PINOY•COMICS•TV•MOVIES

What’s Wrong With The Current RP Indie Comic Books (According To All Anonymous Out There)

2010-02-07T21:08:00.000-08:00

This is SOPHIA BOOKS in downtown Vancouver, BC. This is my favorite comic store because it's multilingual. It carries all comic books from allover the world.

If comic books are dead, why do we always see these fans buying comics in Vancouver, BC?

Complaints, complaints, and more complaints.

That opening sentence is definitely fragmentary and Strunk and White of that age-old Elements of Style rules would have definitely chewed my ear off for using it, but fuck the duo. It is there to emphasize the dissatisfaction of many irritated, disillusioned-sounding “anonymous” posting their sometimes nonchalant, other times extremely bitter, if not abusive – comments against the status of RP’s indie comic books.

A Neighborhood comic book store in Vancouver, BC.

However, this is now the time to give all of you the opportunity to be truthful in expressing your views.

Would Bayani Fernando's alipores not kick you out of Cubao's sidewalks if you've worn something like this? Another "anything goes" in crazy Vancouver.

It has been going on for quite sometime now, that these – what we call in Bicol – “tawong lipod”, meaning the “unseen people,” have been harping day in and day out on the dismal state of the RP comic book indie publishing. The other group, however, would swear to high heavens, how excellent these Indie comic books are, and that the anonymous critics are so blatantly unfair. By the way, Tawong Lipod is used to describe the MALIGNO in the Bicol region. They’re there in our midst, but most people do not see them (just like the anonymice in the world wide web), unless one has been born with very sharp psychic perceptions.

Another neighborhood comics outlet in Vancouver.

Once and for all, I am opening a “portal” to let all the spirits, including poltergeists and other demonic entities, to enter into the world of “Tawong Lipod”, so that we can tackle this unsettling issue of RP Indie Comic Books. These unnamed critics have been pleading to be given the opportunity to unleash their dissatisfaction and their right to be heard. Well, the time has come for that opportunity.

Golden Age Collectables, one of the biggest comic book stores in downtown Vancouver.

But, let me make this clear, though. All comments will be screened. I am allowing the names of authors to be mentioned, the title of the book, and the review of the book. However, personal vendetta, invective, and/or innuendos, such as the ones relating to one’s sexual orientation, status in life, and other personal things, will not be allowed.

Would you be caught dead wearing one of these costumes in downtown Cubao? Comic book fans donning their favorite superhero costumes during Free Comics Day in downtown Vancouver.

I am expecting every criticism (pro or against a book) to be written with care and civility. We are here to express CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM, and nothing more. Constructive criticism, by the way, is an honest-to-goodness review of the book. It should be fair even if one is disagreeing with the book. Say why you like or don’t like a particular Indie Comic Book and the accompanying explanation. I will allow phrases that professional critics use in their work to make the language colorful and alive and to give emphasis to an idea, but any abusive word will definitely be flushed in the toilet.

Laban kayo sa kanya? He could barely walk, but he's already a comic book fan! Way to go, wee one!

Well, then, let’s hear your brilliant ideas, critics. Let’s also hear your response, Indie Comic Book creators. If your book has been critiqued, you are more than welcome to give your response. If you chose not to respond, that’s fine as well. Rest assured that I am doing this here in my blog to give both sides the opportunity to exchange both side’s ideas, and if we can come up with satisfactory outcome, it will be the best of both worlds for all.

Archie comics just won't go away. They're everywhere in every nook and cranny of the north American landscape.

The portal is now open. You are all cordially invited to express your views. You may come in.

Confronting Our Mortality

2010-01-27T22:51:00.000-08:00

It is always good for us to confront our mortality.
It makes us see where we're going, what we can do to make our existence meaningful, hope to be good to our fellowman.

I usually stroll in cemeteries. I read what's written on gravestones and markers. Sometimes, what you read can make you sad. Some people die at a very young age, others very old, many are at the prime of their lives.

And now...
We can see images that are real to tell us how vulnerable we are as human beings.
Nobody lives forever, and the images we see can give us a very good lesson in life.

We have to be brave. Don't hesitate now. Let's go to:

www.kiuma.com
or
www.viraldeath.com

and confront our own mortality.

The Filipino Boy And The Death Of Murnau

2010-01-26T00:49:00.000-08:00

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau – the tragic film genius

Despite the fact that the Philippines has been producing films in Manila sine 1899, Filipinos were never heard of in America, let alone in Hollywood, during the 1930s.

The first time a Filipino became an item in Hollywood was in 1931 when a freaky accident happened in Los Angeles, where German-born Hollywood film director genius Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau died. This tragic event was in fact the very first time a Filipino became part of the Hollywood scene – and how!

Nosferatu, Murnau's well-known horror feature is amongst the creepiest horror films

Murnau, a proponent of the expressionistic film movement in Europe and who directed the film NOSFERATU – a milestone in the history of world cinema – was gay. He was well-known to like young boys.

In 1931, seven days before the premiere of his film TABU, he allowed a fourteen year-old, exotic-looking, very handsome Filipino boy named Garcia Stevenson, for a ride in his limo. And for some absolutely bizarre reason, he let the boy drive the Packard vehicle. Stevenson, driving too fast and swerving to avoid a truck, eventually crashed against an electric pole, killing the legendary film director. Garcia was not hurt, nor the other person in the car, but Murnau’s head was cracked open on a roadside pole and died in hospital shortly afterwards. He was 42 years old.

A 1930 Packard 740 Series Phaeton, similar to the limo driven by Garcia Stevenson

It was reported later on, that while Garcia Stevenson was driving, Mr. Murnau was playing with the boy’s genitals, and one report even went further by saying that the legendary director was actually performing fellatio on the boy, which distracted the latter, and eventually resulted in the tragic accident.

One of the most memorable scenes in Nosferatu that scared the hell out of moviegoers

This tragic incident was predicted by a psychic in Los Angeles and told Murnau to be careful and never ever to ride in a car for this particular trip. Murnau listened at first, but changed his mind later – a choice which led to his death.

Before Murnau came to Hollywood, he was already a well-known filmmaker in Germany. He was the most distinguished and talented of all the directors brought over to Hollywood in the 1920s with major press blitz and received the most elaborate red carpet treatment.

His first Hollywood film, Sunrise (1927) has been firmly included in the ten best lists of critics and film-historians of the world.

Sunrise (1927), is on the favorite list of film critics

Along with Fritz Lang and G.W. Pabst, Murnau was at the forefront of the outstanding creative German cinema of the early Twenties.

Pallbearers during Murnau's interment

While the scandalous rumors surrounding Murnau's death resulted in the appearance of only a handful of mourners at his funeral, Greta Garbo showed up during the interment. She requested that a death mask be made, which she kept on her desk throughout her life.

Murnau was buried in Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf, a cemetery at the outskirts of Berlin

Greta Garbo went to Murnau's interment

And Garcia Stevenson?

Would you like to know what happened to our kababayan after the scandalous accident?

Well, one source revealed in 1986 that he was still alive and was still a hunk-looking grampa at 69.
:)

Do You Believe In Psychic Abilities?

2010-01-20T23:52:00.001-08:00

In the mid to late 1970s, I was part of the fund-raising concerts for indigent heart patients at the Philippine Heart Center for Asia. We had Andy Williams, Jack Jones and Tony Bennett. The last concert I was involved with was the Tony Bennett Show, and I was in-charge of advertising, solicitation and the distribution of tickets. We were targeting executives of multinational companies and other large companies in the Philippines. The ticket for this dinner concert was Php 5,000 per plate. In those days, minimum wage was Php 13.00 per day (Php 260 per month). You can gauge how much the price of the ticket for this concert in those days.

The Manila Hotel.

One morning, I went to Manila Hotel to see the guy running the hotel, an official business regarding the concert. As I sat at the hotel’s restaurant, waiting for my breakfast order, a guy in Barong Tagalog approached my table, smiled and said:

“May I join you?”

The place was full of people, and I was the only one sitting alone at a table, and I told the guy:
“My pleasure.”

He sat across from me, and the waiter came. The guy in-front of me ordered his breakfast, and the waiter turned away. I felt the goodness of the person in-front of me.

“Since we’re sitting at the same table, maybe we should introduce ourselves to each other? My name is Brother John.”

“Now, that’s unusual,” I said. “You’re telling me that your first name is Brother, and your last name is John?”

He laughed nervously. “You already know my initials, but you refuse to concentrate to find what they mean.”

“Actually, no. I have no idea.”

“Okay, my name is John. John Edralin. I used to be a seminarian. My dream was to become a priest. Now, people I know simply call me Brother John.”

“And what happened to your dream?”

“Didn’t you know? Some are called, and others are chosen.”

“Interesting,” I said. “Did you know that my original dream was to become a priest as well? I’ve always dreamed of helping people of their spirituality. I’ve always imagined myself delivering the sermon, inspiring the congregation to have hope, believe in love, and learn charity. Man, it would have been the noblest thing I could have done for my fellow man.”

“We’ve actually known that, didn’t we?” Brother John said. “I have chosen your table because I felt you.”

“You felt me? What do you mean?”

“I guess I can’t encourage you to participate in an exercise.”

He took out his pen and several sheets of writing paper. He started to draw. Four hearts. Then a TV screen. Then he said: “You’re connected to these things, aren’t you?”

Is this guy trying to bull shit me? He must have known that I was involved in Imelda Marcos’ fund-raising campaign for the poor heart patients confined at the Philippine Heart Center for Asia. The hospital’s logo of course has the image of four hearts. And the TV screen, why, I was also involved in television.

But, before I could do anything, he spoke again: “You’re missing the Bicol Region. You adore the place. But, you were heart-broken once and you’re afraid to revisit sad memories of your adolescent.”

I felt violated, and I got up to bolt out of the restaurant.

“Your father is very sick right now. I am so sorry. It won’t be long now before he leaves us. But then again, this is no longer news to you, is it?”

I couldn’t believe what he said. I sat down.

A lone coyote in the memorial park. I tried to lure it to come towards me but it just went away.

“Please don’t play with my emotion right now. I’m so emotionally drained because of my father’s illness. If this is a joke, please stop it.”

“Why do you refuse to acknowledge what you have?” He started writing again. This time, a name: Erlinda.

“She misses you like the way you miss her. You bid her goodbye when you were thirteen. Tears were running down her cheeks when you kissed her lips. You miss her so much, don’t you?”

I felt a cold chill on the back of my head. This guy was pushing me to the brink.
“I do,” I said, totally succumbing to his words. They were all so true.

“You were not meant for each other, and you know that already. You have to think of her as one of your friends. You will meet other women and will eventually find your partner. You will be very happy, but it will be short-lived.”

“Short-lived? And why is that?”

The waiter came. He placed our order at the table. For me: Mango juice, Cassava bibingka, and a fruit platter. For him: Coffee, several toasted bread with butter, strips of fried bacon, truffled egg benedict.

