The past months have been busy with all sorts of news involving the filming of Bourne Legacy, the fourth movie in the franchise with a change from lead Matt Damon to Jeremy Renner, not as replacement but as another agent. Not that it really matters to Pinoys who watched basically to see Manila onscreen as Manila, and not as some other Asian city.
When the film opened, the population, us included, poured into the theaters in the midst of heavy rains and floods. We were happy to see familiar Pinoy actors on the screen, particularly Lou Veloso in the ending scene in Palawan. The motorcycle chase scene all over the streets and slums of Manila exhibiting smiling Pinoys aboard jeepneys, in small shops, streaming out of the LRT was to us worth more than the movie entrance fee.
After this came the comments and complaints as expected reacting to an interview of director Tony Gilroy by Charlie Rose of the Bloomberg TV Tonight show where he asked Gilroy why Manila was chosen as venue. Tony answered, “We landed in Manila and it felt so Bourne-ish… It’s just so colorful and ugly and gritty, raw and stinky and crowded.” And that is what media reported, and that is what a whole lot reacted to. Which was understandable.
What was edited out in the interview was Tony saying, “And they had this really sort of dormant film industry. They knew what we’re asking for, and they could get it for us, and it turned to be a really… I can’t imagine we would have done the wacky stuff that we did any place else.” This inclusion would have prevented hurt feelings. But it would also have lessened the initial quote’s impact!
We went home and watched Bourne Supremacy with the locations in various European cities from Berlin, Naples, Munich, Amsterdam and Moscow where the obligatory chase scene highlight came across as drab, clean and boring. So sorry guys! We’ll take raw and ugly Manila anytime. It may be stinky but the Pinoys are smiling all the way.
Amorosa is a maindie!
We find mainstream institutions like the Metro Manila Film Festival introducing an indie section and TV networks like ABS-CBN opening up a unit combining both. According to Star Cinema’s Enrico Santos, Skylight Films is the newest unit in ABS-CBN Films. “We don’t do the kinds of movies Star Cinema makes. We are not as experimental as the indie films made for Cinemalaya, but we’re still indie although we do try to cater to and entertain mainstream sensibilities,” Enrico explains.
The stars, directors, writers and production teams are excited over this reinvention which started with Corazon: Ang Unang Aswang with Erich Gonzales and Derek Ramsay as a couple during the Japanese occupation joining fertility rites when Erich appeared unable to give birth. Directed by Richard Somes, after the success of his Yanggaw which dealt with the aswang or ghost myth, Star Cinema and Skylight Films released Corazon in competition with GMA Films’ My Kontrabida Girl, John Carter and The Hunger Games and performed creditably which resulted in the go-signal given to Amorosa.
Angel Aquino plays mom to two boys Martin del Rosario and Enrique Gil. After a vehicular accident where her husband was killed, Rosa decides on a new life as manager of an old pension house. However, she discovers and is haunted by a faceless ghost, a secret behind the accident, and why the ghost is seeking vengeance. This is Angel’s and Enrique’s first horror film; Martin’s first role as a blind person.
Enrico says that Skylight projects use the same digital equipment indie filmmakers utilize, as well as the new techniques in color grading. Topel Lee directs the film opening Aug. 29. We are watching; we don’t know about you!
(E-mail your comments to bibsy_2011@yahoo.com.)