Director Xion Lim continues family’s film tradition
Make no mistake in pronouncing his name. It’s Xion Lim, the director-producer, not Xian Lim, the actor-director.
Earlier, Xion was originally known by his real name, Sean Lim. Two decades ago, before actor Xian Lim even became known, Xion had already changed to his moniker.
“I grew up with the film industry,” disclosed Xion.
“Directing is in our family business. Professionally, from 2001, my first job was directing. My Oxin Films marked its 20th anniversary last year. It started when I was a fetus,” he laughed.
Xion is the third generation in his family who is into film. His grandfather was a journalist who used to write for the Americans during World War II. “All his film cameras and photos are still with me,” Xion proudly beamed. “All of the cameras are still working since they are all manual.”
The second generation was his dad, with whom Xion started editing films. “From analog format, naabutan ko ‘yun when I was still in high school in Zamboanga at Chong Hua Chinese School,” Xion said.
He finished his Multi-Media course at De La Salle University College of St. Benilde in 2004. “We were the first batch,” Xion said. “I didn’t get to see the new building.”
Xion started directing TV commercials and corporate events. In 2006, he made his passion come to life and launched his directorial debut, the sci-fi action fantasy, Xenoa, with Paolo Ballesteros and the late Isabel Granada.
“I produced Xenoa, too,” Xion shared. “Then I looked for the booking number of SM Cinemas on the Yellow Pages. I did everything on my own to release my first film.”
Teleserye director Khryss Adalia influenced Xion to venture into directing. Back in high school and college, Xion was already watching direct Khryss’ work on TV, particularly the popular Mula sa Puso (1997 to 1999).
Xion recently wrapped up the third installment of Mano Po Legacy: The Flower Sisters that concluded last Jan. 13 on GMA 7 after 11 weeks.
“Mano Po 3 was my first mainstream teleserye,” granted Xion. “I was doing a lot of work before that. I also produced blocktimers on GMA 7 from 2016 to 2019. Reality shows. I was really pressured on Mano Po 3. I needed to impress the audience and the people who trusted me with work.
“Even if we were three directors who worked on the teleserye, with Ian (Loreños) and Nick (Olanka), I was the one who was the newest. But I really enjoyed working on the teleserye.
“Since I love my job, I didn’t feel the stress, although there were nights when we really finished late. But the cast and crew were very nice. The past two seasons were very successful, so GMA came out with the third season.”
Last year, Regal Films producer Roselle Monteverde approached Xion and expressed her desire to work with him. She subsequently made him ink an eight-picture contract.
“That can be movies and series,” Xion said about his Regal contract. “We are working on two movies this year. There were scripts that were sent to me already.”
Before he started Mano Po Legacy, Xion was known for his indie BL (boys love) series, My Day, which he produced under his Oxin Films. The series generated more than 100 million views on YouTube.
He directs the sequel, My Story, set to be released this summer. It will be shot on location in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The episodes will be released in only two batches, so viewers can simply binge-watch.
“Others were saying the BL series here in the Philippines is no longer popular,” Xion lamented. “Patay na daw. But if you look at the BL series in Thailand and even South Korea, the LGBTQ+ community will never die. I think they are just waiting for a new content and fresh ideas.”
“It doesn’t matter if I will get a famous actor. The audience will look for the quality of the story. My previous series, My Day, I didn’t have popular stars. Pero lumaban siya sa international market.”
Xion has several other projects in line, although not BL series. “I have films to be released in streaming platforms, like Prime or Netflix. Those are plans. Even in my channel, I will release other BL series for bigger distribution.”
He has been approached by a producer, who asked him to pitch a proposal for Vivamax. He is open to do daring films for Vivamax any time soon. As director Sean Bryan, he previously released daring projects.
For the foreign flicks, Xion was influenced by Star Wars. No wonder, his first film, Xenoa, was a sci-fi project.
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