“You already know the answer,” he said after the waiter went away. “Why do you still ask me? You still can live your life to the fullest despite all the outcome. When the right moment comes, you’ll be okay. It will be difficult, but there’s nothing that you can’t overcome.”

“You’re a fortune teller” I said.

He smiled like an imp.

“You know I’m not. You know exactly what I am. What I read, feel, you also do. We both know the past, the present and the future. You know you’re going to the USA, but you will live in a country that begins with a letter C,” then he laughed, almost giggling, teasing me.

“Not really,” I said.

He smiled: “Why do you still refuse to recognize your gift?” He said. “I know the things you see, you felt. They were trying to reach out for you since your childhood, yet you refuse to listen to them. You know what I’m talking about, and I won’t insist that you embrace it. Whether you accept it or reject it, there will be no significant effect in your life. If you decide to go for it, join the Rosicrucians. It will reinforce what you already have. I developed my gift fully after I joined the group. Don’t deny the things you’ve seen since your childhood. You’ve pulled the shut off valve to the spirits in the house, the evil ones trying to hurt you. You’ve shrugged your shoulders at them instead of acknowledging them. They will not leave you until you face them and pay attention to them.”

Mountainview cemetery in Vancouver, BC. Hundreds of Hollywood films were shot in this cemetery, including TV series such as Highlander, The X Files, Vampire Diaries and many more.

I didn’t say a word. I knew what he was talking about.

Finally, I told him: “If you’re indeed for real, tell me at what age I will die.”

“Is this a test?” He replied, smiling sweetly. “Here’s a piece of paper. Write down a number. Make sure you cover it so I don’t see it. I will write a number. I will hide it so you won’t see it. Then, both of us will reveal what we’ve written on the table.”

I took the paper, and I wrote a number. He also wrote something on his paper. Then, we both placed our pieces of paper on the table. Both papers said: 78.

So what – if today’s Filipino comic book practitioners want to dominate the world?

2010-01-12T22:45:00.000-08:00

World domination.

This item had triggered much emotion lately in this blog. A group of people are totally against it, others are taunting the komiks practitioners whom they claimed to be stupid dreamers who are trying to fool themselves. Pretty heavy accusation, I must say. These critics are against any comic books printed on glossy stock, written in awkward “Filipino English”, whose themes, they claim, are nothing but mere imitations of Hollywood stuff that dreams are made of. These critics’ mantra is: the komiks should be written in Tagalog, printed on newsprint, in black and white, and must be sold cheap (I guess as cheap as products made in China?).

After 25 years of not drawing anything, I've decided to draw a book jacket using nothing but Adobe Illustrator pen tool and the software's effects. It's very quick, very good for PANG-DILIS and not PANG-LECHON work which Kapre described during his local komiks adventures. HHHHHHH. This type of graphic novel is thumbs down according to the critics because this is not Tagalog and not cheap paper.

Meanwhile, the Filipino superhero comic books are done in Tagalog, printed on newsprint, also in black and white, and cheap (maybe a little more expensive than those made in China products), and yet, these critics also reject the latter genre, because they claimed that the themes of superheroes are nothing but an (again) imitation of Hollywood stuff that dreams are made of.

So, what, according to these critics, are the acceptable local komiks?
Well, if you’ve taken any Yoga lessons, be prepared to say in unison:
OOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM.

And that means:
• Tagalog
• Newsprint
• Cheap
• No Superheroes
• No English
• Filipinos: in terms of theme, story, characters, sentiment, outlook
• No abusive slang such as: fuck you, what the fuck, you mother fucker, you sonofabitch, you fucking shit hole, you fucking ass hole, you piece of shit, you turd fucker, ass sucker, ass-peddler, bishop beater, monkey spanker, packet catcher, dicky-licker, dingle-dangle sucker...

...Oh, well. You get the drift.

This graphic novel will receive thumbs down because the characters are not speaking Tagalog, and the life it is depicting is not Filipino at all. Give me a little time to practice drawing again and you can add me to your list of world dominators. HHHHHHHH

Therefore, if your book does not conform to these requisites and/or guidelines – well, you’re out of luck, bud. They will fight tooth and nail, even to the death – to campaign against your masterpieces.

It would be healthy to confront this issue head on once and for all. Let’s brainstorm on what can be done to make these two groups meet in the middle? Let’s express our opinions as honest as we can (without naming names, please, and without thrashing my unsteady drawings from the lack of practice), so that we might find some sort of concession to settle this burning issue.

Don't worry about my drawings. This is just added to put some visuals here. What's important is your reaction to the topic that we all want to settle once and for all.

Remember now. You can express your feelings freely, but if you mention any names in a negative context, your message will be dropped like a hot potato... er... kamote pala. So, you can only mention someone's name when it is presented in a positive light.

And I ask, again: So what – if today’s Filipino comic book practitioners want to dominate the world? Do you have any suggestion/advice?

Speak up, my children, speak up.

-Your Father Confessor

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF LEOPOLDO SALCEDO

2010-01-11T00:30:00.002-08:00

Leopoldo Salcedo, dubbed as Philippine Movies' "The Great Profile"

“Guys, what are these prewar actors doing here in the studio today?”
Asked one of the production people on the set of one of my TV shows being taped.

“We’ve been seeing all these old actors come alive. I thought they have died already,” said another.

“Aha!” The Floor Director said. “I know why, it ‘s because Joemari Lee is here!”

Everybody blurted out laughing. This became a standard joke among my colleagues in BBC-Channel 2.

Of course, the production people involved in any of the shows I was writing for that time knew all along that when there was a role for an older person in the drama, rest assured that a prewar actor was always my choice.

Everybody knew as well, that prewar actors were the true performers. They seemed not to make mistakes during tapings and were they ever good.

One of these prewar actors was LEOPOLDO SALCEDO.

He was one of our most talented, handsomest actors, and he was someone who looked and act like a true, honest-to-goodness gentleman: always well-dressed, good-mannered, confident, stylish, charming, gregarious, and a very witty conversationalist. A true image of a debonair that I didn’t seem to see anymore in the younger actors of those days.

Leopoldo Salcedo with Nela Alvarez in SIERRA MADRE, BUNDOK NG HIWAGA
Photo from Kabayan Central

In the 1970s, he was still appearing in local movies and I made sure I cast him in my scripts in TV dramas. He was indeed a fantastic actor, he came on time, ready, all the dialogues memorized (just like Rosa Rosal). While the younger actors were all fumbling during the rehearsal before the take, Pol and Rose were patiently trying their best to understand the shortcomings of younger actors (except Gina Alajar, of course, who would also come to the set well-prepared, and whose caliber was A1).

One conversation I had with Pol that really stuck in my mind was when we were outside the studio of Broadcast City one taping day of the show Alindog. While waiting for all the cast to arrive, we both leaned on the railings on the top landing of the stairs leading to the studio, overlooking the vastness of the network compound – the same raillings where the child Romnick Sarmenta would wait before taping starts. The same raillings where, after seeing me arrive, the child would hurry to meet me, and would jump right at me where I would raise him above my head, up and down, three to four times, while he was laughing hysterically.

So, while Pol and I looked out to the vastness of the compound of the biggest network in RP in those days, he suddenly said:

"Joey, I'm celebrating my 66th birthday this weekend. Do you have time to come to my house?"

"Of course, I will find the time, just for you, Pol. I'm sure all your friends in showbiz are coming as well?"

"Oh. God, no. Many of them are gone now. The ones I worked with like Rose (Rosa Rosal) are much younger than I am. It's really sad when you grow old. You wake up one day, realizing that your closest friends are not around anymore because they have passed on. It makes you feel so all alone. In my youth, every time I would celebrate my birthday, it was always a big event. Producers, directors, movie stars, movie scribes, and even my fans would be there. It was wonderful. Life was beautiful. Now, they're all gone. Sometimes, some people I used to know would even ignore me when they see me."

I choked, and it took me a few minutes before I gathered myself together.

"Pol," I said, "you may be old now, some people may ignore you now, but always remember that you are Leopoldo Salcedo who made many ordinary people happy. They went to see your movies and for two hours, at least you've lightened their load. You made them forget their problems at least for a few moments, and they’ve gone home refreshed, inspired, even thankful for being alive – because there was someone like you who made their daily toil bearable, thus lessening their miseries. You are one of the Philippines' finest actors, and your name will never be forgotten for a long, long time. I will admit to you that when I write a character in my script, and I know that it will be you who would play that role, I feel so happy because I know that, that particular role will be in good hands. You are a great actor and thank God for giving you to us."

He said: "Thank you for all the kind words. You are a good kid. And each time I see you, I am reminded of my children. I wish I had been a better father for them."

I turned to look at him. He was looking away at the distance. There was a profound sadness on his face. We both remained quiet. After a long beat, I told him:

“Pol, nobody’s perfect. We are all infallible. There is no such thing as “slam dunk” formula for being a perfect parent. We all have shortcomings. The only thing we can do is to try to do our best. You’re not a bad father. I know you’ve tried your best.”

“I could have tried my very best,” he said. “But my career had always gotten in the way. I seldom saw them because I was always busy. I could have made them my first priority.”

“Sometimes, we are trapped by life. We have to make choices for our loved ones. Some parents are always at home with their children, yet they can’t afford to give them the bare necessities of life. You have chosen what you thought was the best for your loved ones and that was a wonderful thing. Don’t worry about the past. You’ve done okay as a father. “

I extended my hand to give him a handshake.

“Happy 66th birthday in advance.” I said. And we smiled at each other.

Leopoldo Salcedo with Vida Florante in SIERRA MADRE, BUNDOK NG HIWAGA
Photo from Kabayan Central

Suddenly, Charo Santos appeared at the landing of the stairs, greeting both of us. She was replacing Alma Moreno that day because Alma was filming in Baguio City. And we all went inside the studio.

In my mind, I remember the lyrics of one of Shirley Bassey’s songs:

“But love, if you had been behind the curtain when it fell
When all the lights were out, and I was all alone
You would have seen this actress crying.”

A SLICE OF LIFE 1: MY FIRST DRIVING EXPERIENCE IN THE PHILIPPINES

2010-01-03T16:59:00.001-08:00

At age 15 (two months before I turned sixteen), I figured I should stop asking our family driver or my older brother or older sister to be driving me around. Everyone at home became worried when I declared to the whole family at the dining table one evening: “I’m ready to drive a car of my own!”

My mother’s reaction was: “With the kind of traffic we have here in the city, I don’t think it will be sensible for someone as young as you are, to drive!”

My father seconded: “There are just too many reckless drivers out there, and you’re a bit too young. Wait for another year, maybe two – by then you’d be old enough to do so.”

“You always want to grow old too quickly,” my older brother told me. “Relax. I’m still here, and I can drive you when you go to the studio at midnight for your taping sessions.”

The words that came out of my mouth surprised everyone: “I don’t get it. If at thirteen, I was old enough to have sex, why am I not old enough to drive a car at fifteen?”

Silence. Everyone, especially my four sisters, glowered at me in disbelief and annoyance. We were brought up allowing to express our opinions freely, but this latest repartee was a rude awakening for everyone.

