Under Brillante’s guidance, American director debuts with risqué-actioner ‘Pusoy’

CEBU, Philippines — Italian-American writer-director Phil Giordano says that since first meeting Brillante Mendoza in 2016, he’d been actively trying to produce a project with the Filipino auteur known for his guerrilla style and an aversion to sticking to a script. When it finally happened, the Staten Island, New York native who’s currently based in Manila called the experience a “master class” in Mendoza’s “specific approach to filmmaking.”

Giordano, who received his master’s degree in filmmaking from the New York University Tisch School of the Arts Asia, has seen many of Mendoza’s work including “Amo”, the first Filipino series to land on Netflix. In this 12-part serial that depicted the Duterte administration’s war on drugs, actor Felix Roco’s character walks into a gambling den – and Giordano thought that could be a story concept all in itself.

“I wanted something that was contained in one location, had a tight-knit group of characters. Basically I saw ‘Amo’ and I was looking for that kind of story. I thought the gambling den could be a whole movie, just this world. I’m always interested in worlds that have yet to be explored,” he said in a video conference.

“We did research, we talked to people, then we developed the story. We pitched to Viva and they were interested. Direk Brillante gave us some feedback so the pitch would go really well. It kind of fell in line with the kinds of films he was trying to make. He came on board as the producer, and once he did, he really expanded the scope. Mine was more intimate, takes place over two nights in one gambling den. Once he came on board we had a lot more characters and locations.”

“Pusoy”, which he wrote and is his first feature film, is the story of a young man who’s good in hustling, better in gambling, and the best in women. Popoy (played by Vince Rillon, who also starred in “Amo” opposite Derek Ramsay), is an ambitious bodyguard who works at one of the most notorious gambling dens owned by Rodolfo (Baron Geisler), a combative and disagreeable man. The den is managed by Xandra (Janelle Tee), Rodolfo’s mistress.

Popoy works hard for Rodolfo, but he also dreams of taking over the gambling den one day. He finally gets the push he needs when he falls in love with Mika (Angeli Khang), Rodolfo’s new mistress. When Rodolfo kills a powerful politician’s son, the gang needs to raise a huge amount of money to be given to a general for their protection. When their lives are put in grave danger, they begin questioning their loyalty to the gang.

Rillon has appeared in other Mendoza-helmed series and films including “Captive,” “MaRosa,” and “Resbak.” He has also starred in Vivamax’s originals “Siklo,” “Sisid”, “L”, and “Kaliwaan.” His leading lady, Angeli Khang, meanwhile has headlined chart-topping Vivamax titles such as “Taya,” “Mahjong Nights,” “Eva” and “Silip sa Apoy.” The film also features another Vivamax regular, Jela Cuenca, in a brief role as Rillon’s wife.

“With the actors you have to trust them so much. They all nailed it. We had no performance issues so it made my life easy,” said Giordano of his cast.

He added, “I feel like the actors here can really tap into the emotions of their past experiences. That might be very raw and accessible for them. Whereas in America, it’s from training. I don’t want to generalize, but the actors I’ve worked with in America, maybe they get into an exercise or some kind of routine to get in place. The actors here, it’s more visceral, drawn from personal experience. I’ve worked in Singapore also and those I worked with they don’t have these raw, visceral experiences, so it’s very difficult. You really have to cast meticulously there.”

Despite the language barrier, he had so much faith in his cast that he had to recalibrate more on his method of filming. “I went to New York University where we had a certain approach to making films. And for this we really were under Direk Brillante’s umbrella. So I wanted to make a film in that vein. It’s like having my sensibilities and tastes, and then also adapting that to how he does things, and also locally,” he explained.

“In the Philippines they shoot much faster here so it was quite different. But I loved it. So invigorating and exciting. It lets you just dive in. It’s make you realize how in American sets you wait around a lot. You spend quite an amount of time just waiting there. With this, it’s like ‘Go go go!’ It doesn’t give you time to focus on the background details or things like that. The production team is world-class and top-notch – from line producer, to assistant director, to casting. But…it’s very fast. Seven days to shoot a full-length movie. In America, we shoot 23 days. I remember asking for nine days and they laughed at me.”

All in all, the award-winning commercial director described the collaboration as “a dream.” When creative differences arose, whoever made the best argument between him and Mendoza would ultimately win.

“It’s really cool to see his process firsthand. I had an idea of how he worked, I talked to actors and crew members, but actually going through it was a very unique experience,” said Giordano.

For Geisler, the lead villain in “Pusoy”, Giordano was one of the most meticulous directors he’s worked with – and he wouldn’t have it any other way. “We hit it off right away. I always come up to him to ask what to do in a scene, to give me notes and suggestions. He’s always generous enough, even if everyone is busy, pinagbibigyan niya ako ng konting oras para mas mapaganda ko yung aking craft,” said the actor, who also had his director stand in as a hand double as he couldn’t convincingly look like an inveterate gambler.

“An international director could add, not only value, but also a lot of spice in the Filipino way of making films,” he further said. “Direk Brillante, our producer, loves crazy shots. The difference with Direk Phil, he’s very much into the details.”

As for Miss Philippines Earth 2019 titlist and former “Wowowin” host Janelle Tee, she took the time to visit gambling hotspots from opposite spectrums to get a realistic feel of the world and learn some card tricks.

“I prepared so much for this film. From the moment we had our look test, I was so nervous because my role is an expert in gambling, and I have zero clue about that at all. Hindi ako marunong magbalasa [shuffle] ng cards. Talagang inaral ko, pumunta ako sa Tondo to really immerse myself and play pusoy tong-its and pusoy dos,” Tee shared.

“I also observed in casinos so I’ll have a perspective sa pang-masa na sugal and pang-sosyal na sugal. I played with them and I’m so grateful when Phil told me that I improved a lot. Far from perfect, but I really tried my best because as much as possible, I didn’t want to fake the scenes.”