Lourd de Veyra Bemoans [the absence of] Pinoy Action Flicks
So, I hear a Filipino was best director in this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The film, I think was about–as de Veyra puts it–”decapitated prostitutes and forlorn macho dancers.” And with this, de Veyra starts off that now that Philippine Cinema has the artistic cinema world’s attention, can we haz akshun films agen?
The Sago Project’s main man, is clamoring for the return of the good, old days–when Lito Lapid was doing helix turns in midair before Ironhide did it, when splitting a single bullet with a blade (hello, Ryan Reynolds?) would take out multiple opponents, when Ramon Zamora was doing a Bruce Lee number (go look at the article and there’s a clip of exactly that in there).
He, actually, is not asking for those exact type of movies. I, mean, come on, they’re so ridiculous, they’re either laughable or outright embarassing (the hero’s guts spilling out, and he just keeps them in place with a helmet while he proceeds to wipe out legions of goons. In leather jackets. In tropical Philippines). De Veyra, from what I understand, is asking for a return of Philippine action films given the indie reinvention. I mean, most of PInoy indies/artistic classics are either near pornographic (Boatman? Scorpio Nights?) or about poverty/slum life (hey, Maximo Oliveros was about a kid living in less than ideal middle-class PInoy conditions). Sure, there are comedies which are exceptions but these are not given the same artistic recognition sex and poverty are given.
He’s asking for a good Pinoy action flick that doesn’t insult sentience (hi, Mark Lapid! Saging lang may puso!!!!). He’s not even asking for an effects laden flick (like what most of Hollywood does); he posits using Filipino’s prowess in martial arts.
But I have to disagree with MMA–it’s just a sport now, for pete’s sake. Get the freakin’ masters for crying out loud. Hollywood’s benefitted too much already from Filipino grandmasters. As a bonus, de Veyra puts in a Weng Weng clip in a kumite-style fight scene.
Point is, bring the action back. Raise it to the same level most critically acclaimed recent PInoy films made…but leave the camp.