Cubao during rush hour, photo by Istvan Hidvegi

“You had your first time two years ago?” My brother said with wide eyes open. “My God, I’m a late bloomer, then. My first foray into sexual intercourse was when I was sixteen!”

“Now, I have no time listening to all your nonsense, boys! And especially you,” My sister (who became a nun) said with embarrassment and clearly offended, pointing at me. “And I thought you said you want to become a priest, thank you very much!” She got up and left the table.

My father took a deep breath and exhaled, then smiled: “Okay, okay. I’ll let you drive, but first, I want you to go to a driving school. This very popular driving school in Quezon City will train you to become an excellent driver.”

I got up, hurried towards between my dad and my mom, hugged them and kissed their cheeks. By the way, I forgot to mention that I came from a family of kissers. We kiss our parents when we arrive home, and they kiss us in return. We kissed our parent’s goodbye, we kissed them when we woke up in the morning, etc., etc. In short, we were like one happy Mafioso family (who even kiss their co-gang members scheduled to be butchered in a matter of a few minutes before execution). But, no. We did not execute any members of our own family.

But, you may ask: man, what has this got to do with my first driving experience?

A lot, actually. Because this incident was the plot point (from a scriptwriter’s POV) that made the story turn around, and which, had catapulted it into another direction.

I will not mention the name of the so-called EXCELLENT driving school that everybody talked about in Quezon City, which, I think, had hoodwinked many people including my own father.

So, I went to the well-known driving school. It had a presentable facade, spacious compound, and lots of standard transmission cars for student drivers.

Its syllabus was nothing to sneeze at. It divided the lessons in four parts:
• Lecture on the mechanics of a North American cars vs. European cars vs. Japanese cars.
• Familiarization of different car parts
• Lecture on trouble shooting and car care
• Actual road driving experience

Very comprehensive! I whispered to myself.

My first day was the lecture, and I indeed became enlightened to the difference between the North American, Japanese, and European cars. I also became aware of the different car parts and how to operate them. I also enjoyed the trouble-shooting lectures.

But, the actual road driving experience was another story.

On my first day of driving, I met my driving instructor on our way to the parking lot to go to the car I would be driving. The instructor began talking to me. The first thing I noticed was his somewhat slurred speech. I thought, oh, well, maybe he had some speech problem. He was bragging to me that he was one of the best drivers in the Philippines, that he got his international driver’s license in California and took the road test in Los Angeles, and got one of the three highest scores among the examinees.

Really. Then I must be in good hands.

When we entered the car, the first time he opened his mouth, I smelled alcohol. Hmm, what’s going on here?

The school bragged about their facilities, yet when I started the engine, I realized that he didn’t have his own steering wheel! He placed his foot on top of my foot to control the clutch. Oh, my!

First, we drove along the quiet road by the school and everything was fine. He showed me the “hanging” technique and how to control a standard transmission. The lesson was going well when suddenly, he said: “I think you’re ready to hit the highway. Let’s go to EDSA!”

I hesitated: “It’s now rush hour. Do you think it’s a good idea to go there?”

He was agitated by my suggestion: “Huwag ka na ngang nag-i-English at naiilang ako! At saka ba’t mas marunong ka pa sa nagtuturo sa iyo? Sino ba sa atin ang estudyante, ikaw o ako?”

“Di ba’t obvious naman ang sagot diyan, at di na dapat itanong. Ang inaalala ko lang, ngayon lang ako humawak ng manibela, tapos pupunta tayo sa highway, at rush hour pa.”

“Masyado kang matalino,” was his curt reply. “Basta doon tayo sa EDSA.”

So, to EDSA we went. Gosh, the reckless drivers were having their merriest moments. They passed, they cut, they honked like there were no tommorow. It’s not as bad as Interstate 5 leading towards the entrance to Seattle City Center, but EDSA was bad enough due to undisciplined drivers who didn’t seem to understand the meaning of Defensive Driving.

These snaking freeways leading to Seattle city center may look harmless, but try driving here during rush hours, especially during a long weekend, and you'd probably swear to high heavens never to take this route ever again. The flow of the traffic is extremely smooth, but nobody's keeping the speed limit. Everybody's speeding. One driver error could mean a huge disaster.

When I reached the Cubao area, I watched from my side view mirror a small orange bus coming in full speed, passed me and abruptly cut me to pick up a waiting passenger on the sidewalk.

The instructor had a conniption.

“Putang inang baby bus iyan, ah! Ginitgit tayo! Hintayin mong umandar iyan at ipapakita natin sa anak ng putang iyan kung ano ang ginawa niya sa atin.”

Don't let this bright, multi-colored lights outlining the Seattle Interstate 5 (I-5) leading to Seattle City center fool you as something exalting to your spirits. Only when your car becomes one of the many lights you'd realize why the moth in Rizal's story got burned by the lamp. Taken from Dr. Jose P. Rizal Bridge in Seattle, Photo by Charles Middleton.

So, when the little orange bus glided again, he ordered me: “Ngayon, habulin mo ang anak ng putang iyan.” He said while honking nonstop.

“Bakit pa, para ano pa?” was my protest.

“Putang... isa ka pa! Sinabi nang habulin mo! Habulin mo!”

He was fuming mad and was forcing his foot on the gas, so I had to obey. I drove like a maniac and ran after the baby bus. When we got ahead of it, my brilliant instructor who got his licensed from Cali (I don’t think so), told me to: “Gitgitin mo. I-cut mo ang putang ina. Dali. I-cut mo at ipreno mo nang bigla para maleksion ang anak ng putang iyan!

Well, I did exactly that. I cut right in-front of the baby bus and stopped.

SCREEEEEEECH! The baby bus missed us by a few inches.

The Dr. Jose P. Rizal Bridge in Seattle, Washington.

The instructor got out and hopped on the bus, and I swear he was about to beat up the other driver, but thanks to the lady konduktora and some civic minded passengers, the THRILLA IN EDSA had been aborted.

The incident had given me migraine. And I can say for sure that one of my most unforgettable experiences in life was my first driving experience in the Philippines.

WHO IS THE KING OF PHILIPPINE COMIC BOOKS?

2009-12-30T00:13:00.000-08:00

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Supremong Kapre (Floro Dery) will take another stab at a topic that, according to him, would rattle many comic book fans: Filipino Comics Kings with no crowns, scepters, throne, and even kingdoms.

Intriguing enough?

Well, maybe I should present who the possible candidates are for this title.

It is of paramount importance, therefore, to ask the comic book fans to cast their votes on whom they think is the True Comic Book King of Philippine Comic Books. I am including the names here of the candidates. Your vote will be counted according to your choice. Post the name of your choice and the reason you think why he should be called the King of Philippine Comic Books. Since there is transparency here, dagdag-bawas will not work. So, cheaters, you're out of luck.

Here are our candidates:

1. MARS RAVELO
2. FRANCISCO COCHING
3. CLODUALDO DEL MUNDO
4. PABLO GOMEZ
5. CARLO CAPARAS

Each candidate has some strong points and weak points as a comic book creator. Since I am very familiar with the bulk of works of these candidates, let me give you some backgrounder about them.

MARS RAVELO

The Good:
His comic serials had mass appeal and quite entertaining. He had a solid grip on human foible. The psychological darkness of his characters even reminded me of Dostoevsky's characters. He had a wide sense of humor. Watch a Ravelo serial translated to film and you’d see the audience in the theater laughing in one moment, then crying the next. Many of his serials reflected the Filipino way of life. Many of his heroes were ordinary people and/or the ones on the fringes of society – the poor or the marginalized: Kwatang, Facifica Falayfay, Roberta, Gabriel in Maruja, the physically ugly spinster Bruna Bangengak, snake head Valentina, fish bottom Dyesebel, the bashful Kapre Goro, the Impakta head behind Rona, and even the deadly Bartola. His antiheroes are all looking for poetic justice. They all possessed good hearts until they were trodden by their fellow human beings, generally, the brutish beast macho men: Valentina after being bum rapped by her town mates and lover Edwardo for the mere reason that she was born different (I mean being born a snake head is different, isn’t it?). Ursula, who was a victim of domestic violence, and after deliberately entombed by her husband in an old cemetery, she ate rotting flesh of the dead, and soon she was on her merry way to becoming an Asuwang, and, finally ate the liver of her husband. Bartola, for being fooled by men due to her physical ugliness, so, when she used that ax to butcher the men, we can’t exactly blame her 100% for doing so or can we? Mars Ravelo didn’t spare any subject under the sun: child abuse, homosexuality, nymphomania, satyriasis, metempsychosis (reincarnation), psychic power, fear, prostitution, necrophilia – you name it, he had written it (except Adobo westerns which was Coching’s favorite, and Sinigang Royalty, which was Clodualdo del Mundo’s forté). He also wrote stories from all sorts of genre: fantasy, horror, adventure (of the Disney type); action, drama, political, period pieces. His period stories such as Maruja, Asuwang, Alicia Alonzo, and Bittersweet were well-researched and authentic looking, from costuming to social mores and general attitudes of people who lived in the era the story was set. He had never declared himself as RP’s Comics king, but the readers did. No one in his colleagues questioned the title, and since he lived until his old age, this title was attached to his name for many years, until the komiks congress happened recently, when suddenly, someone unabashedly declared himself as king of RP comics. Ravelo, despite his popularity, never threw his weight around. He never sought the limelight. He never resorted to ridiculous “costuming” or had worn a certain laughable get up such as wearing a mask like Captain Barbell, or a pair of wings on his forehead like Darna. He refused to be interviewed and call attention to himself. He didn’t even brag the fact that he had saved Sampaguita Pictures from being bankrupt after the studio had burnt down. Roberta, starring Tessie Agana, had saved the studio that produced many, many more movies for several years. Ravelo had the most serials made into films compared to Francisco Coching, Pablo Gomez, Clodualdo del Mundo, and Carlo Caparas.

The Bad:
He decidedly geared his serials towards the low brow crowd. He resorted to adding subplots to his serials that sometimes would go astray, weakening the story proper. He tended to “lift” characters from western comics to cater to the fans who loved to see foreign superheroes as local heroes.

The Ugly:
I did an experiement here in North America by showing photos of Ravelo’s superheroes to westerners who had never seen our local superheroes. Here’s their response: DARNA - WONDER WOMAN • LASTIKMAN - PLASTIC MAN • VALENTINA - MEDUSA • KAPTEN BARBELL - SUPERMAN WITH A BARBELL. He also used well-known world celebrities and made them Filipinos, with his own original stories but nevertheless patterned from the well-known personalities: Rosa Rossini was definitely Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias; Bruldo Grajo was none other than Edgar Cayce, the American psychic who even predicted the exact date of his own death.

