The State of Filipino Movies

[Ms.Beau]

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panagsaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ra kaayo ko mo tan-aw ug tagalog movies. i think the last movie i saw ws Muro-Ami.

[diem]

@klavel, i agree with your opinions but keeping tabs on the output of cinema I sometimes see that trends are slowly changing... Have you seen Seiko Films's "I Wanna Be Happy" starring Eddie Garcia, Gloria Romero, and Keanna Reeves..? It's an once-in-a-blue-moon example of local filmmakers toying around the typical romantic formula..

I just wish they'd toyed around a lot more often.

[dAmNseL jEnY]

[font=arial]
Basically if you watch all the romantic Filipino fims, be they be romantic comedies or drama, you'd generally find the following characteristics:


1) The Title will definitely be a Song Title (Till I Met You, You are the One, Sana Dalawa ang Puso Ko).

2) Consequently the Song will be the musical theme for the movie. You'd hear it often enough in the film itself.

3) Often, the main characters fall in love... AT FIRST SIGHT. You know the first Kilig moment.

4) But sooner they'll be at odds with their feelings for each other... most of the common sources of conflicts are:
4a) Class conflict. One is rich the other poor (often its the lady lead who is poor). Or one is smart, sophisticated while the other is simple and pure of heart

4b) A third party. One of the romantic leads is involved with someone else. Someone who is often spiteful, possessive, and jealous... which makes one wonder though, will all these bad qualities paano naging sila? hmmmmm

4c) Strict kasi ng parents eh.

4d) Secrets of the past or unacceptable bad behavior or manners that only Love can change or accept. Sigh!

5) Of course the romantic leads must have their sidekicks on either side, often not as attractive as the romantic leads, faithful and loyal, eager to offer advice or comedic relief. Sometimes the sidekicks also fall for each other, presenting a second love story.

Kinds of sidekicks: The Best Friend, the understanding Parent (only one), The Understanding Relative, puwede si Lolo, Lola, Auntie, Ninong, Ninang

6) Of course there must be field trips to the country, going back to the roots. In the fertile soil of the farmlands, romance blossoms into love.

7) There is plenty of eye locking which last between 30 seconds to 5 minutes of reel.

8 ) This is often a Cinderella tribute where either of the leads 'magically' transform with one realizing how handsome or really beautiful the other is.

9) The major conflict should come at max 40 minutes before the ending, the resolution comes mga 30 minutes later after 10 minutes of the 'my days are miserable without you, I miss you, I need you' montage.

10) The love quarrel should always be a shouting match, in a public place. The make up scene should also be something like that too.

11) A chase scene always occurs.

12) The films ends with a typical hopeful ending. The typical endings are:

12a) With a kiss
12b) In a church wedding
12c) In a place of transportation: airport, bus station, ship dock, within a vehicle

But often these endings are just hopeful beginnings. Not often you would see what happens after they made up or return to each other's arms.

Did I miss anything?

@diem
that's a list! i wasn't aware of some info cz i don't watch pinoy movies or i chose not to. if u saw one, u've seen all. thanks for posting

[jao]

Agree with the list of Diem. Too darn obvious.

It would be great if the Philippine Movie Industry makes more movies like Muro Ami.

[diem]

[font=arial]@dj and jao, you like that list..maybe you like this one. Here's the formula for a typical Pinoy action film circa late 80's to 90's--

1) The Hero is either ends of the spectrum, a trigger-happy policeman who is guided by his own rugged sense of righteousness or a man forced to a life of crime and vigilantism due to revenge. Either way, the Pinoy action hero is a man.

2) The Villain is either a leader of a drug syndicate or a corrupt politician, often a congressman with his own private army of armed goons. usually there is a psychotic bastard of a right-hand man who is a nemesis to the Hero.

3) If the Hero is a policeman, he is often a family man with a devoted wife but that doesn't mean he doesn't has other women. If the Hero is a Criminal out for revenge, he has a bad girlfriend but soon will fall in love with a girl that could change his ways.

4) The leading lady is often younger than the Hero, like 20 years younger.

5) The Hero aside from his sidearm has his ever trusty sidekick who serves as driver, houseboy, confident, comic relief and distraction if ever Missis Hero comes when the Hero and a lady friend are together.

6) The Hero never misses. He's an expert gunshot who knows a 100 ways of using a gun well, even seemingly never running out of bullets.

7) The typical guns you see is .45mm revolver, the 9mm Beretta handgun and the M-16 Armalite complete with grenade launcher.

8 ) The Hero is quite a fighter with his fists too. The basic technique is evade, parry then punch. Evade, parry,then punch. Repeat that until all the goons are down.

9) The typical plot for the action film is as follows: The hero is on a vendetta against the villain. So he starts picking off the small fish, then moves after the Big boss in the end for the major showdown. Many casualities fall along the way, be it a close friend, a family member, or a lover. Near the end, the Hero takes a Devil may cry attitude and takes the law of the gun.

