Nearly four decades ago the biggest box office star in the Philippines was a young woman who had won a national singing competition. She played an ordinary-looking lower-class girl who vanquished some beautiful upper-class girls to capture the heart of the handsome rich boy. She had some musical numbers along the way. Nora Aunor would go on to star in many of the most important Filipino films of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. She became the greatest actress of her generation.
In 2008 the biggest box-office star in the Philippines was a young woman who had won a national singing competition. In A Very Special Love, she played the ordinary-looking lower-class girl who vanquished some beautiful upper-class girls to capture the heart of the handsome rich boy. She has some fantasy musical numbers along the way. It was Sarah Geronimo’s breakthrough role - but whether she will get a chance to star in important films or develop into a great actress remains to be seen. The time-tested commercial formula may still work, but the Philippine movie industry has been in decline since the 1990s and its survival remains in doubt.
Filipinos were once avid moviegoers, but in the last decade the audience has shrunk and movie production has decreased from an annual average of 200 a year until the mid-90s to about fifty last year. Observers blame the downturn on the domination of Hollywood movies, movie piracy, and competition from cable TV, video games, and the internet. The real reason could be simple economics. The minimum wage in Metro Manila is P389, and lower in the provinces. A movie ticket costs between P100 and P175. Do the math.
It would appear that Filipinos now go to the movies only twice a year, if at all. They may treat themselves to a blockbuster like the Star Cinema and Viva Films co-production A Very Special Love, which was heavily advertised and promoted on Star Cinema’s sister company, the ABS-CBN television network. The romantic comedy directed by Cathy Garcia Molina was headlined by Geronimo and John Lloyd Cruz, who have their own TV shows on ABS-CBN. It reportedly grossed US$3,837,000 (US$1=P45) - a very impressive sum, though some may argue that if the cost of all that advertising airtime on TV were factored into the movie’s cost, it would be significantly less profitable.
Filipinos still go to the movies in December, during the annual Metro Manila Film Festival. The Metro filmfest has been a holiday tradition since the 1970s: for two weeks at the end of the year, no Hollywood or foreign movies are shown in local theatres. Once a showcase for cinematic achievement, the Metro filmfest now exists mainly as a lifeline to film producers - it’s the one time of the year that their movies are guaranteed to make a profit. Festival entries are chosen by a committee designated by the town and city mayors of Metro Manila, and the primary selection criterion is commercial potential.
The top grosser at the 2008 Metro filmfest was Star Cinema’s Tanging Ina Ninyong Lahat (The Only Mother Of You All), which reportedly earned close to US$4 million. The comedy was directed by Wenn Deramas and starred Ai-Ai De Las Alas and a herd of young stars from the Star Cinema talent pool. It was the sequel to Tanging Ina (The Only Mother), one of the highest-grossing movies in Philippine history. Adjudged Best Picture at the filmfest was Baler, a romantic epic set in the Philippine Revolution against Spain. It was directed by Mark Meily and produced by Viva Films.
Sharon Cuneta was the country’s biggest box-office draw in the 1980s. Her winning formula was slightly different from Nora Aunor’s. In a series of blockbusters she played the wholesome rich girl who vanquished the prettier rich girls to capture the heart of the handsome rich boy, with a scattering of musical numbers along the way. Cuneta has appeared in fewer movies in the last decade. Last year she starred in Star Cinema’s Caregiver, directed by Chito Roño from a screenplay by Chris Martinez.
There are more than ten million Filipinos living and working overseas to support their families back in the Philippines. Caregiver is the story of one overseas Filipino worker, a former schoolteacher who goes to London with her husband to work in a retirement home. Roño (Feng Shui, Sukob), one of the most inventive Filipino filmmakers, has made a familiar melodrama about the family separated by economic necessity and the lonely alien trying to find her way in a new country. Its take on the Filipino diaspora clearly resonated with the Filipino audience at home and abroad: Caregiver was one of the biggest hits in a lean year, taking US$3,108,000 at the box office.
KC Concepcion is local movie royalty: the daughter of Sharon Cuneta and former matinee idol Gabby Concepcion. After taking up fashion design in Paris and appearing in theatrical productions and countless print and television ads in Manila, she made her movie debut in For The First Time, also produced by Star Cinema. She was paired with matinee idol Richard Gutierrez, also the son of movie stars, in a romantic comedy directed by Joyce Bernal (D’Anothers, Mr Suave). KC was prettier than the other rich girls pursuing rich and handsome Richard in the movie, but she also got to do some singing. The comedy suddenly takes a turn for the serious, and many tears are shed, but the audience didn’t seem to mind - For The First Time grossed US$2,850,000.
Richard Gutierrez appeared in another romantic comedy hit produced by GMA Films, a subsidiary of GMA television network. His leading lady was Marian Rivera, who like him is a star of GMA’s top-rating daily fantasy TV series. Directed by Mark Reyes (Resiklo), My Best Friend’s Girlfriend made US$2,427,000 during its extended Valentine run in local theatres. Otherwise the romantic comedy/melodrama genre was ruled by Star Cinema, whose other hits in the past year included When Love Begins (box office gross: US$2,046,000), a romantic melodrama directed by Jose Javier Reyes and starring Aga Muhlach and Anne Curtis, My Big Love (US$1,632,000) starring Sam Milby and Toni Gonzaga, and My Only U (US$1,586,000) with Gonzaga and Vhong Navarro. Navarro, star of the crazy comedy hits D’Anothers and Mr Suave, showed off his comedic chops once again in Suhpapapalicious, directed by the late Gilbert Perez. He played a lovestruck young man who assumes a host of personalities, both male and female, in order to win the heart of his lady love.
Love is the primary subject of Filipino movies, but there are a few exceptions. Judy Ann Santos starred in the horror movie Mag-Ingat Ka Sa...Kulam! (Beware Of Witchcraft), and in the independent drama Ploning, which she also produced. Two comedians from a daily variety show on TV got their big movie break in the spoof comedy Scaregivers, directed by Uro de la Cruz (Katayan). The animated film Urduja starring Regine Velasquez was an attempt at a musical historical romance along the lines of Walt Disney’s Pocahontas, with talking animal characters. The digital animation was all right, but the story foundered.
Independent filmmakers continued to produce movies in record numbers, but with very few commercial theatres available to them, and limited budgets for advertising and promotions, they could not compete with the mainstream studio products. Apart from university-based film societies, film festivals such as Cinemalaya, Cinema One, and Cinemanila were the main venues for independent movies. Last year’s notable Cinemalaya entries included Francis Xavier Pasion’s Jay, a deadpan comedy about truth and the media; Chris Martinez’s 100, a comedy-drama in which a terminally-ill woman makes a list of 100 tasks she must accomplish before her death; and Tara Illenberger’s Brutus, in which two children from the remote Mangyan tribe embark on an adventure involving illegal loggers, communist rebels, and government soldiers. The Cinema One Originals competition produced Sherad Anthony Sanchez’s Imburnal, a docu-drama about children living in the sewers of Davao; and Richard Somes’s Yanggaw, a horror movie about a family which must deal with the discovery that one of them is turning into a monster.
The prolific Brillante Mendoza directed Serbis, the first Filipino film in more than twenty years to compete at the Cannes Film Festival. One of the most divisive films of recent years, Serbis has opened in New York, Paris, and other major cities - where it has generated far more discussion than it ever did during its very short run in the Philippines.
As for the future, some independent filmmakers are trying to build a new film industry while the mainstream studio filmmakers are doing their best to keep the old, ailing film industry alive. Meanwhile we, the viewers, are still waiting for something to watch.
Jessica Zafra