FRANCISCO COCHING

The Good:
He was known for his action serials, but what really shone were the contemporary stories of his own time, the 40s and the 50s: Talipandas, Gigolo, Tatlong Magdalena, Gumuhong Bantayog, Maldita, Waldas. His characters are mostly Sirkian: raw and down-to-earth, they are battered by forces beyond their control, and their lives were outlined by cultural mores that constrained their behavior and their moral choices. Most of his serials were made into films, about a third of the bulk of Ravelo’s creations. Coching’s drawings made the RP comic fans awestruck, despite the short height of his heroes – something that his colleague artists questioned because most of them seemed to follow the 8-head structure by Andrew Loomis; but it made sense to me, because he was just drawing what a true Filipino looked like during his time: not too tall and more on the mesomorph/endomorph type.

The Bad:
His Adobo Westerns were treated by his critics as tongue-in-cheek and I’m with them, knowing that this era never existed in the Philippines. This genre was similar to what Sergio Leone started in Italy, the Spaghetti Western (and I won’t be surprised if he got the idea from one of Coching’s Adobo westerns). His comics serials catered more to the male audience, leaving the women out in the cold.

The Ugly:
The use of Deus ex machina to solve insurmountable conflict in some of his stories rendered them weak and undesirable. His period stories were convoluted and contrived (El Indio, Barbaro). The subjects he tackled in his stories were limited to action-adventure, domestic drama, and relationships, making Ravelo’s serials more versatile and adventurous.

PABLO GOMEZ

The Good:
Gomez’ protagonists are usually underdogs. Everybody identifies with underdogs, hence, the endearment of his characters to the comics readers, mostly the women. Life-like as if you have known them from somewhere, Gomez’ characters breathe with life. The readers identify their dreams and their hopes, agonize with their trials, celebrate with their triumphs. His storylines are engaging, the characters interesting, and the messages are thought-provoking. Many movie versions of Gomez’ serials were quite good: Donata, Gilda, Debborah, Pitong Gatang, Asyong Salonga, Mga Ligaw na Bulaklak, Anino ni Bathala. Gomez loves stories about family secrets, domestic turmoil and jealousy within the family unit. Some of his works like Bahay na Bato and Lihim na Lihim have the trimmings of Nick Joaquin’s brand of writing.

The Bad:
His characters tend to be melodramatic at most times. They usually have to deal with repression, and their minds are usually dictated by fatalist view.

The Ugly:
His characters have to face insurmountable trials and mountains of obstacles, yet in the end, they are emancipated from the quagmire, even if the result becomes contrived sometimes, but hey, it was time to end the story, so let’s do it.

CLODUALDO DEL MUNDO

The Good:
Del Mundo was both an intellectual and an entertainer of the masses. He created a big chunk of Filipino literature that many were used in schools. Yet, he had also written many serialized stories for the RP comic books. He was a very careful writer. His research was unbelievable. Many of his works in RP comics entailed stories that were almost semi-documentary in appeal, because of the subject they tackled and the surprises it delivered: an exposé. His brilliant works include: Kandelerong Pilak, Kadenang Putik, Magnong Mandurukot, and the film version of his Malvarosa won the best Picture in Asia in the 1950s, one of the early international awards won by the Philippines. His characters were never wishy-washy; they always meant business and ready to protect their lot. They were strong and well-defined, and when placed in a realistic milieu within their own universe, the outcome was three-dimensional. This was the reason every comic serial by Clodualdo del Mundo had translated beautifully as a movie.

The Bad:
In his time, stories about kings and queens were the most popular, therefore, he was writing stories about them in a Philippine setting. We can call this type of genre Sinigang Royalty. Despite the wonderful research work, these stories never happened in the Philippines and like Coching’s Adobo Western, I felt too uncomfortable reading them and/or watching them as films. He had almost always chosen Fred Carillo as his teammate in RP comics, and despite Carillo’s wonderful drawings, some genres would have looked more glamorous and/or more realistic if assigned to other brilliant artists of the so-called Golden Age of Philippine Comics. I could just imagine what Magnong Mandurukot would have looked like if it were drawn by Nestor Redondo or Alfredo Alcala. Malvarosa might have looked more “Filipino” with Elpidio Torres or Petronilo Marcelo and might have resulted with more impact and power.

The Ugly:
Just like in acting, an actor can create a character and play it with restraint like Lolita Rodriguez, or all-out like Charito Solis – and del Mundo’s writing was always on the restraint side, a disadvantage, because the readers would be looking for more. He could have adopted Ravelo’s all-out story-telling, of going out on a limb, and the devil may care if the branch he was sitting on would break.

CARLO CAPARAS

The Good:
Caparas inspires many disadvantaged individuals because of his rags to riches life story. He is definitely a very hard worker, and he really tried so damn hard to emancipate himself from poverty. Now that he’s well-off, he's still trying to achieve more embellishments to his existence. What for? Search me. He has written some good comics stories, namely, Angela Markado, Till Death Do Us Part, Ako’y Lupa, and Somewhere. When his stories are well-written, they are innovative, enthralling, and even endearing. See what happens when a writer tries to slow down and writes his material with tender loving care?

The Bad:
Caparas turns out stories like a recycling depot: used tin cans will be grounded and a new, same looking tin can will emerge from it. Many of his stories are not well-thought of, some have no redeeming value and others are just plain silly. He seems to have forgotten that quality is always better than quantity.

The Ugly:
Manoling Morato, being Caparas’ friend and colleague, should teach Caparas how to do research. Many of Caparas’ stories are so inaccurate and ridiculous from zero research. His massacre films are horrendously bad that he should really pause and reflect, take a deep breath and ask himself: Why am I rushing always? Can’t I slow down a little, think deeply and write something worthy than rushing to finish half-assed manuscripts that would only gag many people?

• • • • •

There you go, folks: our Five Candidates for RP Comics King. Before you vote for Noynoy or Gibo, make sure to vote first for these five guys.
Take it away.

My Heartfelt Condololences To The Family & Friends of Mohammad Ali Shariff

2009-12-04T18:20:00.000-08:00

This shocking news makes us to question man's inhumanity to his fellow man.
Here was a friendly, kind, extremely hard-working young man trying to enjoy life to the fullest, when suddenly, some evil, envious individual – killed the victim, Mohammad Ali Shariff just because he was granted a God-given gift of beauty.

This is revolting. These ugly Filipino men should be locked up for the rest of their lives. They're not only ugly physically, they are also ugly deep inside their souls.

The incident is almost unbelievable, something we can only read from komiks, like this short story published in mid-1970s.

It is not easy to be good-looking. People will tempt you left and right. People either like you so much or hate your guts and despise you for no reason at all.
May Mohammad Ali Shariff rest in eternal peace.

Amorsolo's "Marca Demonio"

2009-11-28T10:41:00.000-08:00

Fernando Amorsolo was born on May 30, 1892 in Paco Manila. In 1909 he went to the School of Fine Arts in the University of the Philippines. He was one of the first graduates in 1914. He went to study further in Spain through the sponsorship of a prominent Spanish man, Don Enrique Zobel, a naturalized Filipino. But, before Amorsolo left for Spain, he designed the ever popular logo "Marca Demonio" used as the label of the well-known Ginebra San Miguel. This logo showed St. Michael vanquishing the devil. A favorite drink in fiestas, weekend camaraderie, and other important celebrations, this graphic design eventually became the symbol of the Filipinos’ tenacity when facing adversities and crises; and also their vigilance to protect and fight for what is right.

I have always been a big fan of Amorsolo. I have seen his works when I was a child from the books of my older siblings, the Philippine Readers. But, by the same token, since time immemorial, I was bothered by the fore-shortening of St. Michael's right arm brandishing a serrated sword in the "Marca Demonio" bottle label. If you look closer, you'll think that the arm is somewhat attached to the Archangel's neck!

I am not pretending to be a better artist than my favorite Amorsolo, but I somehow moved the arm around a little to make it look more natural.

I may have been a fool to do this, but the label bothered me for so long and I feel I had to do something and hear other artists' opinions regarding this issue.

Meanwhile, let's lift our glasses filled with Ginebra San Miguel and clink them: "A votre sante, mesdames et à messieurs!"

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Meanwhile, there's something you shouldn't miss: Sweet SISA SAMANIEGO-ESTEVA'S concert.

Musical takes a holiday on stage when Sweet Sisa Samaniego-Esteva – stage singer/performer, product endorser and recording artist - shares her songs and performances with some of her closest friends and student-workshoppers in a unique musical concert event aptly titled I AM WHAT I AM.

A popular song of Gloria Gaynor in the 70 and from the musical play La Cage Aux Folles, I AM WHAT I AM marks the first time Sisa has her own concert that offers the unexpected gathering of some of performing arts young and promising talents who just happen to be some of her closest friends, including Ayam Barredo,Cara Barredo, Joseph Mattheu, Reuben Uy, Red Concepcion, Jay Young, Onyl Torres, Marisse Abrilla, Naths Everett and Repertory Philippines’ Summer Workshoppers, among others.

I AM WHAT I AM evokes the power and excitement of live concert performances and blends music, song and dance of its performers in a multi-faceted themes viewers will find spellbinding. On a stage that relentlessly changes color, shape and tone, the concert’s repertoire will transform the theatre into a place of music (Mama Mia, Unexpected Song), dreams (Super Trooper), comedy (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins), magic (Defying Gravity from Wicked), romance (What I Did For Love from Chorus Line and love song medley from Miss Saigon) and drama (Once Upon a Time from Brooklyn), giving viewers a rare opportunity to experience how a musical concert should be. In one night, Sisa proves Filipino music will never go out of style. With her stunning coloratura soprano voice, she brings back the romantic-comedy moments by melding the timeless beauty of classical Akoý Kampupot and medley of Christmas Songs to warm everybody’s heart.

I AM WHAT I AM is a collaboration of talented musicians and performers who wanted to work together for a common goal: to entertain. With a combination of music and stage chemistry between the performers, this concert will be a memorable musical event. Directed by George De Jesus and Choreographed by James Laforteza. Produced by Mr. Ollie Roble Samaniego and Mr. Robert John Morgan and in cooperation with the City of Makati.

I AM WHAT I AM will be staged on Dec. 21, 2009 at 7:30 PM at the Onstage 2nd Floor Greenbelt 1 Paseo De Roxas corner Legaspi St., Makati. Ticket Price: P500. Seating will be on a First Come First Serve basis. (ESM09)

SISTER THELMA

2009-11-21T00:53:00.000-08:00

It was a mildly cold night in December, a week before Christmas, in the early 1970s. A ferry was smooth sailing along Cabra Island in Lubang, an island between Batangas and Mindoro.

This is Cabra Island in Lubang, an island in-between Batangas and Mindoro.

As usual, the vessel was filled to overflowing with passengers. Most of them were housemaids who were going home to the Visayas to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones. Blasting from the ferry’s loudspeaker was Eddie Peregrina’s recording of the song What Am I Living For? Many passengers were enjoying the song, some were even singing in desafinado voices, almost in chorus, following the song.

Instantly, a bright light suddenly appeared from the sky and it shined down below, illuminating the bushes, the boulders and the trees of Cabra Island.

