Manila in the 1960s… when the metropolis was reminiscent to the dreaded Chicago of the 1920s… When it was a concrete jungle of gangwars at its peak boiling point. From the shadows of that turmoil rises a familiar gangster, thought as dead by many people, but actually alive, and thirsty for revenge: Arturo Porcuna, aka “Boy Golden,” chased by the police, and even more by ferocious rival gangs, treads back to the streets, to seek revenge against an old adversary. Along the way, he meets Marla Dee, a sexy, unusual type of woman, obsessed with vendetta against the same gang leader Boy Golden is looking after. Together, they join forces, along with his mobster confederates from the Bahal na Gang, and members of the “Big 4” notorious suburban crime syndicate, on the war path to satisfy their thirst for revenge of the past. Boy Golden is then regarded as “unkillable,” but, in the wee hours of December 23, 1963, the living legend, who lived by the gun, will die by the gun, seeing his underworld empire for the last time. “Does crime pay?”
In Shoot to Kill: Boy Golden, Chito S. Roño revisits the gangster movie with style and maestria. With his producer and main actor, E.R. Ejercito (aka Jeorge Estregan, as an actor. He is also Governor of Laguna…), and with a stunning cinematography by Carlo Mendoza, who uses the stylised colours of the sixties to his advantage, he gives us his own vision of the violent background of gang ridden Manila at that time. It is as spectacular and “flashy” as Dynamite Fishing (Badil) is discreet and realistic in its depiction of the corruption in the province nowadays. A homage to a movie gender, and to the sixties, seen through the eyes of a dark legend.
Max Tessier