga” in for me. In fact those fight scenes were surprisingly well-choreographed complete with rocky shorelines and falling into a river, even when it used some old action film suntukan moves. There was just the right amount of bloody exaggeration here, though that isn’t to say that they were well done by this set of actors. And yes, I’m pointing a finger at ER Ejercito (a.k.a. Jeorge Estregan) himself, who ruined those knife fight sequences set in Bilibid because no matter that he might think himself lithe and light, there is no denying that on screen it just looked a wee bit more difficult—jiggling man boobs and unstable footing included.

 

Let’s say I’m to forgive that, because he’s got that young posse to make up for his, uh, age. Let me not ask the question: why is Asiong so much older than his tropa? Let me forget the thick layer of foundation that was on Asiong’s face because you know Eusebio and Geisler might not have needed any. Let me not ask why this movie needed to have the producer in the lead—it is clear in these shores after all that self-entitlement plus bloated ego plus wealth allow people to think the world of themselves. 

 

Forget all those questions and ask instead: how white can your Chuck Taylors be when you’re walking the streets of Tondo and getting into one bloody battle after another? 

 

It seems superficial I know, but it is at the core of the failure of “Asiong Salonga” as an action film. Because while I admit that it looked beautiful, and the fight scenes were enjoyable, there is no getting lost in this film at all—something that every action flick lives off of, even more so a period action film. But there is no suspension of belief in this film, no getting lost in the cinematography and sets, no matter how well done these were, too. 

 

Which brings us back to Estregan himself, who for most of the film looks like he’s doing his best Joseph Estrada impersonation. And it happens from that first close-up, where he introduces himself as Asiong Salonga, just in case it isn’t clear to us yet. The theater fills with laughter. 

 

I don’t care that Estregan might later win a best actor award or two. Melanie Marquez won best actress playing herself in her own biopic. It’s easy to chalk Estregan’s win up to the tragedies that befall award-giving systems that can only be questionable across our cultural productions, even more so for the incredible Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).

 

Which decided to be strict about disqualifying a film from technical awards because its final script was not the one submitted to the MMFF committee before shooting started. And yet allowed for a movie contested by its own director and editor to stay in the race? The latter seems to be an even bigger violation of the creativities that are crucial to any film, yes? For a producer to look at the film’s final cut and conclude that the director didn’t know what he was doing, to actually add sound and music, put back scenes previously removed (even shoot new ones!), reeked of utter disrespect. And then to ignore the director’s demand that his name be removed from the film altogether? One wonders what it is we’re condoning here exactly.

 

Or maybe these are just the signs of the times. It’s unforgivable yes, but we’d rather see how galing this movie is. We’d rather talk about how this heralds the return of the Pinoy action film! We should all celebrate! Of course it seems apt to throw this into the mix: the return of a Pinoy action film is a remake? You’ve got tons of money, we’ve got tons of talent, and we’d rather not do something original? 

 

Surely there’s enough material on the goons, guns and gold of those times if you are so enamored by the 70s Pinoy gangster culture; surely there’s even more material for contemporary times, what with the breadth and scope of new forms of violence and oppression, that can instantly turn every action star into some current form of hero. Surely there’s a better action film out there that doesn’t bring back, make credible and forgive a womanizing promiscuous lead action star and turn him into a hero in the process. Because this film might have single-handedly killed the struggle of women in film and elsewhere, for roles better than just being wife waiting for husband to go home. 

 

But too I ask the question “why do remakes?” with fear in my heart that the next thing we know “Nardong Putik” is again a full-length film with Bong Revilla in the lead. Or “Geron Busabos” will be remade with Jinggoy Estrada doing his own Erap impersonation. Or (gasp!) “Salonga Brothers” will be done with Erap’s brood from Jinggoy to ER to Jude, and throw in JV for good measure. 

 

Let me wax massacre film in the times of Carlo Caparas and say: God have mercy on us! –KG, GMA News