Cabra Island in Lubang, in between Batangas and Mindoro

A few days ago, before this ferry trip, several allegedly visionary Filipino children have claimed to have seen the Holy Virgin who had spoken with them. The publicity of the incident was still fresh in the passengers’ minds. And now, here was this bright light illuminating Cabra Island. Could this be part and parcel of the miracle?

I wasn’t a passenger in this ferry, but since my relatives owned Rodrigueza Shipping, they would be able to tell me what really happened that night. Since they were not passengers either, they referred me to the ferry’s purser, who, in turn, have told me the whole nine yards of what had really happened.

He related to me that it was the scariest experience he ever had on a ferry trip. He described to me that as soon as the passengers saw the unexplainable bright light, a deftly felt fear and excitement triggered a surge of adrenalin, resulting in the panic that almost culminated into a horrific disaster. They began screaming hysterically, many were weeping, and like stampeding wild horses, rushed towards one side of the ferry to get a glimpse of the “miracle,” causing the ferry to lean on one side that it nearly toppled!

The purser, with presence of mind, quickly turned off the music and announced over the loudspeaker, telling the passengers to get away from one side immediately or the ferry would sink. Only when the vessel began to tip over that the hysterical mob finally woke up from their foolishness and realized that they could really end up seeing the Holy Virgin prematurely – in the real McCoy place – called heaven.

When the light has finally dissipated (it was never explained by PAG-ASA what it was – though I suspect it was possibly a big meteor), everybody was traumatized both by the “miraculous light” and the tension of the near-disaster. Many housemaids approached the purser to play music in the ferry to lessen the stress of the event. They specifically asked him to play Eddie Peregrina songs, such as: I Believe, You’ll Never Walk Alone, and it should be followed by Two Lovely Flowers, Mardy, and Together Again. The purser told me that his anger towards the silly passengers would not go away just like that. Instead of playing an Eddie Peregrina song, he played a Chinese song of Hongkong recording artist Nancy Sit. This really pissed the housemaids off.

“We paid our fares!” Screamed some of them. “We want Eddie Peregrina songs, not Chekwa songs!”

Chekwa is a derogatory slang for Chinese.

But, their screams fell on the deaf ears of the purser. He was still seething from the awful near-disaster. Hence, the whole trip was graced by Nancy Sit’s Chinese songs that nobody understood and appreciated. The loud songs blasted the eardrums of the housemaids until the ferry had finally reached its destination.

And the “miracle?”

Oh, well, at least the kids have enjoyed their so-called “fifteen-minute fame.”

The panicking passengers would have caused the ferry to sink, just like the photo above.

Meanwhile, Virgin Mary sightings kept happening in the Philippines. In the 1980’s, some children from Ilocos also claimed the appearance of the virgin. Apparently, she talked about the mission of each child. Many believers, fence-sitters, and nonbelievers went to Ilocos in droves. Fights happened because the nonbelievers were there to taunt the believers, and the believers, naturally were pissed off. Thank God the fence sitters were there to pacify the warring groups.

But, let’s go back to the 1970’s, one of the most interesting and wackiest decades on earth.

I have four older sisters. When I was a child, my mother and my sisters would always read me stories. They also introduced me to the alphabet. At the age of five, I was already reading the Manila Times. When I went to school that year, the only thing my Grade 1 teacher had to teach me was writing. It was also the time when I started drawing.

The practice of reading the newspaper daily became habitual for me. During my adolescent years, the first thing I would do in the morning was have coffee while reading the morning paper. As a teenager, one morning, while browsing Panorama, a magazine supplement of the Manila Bulletin, I saw an article on a woman who claimed to have seen the Santo Niño (Baby Jesus).

This time, the visionary was not a child, but an adult named Sister Thelma.

“Now that was a new twist,” I said to myself.

Jose Rizal's residence in Calamba, Laguna.

The article described her as a healer, a God-sent individual whose mission was to heal the sick and emancipate the ailing spirits of people in turmoil. She claimed that the Santo Niño, God the Father, and the Immaculate Concepcion, had told her to build a chapel in a particular location in Calamba, Laguna, where a spring would appear and its water would heal the sick. People came in droves in Laguna to see Sister Thelma. Many have claimed to have been healed by her. She would go into a trance and would use her tongue by licking the wounds of many of her patients. She also used a wooden cross and coconut oil. She would pour oil on the cross, then lay it flat on the patient’s skin. When the patient had no illness, the cross will fall. If the patient was ill, the cross would stick on the patient’s skin and only Sister Thelma who could remove it.

“Holy shit,” was my reaction. “This one is definitely an uber faith healer. Licking the wounds. My, my. I just have to meet this person,” I told my girlfriend.

So, my girlfriend and I drove to Calamba, Laguna to see Sister Thelma.

This visionary was a thirty-something small woman with smooth olive-skin and a winsome smile that instantly melted my heart. Talking to her, I have felt – or imagined to have felt – a certain tenderness that surged allover deep within me. Could it be this charisma that made so many people trust her and surrender their salvation completely in her? She was extremely busy healing many people that day and she promised to see me the following week at the Broadcast City in Quezon City.

On the day of our meeting at the TV network, I announced to everyone that the well-publicized healer from Laguna would be coming to the studio for an interview. She arrived with two assistants. She was wearing the white habit and the white veil that she was wearing during the healing sessions. We sat across from each other at a desk and started the interview. While I was talking to her, there came a time when she suddenly fell into a trance. Her voice became like a little child and continued answering my questions. I noticed that producers, directors, actors and production people started to gather around us. Soon, we were surrounded by many people. A lady production assistant whispered to me, saying that she had been stung by a poisonous jelly fish on the beach in Cavite and the nasty wound was not healing. She asked me whether I could ask Sister Thelma if she could help her. But, before I could tell Sister Thelma about her problem, the latter turned around and said:

“Come to me, my child,” the childlike voice said. “I will heal the wound in your leg.”

The production assistant was taken aback and so was I. She approached Sister Thelma and the healer started licking the patient’s wound. After a while, the healer became very stiff. The assistants hold her and let her lie on the floor.

At this point, comedian Gary Lising taunted the lady in trance, stumping his foot near her, saying: “Cut! Cut! The scene is over! Cut!”

Suddenly, Sister Thelma spoke in a low, deep man’s voice: “I want you to listen to me! Come closer!”

The comedian kneeled on the floor and leaned towards Sister Thelma. He moved his ear closer to her mouth. She whispered something to him. The comedian’s expression suddenly changed. He got up and left, leaving everyone baffled. When the healer came to, her assistants lifted her to her feet and I asked everyone to leave us alone for the interview.

Funnyman Gary Lising.

She was an only child. She was a spoiled brat. Whatever she wanted, she got. At 17, she fancied to be queen at the town fiesta. Despite the expense, her father obliged. When she was going to college, her father asked her for just one thing: to finish her studies before getting married. She was on her last year in university when she eloped. Her father never forgave her. She and her husband lived a difficult life. They had two children. One day her husband got killed. It was an unsolved murder. The police officer who was assigned to the case became her second husband. When her mother was dying, she went to visit her, but at the doorway, he father stopped her and told her to go away. Her mother died, and she wasn’t even allowed to attend the burial. After two years, her father had a stroke and while bedridden, he summoned her through her best friend. The father asked forgiveness, and she willingly forgave him, then asked for his forgiveness as well.

She inherited all her parents’ properties. Her new husband convinced her to start a minimart. She obliged. She also bought an expensive car for him. She also sold her parents’ house to buy another in a subdivision. But, the husband became a compulsive gambler. They lost the minimart, the car, and now the house is in danger of being foreclosed by the bank because they didn’t pay it in full. Faced by her husbands’ beating, hunger, and the prospect of homelessness, she attempted to poison her two children from her first marriage and the baby from her second husband. It was when the apparition of a child stopped her from doing it. He told her to go to the house of a cancer patient that she didn’t know in Canlubang. Afraid, she went and found the patient’s house. She introduced herself and told her what her mission was. Not knowing what to do, she massaged the neck of the patient. She then told her she was coming back the next day to continue healing her. But, she had no intention of coming back. That night, the apparition of the child appeared again and persuaded her to go back to heal the sick. She did. The patient was healed, and her husband mended his ways when he saw what was happening. Many people were healed.

She then told me that the apparition (the Santo Niño), gave her a mission: to build a chapel where a spring would arise and the water will heal the sick. When her youngest son Kristopher reaches the age of seven, she will die. And Kristopher will continue her mission until his death.

The TV episode would have been about the miracles of the healer. However, after my interview with her, I did my own further research and undercover work. Sister Thelma omitted one thing about her life. She, it turned out, was a former radio drama talent. This discovery gave me enough reason to debunk her claims, especially the changing voices. And yet, I discovered another thing that I could never explain. While wearing a disguise and dark sunglasses, I came to the healing session to observe. When she fell into a trance, four men were trying to lift her yet they couldn’t do it. I came to their rescue and helped. She was just too heavy to be lifted. It boggled my mind how a 120 lbs woman who was slightly taller than Nora Aunor would become so heavy and impossible to be lifted by five men.

When I sat down to write the two-hour episode done in semi-documentary style by including actual footages of the healing sessions and interviews, I could no longer just write a straight-forward healing story. I was compelled to write the story of Sister Thelma, the woman. Sister Thelma the person, who, despite her little weaknesses didn’t deserve to be treated like a rag. She was a beautiful person, someone far from being a saint, but someone with a good heart who gave so much to her loved ones and the throngs of people who came daily to be healed. What was amazing was the fact that she never charged even a cent. But, the well-off insisted on giving her subsistence which she reluctantly accepted. But, the most important thing was: she gave hope to the hopeless, and the miracles might not even be true miracles but might be some sort of a placebo effect. Divine intervention or not, Sister Thelma remained a beautiful person who deserved to be respected and accepted. And who else would play this role with panace and grace but Gina Alajar? Indeed, she played the role brilliantly.

Gina Alajar, played the role of Sister Thelma. Gina, even now, is one of Philippines' fantastic actresses.

My only regret is: I left the country soon after this episode had aired. I have totally lost the tract of whatever happened to Sister Thelma’s plight after that.

Did she really die after seven years?

People of Calamba, Laguna do you know what really happened?

Dreaming about people from the other side

2009-10-26T21:33:00.000-07:00

For several weeks now, I have been dreaming about people I have known who have already passed on. I have dreamed about my dear mother and father, my wife, some classmates, even Consuelo “Ateng” Osorio and Vincent Benjamin Kua, Jr.

Since the last time I talked to Ateng Osorio and Vincent Kua was during the late 70s, I figured I should write something about them to remember them.

