a short elegy to the death of filipino action films. (well, sort of.)

i was on my way to alabang to see daryl and was prepared to sleep the entire bus ride.  the bus i climbed into was playing a movie and the seat i got was directly under the speakers, so i wasn't able to sleep. it was showing an old eddie garcia movie with charo santos as the leading lady; eddie was playing a character named valentin whom everybody calls ninong (godfather).

after a quick google search, i found out the movie was valentin zapanta alyas ninong (huling kilabot ng tondo) [valentin zapanta alias godfather (the last terror of tondo)]. the title isn't really that long, as far (no pun intended) as filipino movie titles go.

despite myself, i enjoyed what part of the movie i was able to catch. i got in at that point just before the big confrontation gun fights that are staple in local action movies. goons with high-powered guns battle it out in abandoned warehouses that movie-version manila doesn't ever seem to run out of.

of course, this being eddie garcia, there's more than the usual amount of flair in the lead character -- the guy never runs out of style and sex appeal, whatever role is given to him. and it's not that he gives the same characterization for any role that he plays. eddie garcia is the most versatile, and the arguably the best filipino actor in the last fifty years or so. a typical filipino action movie is always a hoot to watch, but with eddie garcia in it, you could be assured that he could turn the lead character into a sexy, sexy rascal even if the character is really a utter scumbag. he so looks much better in the hat than how the VCD cover art shows it.

which is a common thing with filipino action flicks. they're mostly about sort-of honorable criminals or rogue but eventually kind-hearted cops. it shows some of the surreality in the filipino inner life that they would sympathize more with criminals than those on the side of the law. granted, there are foreign movies that makes the audience root for the bad guy, but there's still the slight moral admonition, however faint that might be, that the person who goes killing another person is wrong. or, if a movie lacks that kind of moralizing, the killer-protagonists are shown without much glamour. they're freaks, and those unspeakable crimes are what freaks do. filipino action movies, on the other hand, makes the hero heroic by having them kill the people who wronged them inside very convenient empty warehouses with plenty of corridors to attack your enemies from behind.

well, at least valentin zapanta featured people (those in valentin's side) killing off their enemies using thrown knives. i think guns are overrated -- a quickly and accurately thrown knife is a very dangerous thing. plus they're very, very quiet, you won't know who threw what, and from where.

at one point, the hero experienced a conflict of conscience as he confided to his leading lady (a young charo santos) that he is no longer affected by the killing of human lives, and that he is ashamed that people will remember him for his terrible deeds. the girlfriend/spouse/domestic partner/groupie charo santos plays informed him that people will always remember him for standing up for the people who are oppressed. valentin, then said she's right and became happy with his life again. too bad, i had to get off alabang just at that point where it was revealed who the real traitor in the movie was. i didn't get to see how things ended.

not that it matters a lot. filipino action films always follow a formula. they end with the hero returning home wounded but alive. the leading lady will welcome him with open arms and everything turned out alright in the end. i told recounted the movie to daryl, and he lamented how the filipino action genre is dead. someone should produce another action movie soon.