It was around 8 am, when you decided to turn on the television. Still groggy from the sudden wakening, you fish through channels annoying enough to make you want to leave the bedroom. Naturally, the first choice was on one of our local channels, always a reliable source for that jolt of irritation that only these morning talk shows can provide. But as an empty warehouse pops in the screen, it seemed very clear that a different kind of morning bang will be provided.
Metro Fairytales
The scene now shifts to the wounded protagonist. Bloodied, wounded, barely breathing, and yet strong enough to limp with one leg, as he carries a kid while cocking a shotgun with one bulging bicep, preparing for the final face-off between him and the world.
Our hero finally shouts and makes his presence known to the evil moustached antagonist – who always seem to be sporting a blue denim jacket – who acknowledges the beleaguered champion with a mocking laugh, and one last disparaging comment about our hero’s dead (i.e. mother, father, brother, dog and etc.), which makes our hero incredibly pissed that he kills half of the goons with one manly bullet.
And now the scene shifts to the most epic part of the film. Our hero looks straight into the villain’s eyes, and ours, and says… the movie’s title. Cue very necessary explosions.
Yes, those were the days. When theaters were filled with hand-drawn and Boysen-painted posters of tough men in polos and boots, clutching a scantily-clad leading lady while a funny-looking guy gives a warm smile nearby, immediately shadowed by the villains’ piercing eyes and evil facial hair.
Days where names like Rudy Fernandez, Eddie Garcia, and Fernando Poe Jr. sold movies like hotcakes and filled all cinemas in the metro, with fangirls screaming with bubbly hot excitement. It was a time when guys went to the movies for a good fight scene, and left the cinema hungry for their own piece of justice against their own villains.
Sadly, days like those have been lost in the typical morning reruns of these epic action movies; we are now served not with tales of cold revenge, but with fables full of shouting and warm feelings. Are all of the beloved tough guy one-liners, pin-up girls playing damsels in distress, and the urban fairytale where laws of physics and medical incapacities do not exist, are all riding off in the pop culture sunset?
Lights! Camera! Interaction?
Action classics trace themselves back to the post war era. Many cinemas had been built to entertain the war-depressed Filipinos. This resulted in weekly red carpet premieres at cinemas along the streets of Avenida, and establishments hanging the sign “Last Full Show” along every corner of Quiapo. Filipino filmmakers had been invigorated to make films that are not only entertaining, but also artistic and with deeper meaning. After that, Martial Law came and many theaters were closed.
It was after Martial Law that foreign films made their way to our screens. Filipino films, however, continued to stick in the industry and endear themselves to the hearts of locals. Films that featured Action, Drama, and Urban Fiction had been premiered over time, and were more or less dashed with splashes of romance. Filipino films were made accessible to everyone, and directly plotted the life of the masses, and how they achieved their aspirations for better lives, or, for the most part, just getting the girl. It was in these films where artists such as Ramon Revilla, Sr., Gloria Diaz, Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos swept their audiences away with their verve and charm, and accumulated huge fanbases along with a plethora of other action stars.
Blazing out of glory
But this was where the fault started, when action-superstar producers took loyal fans for granted. The stories and films they continued to produce became repetitive, lacked more and more in depth, and lost the creativity that had been a standard for many filmgoers. Everyone grew tired of the same-old formula of tough man hangs out with goofy guy and tries to save hot girl from evil landlord. Yes, the resemblance to the plot of Mario Bros. is very striking.
The action heroes of old also started losing their evident virility and machismo, with bicep bulges creeping down to bulges in stomachs, and their own health became a more serious villain. In addition to this, corruption played the leading role for directors as they chose actresses who became progressively younger in each movie. And producers just wanted to cash in by lowering budgets and hiring cast and crew members not based on talent but on, well, other factors. Films lost what had qualified as star quality they had lost their mass appeal and their bang.
Some resorted to other gigs such as comedic acting or bit parts in drama, and some had to retire. In fact, and very sadly for us, some actually ran for government positions despite lacking administrative experience and a direct constituency to represent. Viewers shifted to Hollywood action films with more-or-less decent plots, bigger explosions, and better production value, eventually winning the public’s eyes and hearts against local counterparts that basically had to scrape to survive.
Heroic return?
And now we ask the question, what will it take for this lost action culture to make an anticipated sequel? There have been a number of films that can be described as glimpses of a comeback, but anyone who had grown up watching these gun-toting idols shoot a Camaro running 100 miles per hour with a hand-gun only to make it explode spliced in half as scraps barely fall on his black T-shirt know, these movies aren’t what they used to be.
But there may still be hope not only for the action genre, but for the entire Filipino cinema industry. And that’s where indie filmmaking rudely and shockingly comes in. There is no doubt that they’ve been taking audiences by storm, with thought provoking plots, highly relatable dialogue, an urban Manila vibe, and raw acting that make the genre popular not only to indie buffs but also to mainstream lovers.
A great example of this prototype could be the multi-award winning Filipino biographical-crime film, Manila Kingpin :The Asiong Salonga Story. It might have been a Cinemalaya body, but it handed that throwback conception and urban roughness, which gives a refreshing whiff of air from all those looping rom-coms and horrifying mash-ups between annoying blockbuster hits, that clearly cannot take a hint about their failed sequels.
Yes people, action films have clearly found another standard in Manila Kingpin which not only delivered the formula that we have known throughout the ages, but gave it a spike of youth and excitement that is going to have us wishing we knew how to handle AK-4’s and our scotch. It is time for action cinema to load one more blazing round, and let the indie heroes take fire. Because with their help, unnecessary explosions will finally make sense.