When I was a kid, I have always been critical about every movie I watched. I looked for the errors in them, I noticed bad acting when I see one, and even became quite aware when the film was awfully directed. At age 8 in 1968, during the summer vacation, I went home to our house (I was staying in my grandpa’s ranch in Bicol and going to school there). I thought I was ready to write a movie. Therefore, when I went home for the summer in the city, I asked our family driver to take me to the ABS-CBN studios on Bohol Avenue to find out how to apply as a writer. At the gate, the guard asked the driver who he was looking for. The driver said the TV director of the program being taped that time. The guard let the car in. Once inside the building, I asked the receptionist who was the TV writer present that day and she mentioned the name: Consuelo Osorio, also known as Ateng Osorio. She told me which studio she was working that time and I proceeded to find her. Unfortunately, upon entering the TV barn, a production assistant told me that she actually went to the cafeteria to have coffee. So I went to the cafeteria and tried to find her. I asked the person at the till to point out to me Miss Osorio, and she did. She was seated at a table, smoking, talking to another lady, and both of them, I noticed, were looking at me.

I approached them and introduced myself. She gave me a handshake and introduced the other lady: “She’s Mitos Villareal, our director.”

After shaking Miss Villareal’s hand, I didn’t hesitate to tell them that I was there because I want to become a writer for TV and the movies. They both smiled.

“You’re a bit too young to work as a writer,” Ateng told me. “Besides, you look more like an actor than a writer! We immediately noticed you the moment you entered this room. You are unusually fair. You are even fairer than Jeanne Young. Leave your phone number with me, I’ll find something and I’ll give you a call.”

That’s exactly what I did.

A scene from Malvarosa. Written by Clodualdo del Mundo, Screenplay by Consuelo Padilla Osorio. Asia's Best Picture, starring Charito Solis. (Photo from Kabayan Central).

After two days, Ateng called: “Something came up. Come to the TV station and I’ll discuss something with you. Is it possible to talk to your mother?”

My mom and dad were away that day and my older brother talked to her. Afterwards, he volunteered to drive me to the TV station.

Once we got to the station, Ateng handed me a piece of paper and told me to read it quietly, then aloud with feeling. I did. She said: “I’m impressed. You delivered the lines perfectly. You will be playing Helen Gamboa’s little brother in Bang-Shang-A-Lang”

“Bang-shang-a-lang? Is that the title of the movie? It sounds stupid!”

My brother laughed and so did Ateng.

“It is stupid because it is full of dancing and singing. It’s lots of fun.”

“I don’t like to be an actor,” I told her. “Besides, I don’t dance. I can sing, but I don’t want to sing. I want to be a writer.”

“Okay, then you have to wait a few more years for that. Maybe after high school, see me and by then maybe you can be a writer.”

So I went home that day disappointed. Six years quickly went by.

At age 14, I’ve met a komiks writer-editor named Robert Bornay. I was on my first year university, and I told Robert that I can write better stories than other komiks writers. He laughed. Maybe because he believed what I said, or maybe he thought that I was just a cocky teenager. Anyway, whatever it was, Bert handed me a script written by Mars Ravelo and told me to study the format and write something. But it was summer time again and there were too many activities here and there, and I procrastinated. I didn’t write anything. One night, Bert came to our house, a surprise visit. He took with him Tony Tenorio, Orlando Nadres and Deo Fajardo Jr. Bert asked me about my script. I was really embarrassed and promised the visitors that I will write a script. Orlando Nadres, on the other hand, asked me if I want to be on the cover of Sixteen Magazine, a komiks he was editing – an idea that Deo Fajardo seconded. I told them I am a very shy guy, so thanks but no thanks.

Blueboy was Bert Bornay's well-loved nobela by teenagers in the late 60s. It was published in Teenagers Songs & Shows komiks/magazine. Filmed by Joy Productions starring Fred Cortez Jr as Joey and Dorothy Joy as Loretta. First Directorial work of Elwood Perez.

The following week, I sat down and wrote my first komiks script. It was about the called and the chosen. A story of an aspirant nun whose fervent desire to become a full-fledged nun encountered some problems. Divine intervention? Perhaps not her true vocation?

Tony Tenorio approved the story and he introduced me to another newcomer writer/illustrator named Vincent Benjamin Kua. My first story, was Vincent’s first komiks drawing. I was also heavy into drawing and my favorite illustrator was Stan Drake. It turned out that it was also Vincent’s favorite.

It was then that Mr. Tenorio proposed to me and Vincent to work as editors in Atlas. I was in first year university and I was worried it might affect my studies, so I had to turnn down the offer. Vincent was more gung-ho to write and to draw his own komiks stories and he said no as well.

The very first komiks story I've written for Atlas in late 1974 and came out early 1975. This was Vincen'ts first published drawing.

Vincent drew a few scripts of mine but never drew other writers’ work in Atlas. He concentrated on his own “Katha’t Guhit.” What really struck me about him was that, he tended to question everything about our existence in this planet. And I would usually tell him: “Just look up and look at the vastness of the evening sky. There are billions of blinking stars out there. Why are they there? Vincent, there are things in this world that we should rather not ask why they’re there. They’re just part of our own existence. Don’t go crazy knowing the reasons for everything.”

Then I would quote Blaise Pascal’s famous: “The heart has its reason, which reason cannot know!” that sometimes he would say it with me in unison and we’d end up blurting out laughing.

And then one day, I told him: “You must just believe in Descarte’s mountains without a valley. That’s something our mind cannot grasp, but which our hearts utterly understand. Then, you will have peace within you.”

But, he continued to question things that it became a standard joke greeting from me every time we would see each other in Atlas: “What’s our question for today, Vincent? Are we going to discuss the Alpha and the Omega of the universe?”

Once, Tony Tenorio overheard me joking to Vincent and he thought we were serious: “Huh! Are you guys planning to co-write a mind-boggling nobela? Just give me the synopsis as soon as you finish it.”

Vincent and I started laughing and Tony was so puzzled and figured out what was going on and he just said: “You guys turn crazy every time you’re both here in my office.”

“Tony, in Psychology this type of illness is called Folly, also known as SHARED INSANITY! Only one person has the problem, yet it can influence other people around him to mysteriously be afflicted with temporary insanity!” I joked.

“Then who’s the real mentally ill?”

Vincent and I both pointed at each other. Then the three of us all laughed.

I continued writing scripts for Atlas publications while I was studying in university.

One weekend, our Mass Comm Association had a tour of ABS-CBN. It was there in the TV barn that Mrs. Osorio and I have seen each other again after six years.

“Mrs. Osorio!” I said as soon as I saw her.

“You look very familiar,” she said.

“Oh, I was the 8-year old boy you said – who was fairer than Jeanne Young six years ago!”

Ateng Osorio laughed. “And you’re still fairer than Jeanne Young even now! Now you’re here to become a writer, aren’t you?”

“Actually, we’re just having a class tour of the station.”

“Well, perfect timing. I need someone your age. I am auditioning today and tomorrow for new talents for BBC Channel 2. Since I already know that you can do it, you’re in. I need you to come for taping on Saturday night. Come with me and I’ll give you the script.”

I wanted to say no, but for some reason, I couldn’t. Besides, this lady was super nice and I didn’t want to say no to her. So I went with her and we proceeded to the office and the producer of the show handed me a blue mimeographed script. It says:

PROGRAM: Dulambuhay ni Rosa Vilma
WRITER: O.B. Pangilinan
MAINSTAY: Vilma Santos

To make the long story short, I ended up appearing with Vilma Santos and Walter Navarro. I played Walter’s younger brother in that episode. Thank God all my scenes were take one. And after the show aired, all my friends teased me non-stop about it. Ateng Osorio was directing films that time as well and she wanted to cast me in them but I begged off. I finally told her that acting is not what I wanted to do. I want to write. She then said: “I’m committed for seven months to direct movies which I have already written myself. After they are all finished, we’ll discuss a movie I will be directing for Barangay Pictures. I have a storyline. You will write the screenplay.”

I was delighted.

But, after three months went by, in mid-1975, BBC Channel 2 phoned me. Marcial Sanson, the big boss of programming that time, told me that he read some of my komiks scrpts and he liked them a lot and now he offered me to write for Alma Moreno’s TV show, Alindog. I didn’t hesitate and this was how I began my TV writing adventure in the Philippines.

Scripts in the 1970s were typewritten by the writer. Then the network would copy it and print them en masse using the very low tech called MIMEOGRAPH. They were usually done in blue, like this sample here.

I didn’t have time anymore to write a screenplay for Ateng Osorio, but she understood that I was having a hectic schedule writing for several TV dramas. We remained friends (it was like having your grandma around while working in showbiz). And definitely, for me, she was one of the most memorable persons in RP showbiz.

And Vincent? His questioning about things never ended. He was still the same sensitive guy who was easily hurt especially when people act unkindly. He tended to brood about it for sometime. I guess he wanted this world to be a perfect place. I know it was an impossible dream. But, I can’t blame him. This planet would have been really a perfect place to live in if only human beings were perfect.

I’m sure Vincent is now in a perfect place where he has found all the answers to his questions. And Ateng must be mingling with so many RP showbiz souls now also enjoying eternal peace, perhaps, somewhere where the sky and earth meet.

THE GIFTED FANNY SERRANO

2009-08-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

In 1978, my girlfirend was a fashion model for Girard Peter Models. I was writing dramas for television that time. I don't watch any of the shows of the Girard Peter models, but one day my girlfriend insisted that I should watch, and I did. It was a dinner show at a plush night club in Ermita. The first thing that surprised me was that one of my friends at the YMCA, Henry Cando, was also part of the Girard Peter Models. His job in the show was to lift the women models, including my girlfriend. Henry and I worked out together at the YMCA GYM on Arroceros Street, with Joey Sanchez (Gino Antonio). Henry never told me and Joey that he was doing some modelling jobs. Nevertheless, it was a bit of surpise for both of us, because he didn’t know either that one of his co-workers was my girlfriend.

So there we were, laughing at each other while the models changed costumes. The intermission was a group called PAPERDOLLS. When they started their act, I had to watch them because they were very good. One of the members of the group was quite a looker. She performed so gracefully, and she was indeed a stunning woman. So I asked Henry who she was. Henry laughed so hard and said: “Man, he’s not a woman. He’s an impersonator. His name is Fanny Serrano.”

I was stunned. I really thought he was a woman. I looked at him again, and watching him perform showed no scintilla of evidence that he was indeed a he. Graceful movement, soft features, and a beautiful face – but a face that exuded some sadness, some vulnerability that almost broke my heart.

“I’ve got to talk to him,” I told my friend.

“What for?”

“I’m in-love with his face!” I said, and Henry blurted out laughing.

After the show, my girlfriend, Henry and I went to see Fanny. I introduced myself to him and I realized that his face was even more feminine tête-à-tête. I asked him if he had any experience in acting. He said no, only impersonating.

“Would you like to act with Rosa Rosal?” I asked him.

“Are you kidding?” he said, smiling.

I told him that his performance inspired me to write an episode of ULILA, and by just watching his movements, I just knew that he can act. He agreed, and I told him that I will let the studio send a script when I’m done with it.