10) The fight scenes are basically the following: A streetfight scene, a barfight scene, a carchase scene in a out of the way empty lot/suburbs, a warehouse shoot-out scene, a hacienda shoot-out scene,

11) In the middle of movie, there would definitely be a trip to the country. A calm before the storm, before the killing begins.

12) The bad guy is always killed. Miserably. Never brought to justice. Just sent directly to hell.

13) At the end, if the Hero is a policeman, he escapes unscathed, just another day at work. If the Hero is a criminal, he often gets killed.

14) Somethings I missed: the title is often either the challenging tagline. You'd hear it said when the Hero encounters the Bad guy for the 1st time, or the name of the Hero if the film is based on an actual person with exaggerated events of his life.

Anybody care to add more?

There are rare exceptions to the generalities mentioned. One jewel is a Lito Lapid Film called KAMAGONG which relies solely on showcasing Arnis Cool film, wonder where we could find a copy.

[husainfatmi1989]

Hello everyone,

Well I am from London and am half Filipino. I am currently studying Media at collage and was wondering if you could let me know about your views on how the Philippines are represented in Filipino films. Either answer my questionnaire or just give me some opinions or if your really nice you could do both. I don't know about you guys but have any of you noticed that most romance films are about forbidden love?

Link to questionnaire

http://FreeOnlineSurveys.com/renders...r3t86uso240346

[godCode]

I don't know about you guys but have any of you noticed that most romance films are about forbidden love?

^^^ its the kind of love story that's 'sellable' to the masses...

[IceInHeLL]

The mushier, the better.

I don't mean to put the Filipinos down but not much intellectuals to actually appreciate great scripted films. Filipinos tend to like those who are shallow but funny films. Don't ley them watch anything that needs deep thinking or enigmatic films. The critics are so lame. They would say anything good to a film so as not to get the fury of the producers and the director. I remembered Muro-ami. That movie was so lame and yet it won in the Metro Manila Film Festival. The genre was good, the idea was even better. But the script, the storyline, the directing, it sucks big time. But still, everybody says it was such a great film. I haven't read any critics who said that the script was lame or the director should have made it more interesting. I watched that film coz I thought that it went away from the traditional movies here. It was about child labor and stuff. Got good cinematography. The underwater shots were not that bad. But the movie in general was so bad that I actually regreted wasting 50bucks (the average movie ticket during that time) for that movie.

Another movie that sells big here is ***. I don't know why but I think Fipinos are so sexually pre-occuppied (no wonder why its rape here and there. You could read it in the newspaper that fathers even rape their own daughters). I remembered the pito-pito era. Where movies were made in 7days. I don't care how long, or in this case, how short a movie is made, but all those movies are just about ***. The stories were so shallow. The producers were more interested in showing skin rather than artistry.

At least they are doing better now. Not that great yet that would actually make the Philippines proud of it, but at least its going somewhere promising. I haven't seen a really good Filipino film lately. The last I watched in the cinema that was worth recognizing was Cesar Montano's Rizal. The last film I watched was Sukob. It was lame, lame, lame. The concept was interesting but how the story goes, I mean, I think I could have done better than that. Come to think of it, it was the highest grossing Filipino film ever. People here should be more honest. Its not because it is Philippine made that Filipinos should be proud of it. For me, it doesn't matter where or who made them, movies should be judged in their artistry and not from where or who made them.

I think another downside of the Filipino movie industry is piracy. The producers are actually not making that much profit anymore because anywhere you go, you could actually find pirated VCDs or DVDs which is way cheaper than going to the theaters. Oftentimes, pirated movies gets released ahead if not almost on the same time the movie is shown in the theaters. And this goes to all movies, may it be Hollywood, European, Asian or Filipino films. I can't understand why they could never stop piracy. Its a lame excuse that when they raided these shops, they tend to be back the next day. If indeed its true, then they should raid the shops everyday. I don't think that they will be back if they get to do this. How much effort does it need to raid these shops anyway? Everyday, I see cops just sitting or chatting with each other doing nothing. And the people are supposed to be paying these cops to just sit there and make their tummies big?

On the other hand, for people not to patronize these pirated movies, they should sell original VCDs or DVD's in a cheaper price. I mean, why would I spend 500 bucks for a movie that I could actually just buy for 60bucks in the street? The theater tickets should be lowered also. 100bucks to watch a movie? That is too much! An average Filipino does not make that much money in a day! Why would they waste it in a movie? DVD players cost only a little more than 1 grand. An average pirated DVD cost around 70 bucks, and if you know how to talk crap, they will give it to you for 60 bucks. With it, you can actually have more people to watch it in the comfort in your own homes. Forget the nice seats and the strong aircondition environs of the theater.

[vanceloma]

I'd love to participate in this discussion,

but i think i'm too distracted with this thread

https://www.istorya.net/forums/index.php?topic=109526.0

[IceInHeLL]

Other people could just be shallow huh? Each on his own. As long as they don't do harm to anyone....so be it.