Seven of the top ten movies at the Philippine box office in 2007 were sequels to Hollywood blockbusters - Spider-Man 3, the fifth Harry Potter movie, the third Pirates of the Caribbean, and in the case of Transformers, the beginning of a hit franchise. Standing in the way of total American domination were three local productions: One More Chance, A Love Story, and Ouija. These three were produced by the two top television networks, featured their contract stars, and were heavily promoted on TV. The mainstream movie industry is surviving, primarily as an adjunct to network programming. Is it any wonder that the most commercially successful Filipino movies today are essentially television shows for the big screen?
Consider the number one Filipino movie of the year (number four overall), a romantic comedy called One More Chance. It stars Bea Alonzo and John Lloyd Cruz, who appear on a daily telenovela (soap opera) on ABS-CBN. Directed by Cathy Garcia Molina, One More Chance is about a young couple who separate, fall in love with other people, realise that they are destined for each other, and reunite just in time for the ending. But for the clothes and hairstyles, and the fact that the heroine has a professional career, the movie might have been made in the late 1950s. The combination of light comedy and verbose melodramatic confrontations is one of the oldest working formulas in Filipino cinema; ABS-CBN/Star Cinema has updated it with fast editing, blaring pop songs, and a supporting cast whose entire function is to offer the couple romantic advice. The real-world setting (the lifestyles of young urban professionals and the demands of their jobs) fools no one - in this movie, even the clients ask the leads if they’ve got back together yet. To its credit, One More Chance knows exactly what it is: a studio product aimed squarely at the fans of its attractive, “bankable” stars. The target audience demands “kilig” moments - scenes in which the hero and heroine openly express their feelings for each other, preferably in “quotable” lines - and the movie gives it to them. Subtlety is forbidden; everything must be overstated. One More Chance is highly successful as a product and as an advertisement for future TV shows starring Alonso and Cruz; its cinematic qualities are another topic altogether. Box office take: US$3.68 million.
ABS-CBN/Star Cinema’s other major blockbuster in 2007 was A Love Story, directed by Maryo J. de los Reyes and starring Maricel Soriano, Aga Muhlach, and Angelica Panganiban. Soriano began her career as a child star on TV, appeared in countless romantic comedy and musical movies in her teens and twenties, and was recognized as a serious actress in big-screen melodramas. Muhlach’s career followed a similar track: romantic comedies and musicals, then melodramas for a predominantly female audience. Both are accomplished performers known for their intelligence and comic timing, neither of which is given free rein in this movie. A Love Story is a domestic melodrama with stylistic aspirations: the story unfolds in a non-linear manner, and there is a quite surprising twist in the plot. Other than that, it is a very traditional melodrama: a series of highly-charged dramatic confrontations in which the characters rake up psychological issues dating back to their childhoods. Still it satisfied audiences, particularly those who wanted a glimpse at upper middle-class lifestyles: the film is set in luxury condominiums and exclusive gated communities. Box office take: US$3.12 million.
GMA, the other number one network in the country (that claim is now the subject of litigation), co-produced with Viva Films the horror-thriller Ouija. Its director is Topel Lee, an independent filmmaker making his mainstream debut. Ouija stars Judy Ann Santos and Jolina Magdangal, former child stars and rivals for the teen queen throne: Santos has become one of the country’s leading box-office stars, while Magdangal is a popular TV personality. The film uses the now-overfamiliar tropes of the “Asian horror” phenomenon, but Lee manages to show some wit and comic flair. Box-office result: US$2.1 million.