The episode of ULILA was called FARIDA. It was the story of Alfredo, Jr., a.k.a. Farida (Fanny Serrano) a womanish-looking young man who was working as an impersonator in a gay bar without his father’s knowledge. He thought that something was wrong with him because he was feeling dizzy all the time. In their neighborhood, the macho men imbibibng alcohol outside made Farida the butt of their jokes. Unfortunately, his gayness was affecting his younger brother (played by Caloi Pimentel) who got teased a lot by his peers just because his older borther was gay. He would come home bleeding from fisticuffs. This constant rigmarole irked his father Alfredo, Sr. (Rolly Papasin). Alfredo Sr. punished Farida by hitting him so hard and dragging him out of the house and disowning his Junior because the latter was bringing nothing but shame in the family. The pleadings of Farida’s mother Tinay (Rosa Rosal) fell on deaf ears.

Farida stayed with his friends in the gaybar. A male dancer named Erwin (Rafael Lucas) was the most caring in the joint. Erwin was a komiks illustrator who was being paid so low that he had to moonlight as a macho dancer in the bar to finish his university degree. Farida was glad that Erwin was trying to strive for a better life. Farida had the same dream. He was trying to save up some money so he could go to college and change his life, and be accepted by his father and hoping that someday, his father would finally be proud of him. But for now, impersonation was the only available job for him that would pay better to fulfill his dream. One of the other impersonator in the club was UBANGGA (Joey Galvez) a dark complexioned funny impersonator who was also kind to Farida.

One day, Farida collapsed. He had an inoperable brain tumor. Ubangga and Erwin went to see his father but he refused to allow his son back to his house. Farida died. Tinay went to the hospital and hugged her son’s cold body. Alfredo Sr remained firm, unrelenting, untouched by his son’s death. But after the burial which he did not attend, we see him late at night, boozing up alone at the dining table, then shoving the bottles of alcohol and weeping, his whole frame shaking. He lost his son, after all. The son he loved but refused to tell him so when he was still alive.

This father and son story was directed by Mario O’hara, and during the taping, Mario and I were both stunned when almost all of the crew were deeply affected by the scenes involving Rosa Rosal, Rolly Papasin and Fanny Serrano. Many became tearful. Danny Vibas, a movie reporter, approached me after the scene where Fanny was beaten by Rolando Papasin, and whispered to me: “Joemarie, it’s too violent. I’ve never expected it this way,” he said, removing his glasses, and wiping his tears.

My hunch was right, after all. Fanny Serrano was indeed a fantastic actor. He played his role as if he was a veteran performer. He was the only new actor who made the crew react this way. When the episode aired, BBC-Channel 2 was stormed by phone calls. Televiewers where asking who Fanny Serrano was. It was the first time they saw him perform and yet his performance struck their hearts and minds. When TV week magazine came out, there were requests from viewers to cast Fanny again in future episodes.

Meanwhile, I got all the flak from the gay community. Many were mad at me for writing an episode about a gay person, which they claimed, of which I had no idea what it's all about to be gay. They accused me of ostracizing the gays by making the father beat the gay son unabashedly. They even told me to do another episode, but make sure that the gay son will fight back and kill his father! There was even a TV producer who confronted me after the taping, accusing me of being so irresponsible for writing a lifestyle that I was totally ignorant of. He even threatened me to bring up the matter to the Benedictos and he will do his best to yank me out of all my TV shows. He went on saying that if it were him who was being abused by his father, there is no doubt he's going to retaliate. Quietly, I told him: "well, why don't you write a script about that?" The more he got mad and screamed. "From now on, I don't want to see your face ever again. Just be careful. All the gays in UP are fuming mad!" He left and had never spoken to me again. I was not yanked out from the network, and the young producer suddenly disppeared. After six months, I asked Marcial Sanson where the guy was. Marcial told me that the guy was diagnosed with cancer of the mandible and died a few weeks after being diagnosed. The gays from UP never confronted me.

But going back to Fanny Serrano, his impersonation scenes as Carole King were fabulous. After being thrown out by his father, the next scene became so heart-rending when he performed “You’ve got a friend”, where Erwin and Ubangga were watching him. His costume was amazing, and he was the one who made it. I wrote several more episodes with Fanny Serrano in them and all of them had accented his wonderful gift in acting. What’s really funny was that Fanny killed Rolly Papasin in an episode called WALANG HANGGAN ANG DILIM NG GABI. In this episode, singer Romy Mallari played Fanny’s younger brother, and I was in disbelief when Romy performed the role so well. I never knew the guy was an amazing actor as well.

There you go, folks. Fanny Serrano is not just a very talented beauty specialist that many of you know him to be. He is also a very talented impersonator, actor and costume designer. A multi-talented individual that the Philippines can be really proud of.

Thank you, Fanny Serrano. You’re not only a wonderful actor and beauty specialist par excellence, but you are also an amazing person. Mabuhay ka.

Down Memory Lane: Tikoy's Rizal Is Heavy Handed With Josephine

2009-06-19T22:11:00.000-07:00

Tikoy Aguiluz’ RIZAL SA DAPITAN is a somber and ominous film. It utilizes many unknown actors; uses some hand-held shots quite reminiscent of Cinema Verité; a lot of tripod shots borrowed from neo-realism; dubbing of dialogues that do not match with the actors’ lips, something that reminds me of Felinni and Pasolini's films.

Most of the films about Rizal’s life that had been made before had always shown his execution by musketry.I am not blaming those filmmakers (including my favorite filmmaker, Gerry de Leon) because indeed that part had been the most dramatic scene in Rizal’s life. His execution by the Spaniards was truly a temptation for any filmmaker. It’s like the Devil in the garden on the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem, who tried repeatedly to temp Jesus. Unfortunately, Filipino film directors are only human and it’s not surprising that many had succumbed to this temptation. They emphasized this part (usually as the final scene) and in fact, many of them were done in the much abused device known in the annals of filmmaking: the slow motion.

Therefore, what a relief when Aguiluz’ version opens with Rizal’s execution already carried out and his remains are being dragged by two of his executioners, los dos guardia civiles. This scene is extremely clever and powerful. Unfortunately, from this masterful beginning, the film utilizes another device that seems to haunt many scriptwriters and directors: the flashback.

We are told how Rizal, banished by the Spaniards to Dapitan, lived his life as a farmer, teacher, surgeon, entrepreneur, lover, son, brother, and even as a father to a still-born child. All these ploded on and on, that I began to wonder whether Tikoy Aguiluz is a member of of a club where Kevin Bacon and Keifer Suherland are both members: the Flatliners. Sure, there are obstacles and triumphs along the way as Rizal’s daily existence is expounded, but the whole movie is so flat, even the humor used is so dry, it would have been better if they had deleted them altogether.

In the movies (both Hollywood and Tagalog, but more in Tagalog), there is a recurring scene that seems not to go away: a leading man shoving her leading lady.

Charito Solis was shoved by Nestor de Villa in BULUNG-BULUNGAN; Marlene Dauden suffered the same fate from Eddie Rodriguez in MILAROSA; Charito Solis, once again, by Ric Rodrigo in DAHIL SA ISANG BULAKLAK; and even Faye Dunaway by Jack Nicholson in CHINATOWN.

When Albert Martinez (as Rizal) confronts Amanda Page (as Josephine Bracken) about her fidelity and veracity, I told myself, “Oh, boy! DON’T do it, Tikoy! Don’t! Please!”

But, Tikoy had succumbed to the second temptation! His Rizal shoves Josephine!

Now, I will have to add Amanda Page’s name on the list of belted leading ladies.

But the film’s trouble isn’t over yet. Even if the filmmakers added a disclaimer at the end that they had to invent many things to dramatize Rizal’s life in Dapitan, how can they explain the fact that many of the dialogues and motivations were totally UN-RIZAL?

Let’s examine some of Rizal’s wisdom here. “Sa mabahong tae ay sumisibol ang isang mabangong bulaklak” (From a stinky manure, a flower blooms).

I don’t think that Rizal would have insulted our intelligence by telling us that shit smells bad. Any farmer out there who had smelled a sweet-smelling manure, please send us some so that in return, we could send it to Tikoy Aguiluz. I know Jose "Pete" Lacaba's writing style, and he would never write such dialogue (either it was added by Tikoy, or was suggested by a leg man to add into the film). And unfortunately, the credit of the writing went to Lacaba (and this is one of sticky points in screenplay writing, everyone on the set has something to say, and the poor writers are blamed when the dialogues come out horrendous). Which reminds me of what I have experienced with Gosiengfiao in Bedspacers. I wrote the dialogue: "That's the bitch! The one we saw on Recto Avenue yesterday." During the shoot, the American actress who was playing the part said: "That's the bitch! The one we saw on Azcarraga yesterday."

I protested: "For crying out loud, Joey! No young people would even know what Azcarraga is! That name was known during my mother's time!"

"But Joey, it sounds classy!" he replied.

And, yes... the movie said Azcarraga, not Recto.

But wait, we're discussing Rizal Sa Dapitan.

How about Jose Rizal’s characterization? When one of Rizal’s sisters accused Josephine of infidelity and lying, Rizal confronted Josephine right there and then, hence the shoving scene.

I don’t think that Rizal, whose IQ was that of a genius and who was against violence and tyranny, would have listened to hearsay without investigating first, let alone resort to such violent action. I don't know if Pete wrote the script this way, but it's unlikely. The shoving must have been added during the shoot. Sure, Tikoy wants drama here, but if the character’s motivation is totally inconsistent from the personality of that character, such dramatic build up is rendered useless. Rizal, who was a very good doctor and a champion of women’s rights – would shove a woman who is also his wife and who is pregnant with a child?

Balderdash!

Pete Lacaba had written the most sensible scripts in local movies and unless the devil made him do it, it's unthinkable for him to write this way.

Albert Martinez’s interpretation of Rizal’s characterization shows the intensity of Rizal’s demeanor. It may or may not be accurate in real life, but I rather liked the edgy touch he added into it.

Amanda Page is not Irish-looking enough for Josephine, but she’s quite charming and endearing. I just hope she refuses her director next time he asks her to be shoved by her leading man. Charito Solis, a world-class actress, had agreed to be pushed twice in her career, plus the other people who pushed her in real life as well. But that was during her time. That was then, this is now. If another director is going to use this scene in a film, he should be thrown in the slammer for being so banal.

Despite the many problems of Tikoy’s Rizal, there are some nice touches to this film. The shot of a gecko trying to crawl laboriously up the banyan tree is something akin to Rizal’s life who is facing an arduous future as an exile. The sunsets and the starless nights are like paintings done by a master. The overall dark look of this production reminds me of the Tikoy Aguiluz brand that is always present in his films, including the Boatman. If he were careful in his choice of materials, wean himself from the influence of the neo-realist movement of the fifties and used more established good-looking actors (and quit using every Tom, Dick, and Harry off the streets who can't act), stayed away from overused tableau vivants that are more recognizable than the soldiers raising a flag in Iwo Jima; and if he borrowed more from the French New Wave – he might end up yet as one of RP's better filmmakers.

Rizal Sa Dapitan is far from being a masterpiece, but its components (Lacaba's vision) have the makings of one.

Happy 148th birthday, JR.