Eight other Filipino movies made it to the box-office top fifty - not exactly a bonanza for the local industry, but not bad for an industry which was supposed to have died years ago. Wenn Deramas, who some years back helmed the monster hit The Only Mother (Tanging Ina) starring Ai Ai de las Alas, reunited with his star in a sequel of sorts: Your Mother Is Cute (Cute Ng Ina Mo), a comedy which made US$1.73 million. Deramas directed two other hits, both of them horror-comedies: Four Friends (Apat Dapat, Dapat Apat), and Pasukob, a parody of the very successful horror movie, The Wedding Curse (Sukob). The former earned US$1.3 million, the latter US$0.73 million. Joyce Bernal, perhaps the leading proponent of the “crazy comedy” in Filipino movies, made a fairly sedate romantic comedy, How Do I Love You (Paano Kita Iibigin). The film featured two established stars from the rival networks, Piolo Pascual and Regine Velasquez. It grossed a respectable US$1.52 million. Lino Cayetano’s first feature film, the teen romance I’ve Fallen For You, starred two winners of a television talent search, Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson, and grossed US$0.83 million. The horror movie Tiyanaks with its assortment of young TV stars garnered US$0.46. Rounding out the top fifty are GMA Films’ Batanes, starring soap actress Iza Calzado and Ken Zhu of the very popular Taiwanese pop group F4, and Topel Lee’s romantic comedy My Big Brother’s Wedding (My Kuya’s Wedding), which grossed US$0.38 million and US$0.37 million, respectively.
In the absence of network support and huge marketing budgets, movie producers can still hope to make a tidy profit by making sex dramas for the gay audience. Until the late 1990s, "bold" dramas - soft-core sex flicks - were the most profitable products of the film industry. The protests from conservative groups and the strictures imposed by the government censors only generated more publicity for these movies. Lately, producers such as Viva Films have found that the sex flick formula still works. Low-budget digital movies like The Man In The Lighthouse (Ang Lalaki Sa Parola) by Jay Altarejos which are shown only in one or two theatres with minimal print advertising and plenty of word of mouth, have produced solid returns.
The annual Metro Manila Film Festival in December is still the best incentive to produce Filipino movies. For three weeks, theatres can show only local productions, free of big-budget Hollywood competition. As expected, the festival top grossers in 2007 were sequels to earlier hits: Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo, Jose Javier Reyes' follow-up to the romantic wedding comedy Kasal, Kasali, Kasalo, and Enteng Kabisote 4 of the fantasy-comedy franchise helmed by Tony Reyes. Sakal, Sakali, Saklolo was produced by ABS-CBN/Star Cinema, featured one of its biggest stars, Judy Ann Santos, and a host of other ABS-CBN talents, and was heavily promoted on all its media outlets. Enteng Kabisote 4 featured some of GMA's most popular talents, and was heavily promoted on all GMA stations. The other festival entries, which included Resiklo, a science-fiction action movie along the lines of Transformers, and Katas Ng Saudi, a moving drama about migrant Filipino workers, could not compete with that kind of marketing and advertising.
The Metro Manila filmfest is unapologetically mainstream - the selection criteria includes commercial viability as evidenced by the presence of big-name actors. Independent filmmaking is represented at three other festivals: CineMalaya, showcasing films funded with US$10,000 grants from a private foundation; Cinemanila, an international film festival featuring a competition for local indie films; and Cinema One, an ABS-CBN event featuring films made on US$20,000 grants from the network. (CineMalaya grantees retain all rights to their work; Cinema One-funded projects become the property of ABS-CBN.) In 2007, these indie festivals produced such notable works as Jim Libiran's Tribu, a film about inner-city gangs in Tondo, Manila starring actual gang members; Autohistoria, a dream-like meditation on Philippine history and revolution by the young filmmaker Raya Martin; and Confessional, a serio-comic piece on truth, lies, and society written, directed, edited, scored by, and starring Jerrold Tarog.
Many of the movies that come out of these festivals will make the rounds of the international filmfest circuit; few, if any, will have commercial theatrical runs in Manila. Perhaps the best-known Filipino filmmaker on the international festival circuit is Lav Diaz, whose films have garnered acclaim and prizes in Europe, but are largely unseen at home. By rejecting the strictures of mainstream commercial filmmaking and choosing projects that appeal largely to foreign critics and cineastes, Filipino indies have raised the question: Who are they making movies for? There must be a way to make films that will engage the Filipino audience's intelligence while making it at the box-office. For now, Filipino filmmakers are still looking.
A note on the exchange rate: In the early part of the year, when many of these films were shown, the exchange rate was about PHP 50 to US$ 1. In the last quarter the exchange rate dropped to its current level of about PHP 40 to US$ 1.
Jessica Zafra