SCRIPTWRITING 101: DIALOGUE

2009-05-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

Recently, a commentary from two “high brow” observers of komiks and comics, annoyed a lot of komiks talents when these two bozos (who badly need to take Philosophy 101 - Logic) argued and argued nonstop with reasoning only ignorant people like them would understand. One of these guys accused me of using HIGH FALUTING (sic) dialogues in a short komiks story which he claimed was forgettable, yet he remembered who wrote it, and remembered the story, and remembered the dialogues. Yet, he said it was a forgettable story. Forgettable, but he remembered everything about it, including the so-called “High Falutin” dialogues.

My understanding of his “high faluting” description, is its current use here in north America. I thought he meant my dialogues were “Showing off, ostentatious, pretending to be above one's station in life, putting on airs.” This is the context now of this word here in north America. But, it turned out that the guy using this word, must have meant : “bombastic speech,” a context which was the status quo in the 1950s. Today, in north America, if you tell someone “high falutin”, it will always be interpreted as “Showing off”. Example, if there is an exclusive, pricey restaurant where only the people who have extra money would go, chances are people in the south or Midwest would say: “Them rich guys will all go to that high falutin restaurant called TURO-TURO.” Nowadays, if your dialogue or speech is bombastic, it will be labelled: STILTED, not “high falutin.” If you call a dialogue high falutin, it will be the same as saying GAY because you’re HAPPY. But of course, that was in the 1950s. If you say the word GAY these days, it would only mean one thing: HOMOSEXUAL.

Well, since we’re discussing this topic, this is the best time to discuss DIALOGUES in scriptwriting. In the old komiks industry, even in our old tagalog movies, TV and radio dramas, dialogues were never utilized to ADVANCE THE ACTION OF THE STORY, or to suggest an incident in the past to make the scenes interesting. This does not encompass all the writers, but many were guilty of this shortcoming.

What exactly is the main purpose of dialogues?

• Dialogues must sound convincing and natural, but should also be entertaining
• Dialogues should be in keeping with a character, even emphasizing his/her traits and disposition
• Dialogues must build & advance the action of the story. It should give foreshadowing, state facts and other information that can’t be shown in the action
• Dialogues must intensify, reveal – the emotions of the characters
• Dialogues should be fragmentary just like in real life, simple, but witty. If you can keep them short and crisp, the better

and the most important of all, avoid:

• Tired, worn-out phrases! If you have heard it too many times before on tv, movie, or even in real life – don’t use it as is! Re-invent it. You don’t want to write clichés:

“The devil made me do it”
“I’ve got a bone to pick”
“Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”

Think about the image a phrase can convey, and reword it:

“Jeffrey Dahmer’s soul made me do it!”
“I’ve got a fish to scale”
“Don’t twist the hand that holds your paycheck!”

When I was writing for TV in RP, I have always opened my dialogues “after the scene has already begun”. This way, I could inform the audience of what has happened before, the characters would discuss it, ponder it over here and there, maybe worry about the past action, and wonder what might happen because of it.

So, instead of:

“Magandang umaga, Kiko.”
“Magandang umaga naman, Kikay. Kumusta?”

This sort of exchange of words is lifeless. Empty. Static.

“Magandang umaga, Kiko. Akala mo di na titigil yung ulan, ano?”
“Oo nga, e. Mabuti nga’t nakauwi ng walang problema si Lagring”.

By putting an incident in the dialogues, the audience will pick-up the past action.

For smoothness, use connective words whenever possible.

“Tumakbo yung aso patungo roon sa tambakan ng basura!”
“Ano’ng klaseng aso?”
“German Shepphered.”

“Sigurado ka ba?”
“Oo, sigurado ako.”

• In TV and movie scriptwriting, SHOW, rather then TELL as much as possible. Use dialogues only to explain and to build interest and suspense – use only when necessary. Make the dialogues speed up the plot. Stress the visual. Use pictorial story-telling all the time.
• Avoid too much dialect. Suggest his nationality by using one or two foreign words, but don’t overdo it, unless subtitles will be used in the actual film. If the format is TAGLISH, finish all the english and don't insert the Tagalog in between. It will be too confusing to the readers or to the audience. So, if taglish is what the characters speak, spare us the agony. Please finish the sentence in full tagalog, then begin another sentence in English and finish the whole sentence in English. It will be wishy-washy to mix the tagalog and english together in one sentence. Avoid this as much as possible.

What leads to a better dialogue?

• Well-developed characters and contrasting characters will reveal their uniqueness. As a writer, you don’t even have to force the words. They will come out naturally.
• Listen how people talk in real life. Use the idea, but make sure that their conversation is arranged with splendor of order. Real life dialogues are meandering at times. This characteristic must not be included in your dialogue. Make the dialogues sound like in real life, but arranged artistically, and must move the plot forward, not hinder.

If you watch tagalog movies and/or tv shows, you will notice one very big problem. Almost always, if, say, there are two characters having a conversation, they would talk about something that they already both know from the past, and yet they are now talking about it because the writer’s intention is to inform the audience (expound) about this past. This strategy is a no-no. It’s purely schlock writing.

“Grabe ang tiniis natin sa buhay noon, di ba, Mystica?
Lasenggo si itay, labandera si inay. Tuwing uuwing
lasing si itay, laging sinasaktan
si inay.”

“At lagi tayong umiiyak, ate Auring, kadalasan ay
nakakatulog tayong walang laman ang sikmura at
may mga luha sa mga mata.”

This kind of dialogue is always used by many RP writers. Both the characters talking to each other knew all the facts from way back when, yet they are saying these facts to each other! What for? To inform the audience of the past. Isn’t this awful?

“Sino ang mag-aakalang makaka-ahon rin tayo
sa dati nating buhay? Hanggang ngayon ay hindi ko
pa rin maintindihan kung bakit naging lasenggo si itay.
At ewan kung paano hinayaan ni inay na saktan siya
ni itay nang paulit-ulit?”

“Kung hindi naging lasenggo si itay, hindi sana tayo
nagdanas ng katakut-takot na hirap sa buhay.
Naalala mo pa ba, kung paano tayo natutulog nang
walang laman ang ating mga sikmura?

This second alternative is more logical. The characters are reminiscing the past without the OBVIOUS unabashed spoon-feeding dialogues of the first example. Also, you'll notice how the two characters never addressed each other with their names. There is no need for that. When we talk to someone, WE DON’T SAY HIS/HER NAME each time we begin to say something like in the first example. As a writer, take note of this.

BTW, Madam Auring and Madam Mystica are both pop icons in RP. He-he-he. May ASIM pa silang dalawa. Damang-dama ko ang kanilang mga alindog. Sana, kayo rin.

HIMALA & RESURRECTION: TWIN MOVIES?

2009-05-03T12:36:00.000-07:00

HIMALA (1982)

RESURRECTION (1980)

RESURRECTION (1980) and HIMALA (1982)
are two movies that resemble each other in unbelieveably many ways.

In Resurrection: Lewis John Carlino's story goes:
Once upon a time, there was a woman named Edna (Ellen Burstyn) who was very much in love with her husband. Then she gave him a sports car for his birthday, and he died in an accident. Edna nearly died in the accident herself, and had a “near death experience,” having “seen” the other side where loved ones who had passed on now reside. She lived, and found herself partly paralyzed, and became depressed, until a long driving trip with her father triggered something: she met a very strange man in the desert. The man had a two-headed snake. It was a casual meeting, a brief one in fact, but this event obviously changed her. She found herself having the power to heal the sick.

In HIMALA: Ricky Lee’s story goes:
Once upon a time in a small Philippine town called Cupang, a young woman named Elsa (Nora Aunor) announced that she had seen the Virgin Mary. Soon enough, she demonstrated a new-found ability to
heal the sick.

In RESURRECTION:
Edna was now curing patient after patient by the laying on of hands and she even healed her own paralysis. Soon, she became sexually involved with a handsome, but extremely volatile young man who questioned the source of her powers. He insisted that she should recognize the ability as a grace from the Divine Power, but Edna believed profoundly that her healing power was just a manifestation of love (love can move mountains). While on a platform healing the sick, her lover shot Edna dead.

In HIMALA:
Elsa’s “healing power” made her whole village the center of national attention as people come from every nook and cranny of the Philippines – to buy statues of the saints and bottles of the village's holy water. One of the visitors is a skeptical film director hoping to visually document Elsa's healing powers, and without his knowing it, some frames captured a secret Elsa had kept from everyone for a long time, a secret which led to her sister's suicide. Elsa was a victim of rape, and soon became pregnant. The townspeople believed that Elsa’s condition was nothing but a “virgin pregnancy” exactly like Mary, the mother of Jesus. While standing on a platform facing her followers, Elsa was shot dead by someone from the crowd.

See what I mean? These two films are almost TWINS! And how strange that even the first names of the characters both begin in letter E: Edna, Elsa.

Personally, I like RESURRECTION than HIMALA.
Resurrection, directed by Canadian Daniel Petrie is a joy to watch. It is subdued, the crowd management is done beautifully – like music coming from an orchestra. In fact, it is quite reminiscent in the crowd scenes done by Cesar Gallardo in Premiere Productions’ I BELIEVE, a graphic novel written by Mars Ravelo in the 1950s.

HIMALA, on the other hand, must be Filipino film director Ishmael Bernal’s most hysterical film. Screaming, burlesque acting, and rowdy crowd scenes are allover the place, there are moments when you hear nothing but screeching voices and gave me a migraine after watching it.

I am not insinuating anything here, just because RESURRECTION was done in 1980 and HIMALA was done in 1982. This fact is immaterial. I am just showing you the COINCIDENTAL SIMILARITIES in these movies.
It’s up to you to decide.

Basic Scriptwriting: Teleplay, Comics & Screenplay

2009-04-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

I was scheduled to end my vacation in May, but due to the SWINE FLU outbreak in Mexico, I've decided to go home early. Better safe than sorry.

First, let me thank GOSSIP GIRL... er... Heather... (LOL), for answering my emails. Thank you, Miss Dublin, Ireland. Funny how Ireland and The Philippines' music, sentiment, and temperament resemble in many ways.

There were many nasty emails coming from different people and I'd rather let sleeping dogs lie, except for one who advised me to come clean on something, as if I had done an illegal thing, or maybe he thought I run as Vice Mayor of Manila? Well, let me tell you, my friend, I am not Iskho Moreno, but I admired what he did after the mudslinging he endured during the elections. In my case, I am not running for public office, so whatever I do is not important to anybody but to myself.

FOR NOW... HERE ARE THE DRAWINGS OF:
• RODRIGO BENITEZ
• RIC M HERNANDEZ
• JOEL MAGPAYO

RIC M. HERNANDEZ

RODRIGO BENITEZ

JOEL MAGPAYO

Another letter that needs attention:

JM,

You promised in your blog several months ago that you will tackle the basic principles of scriptwriting. I've waited and waited, but nothing came out. Now I will remind you to please fulfill that promise.

Good luck, good health and God bless you.

Thanks,

David Garcia
Garden Grove, CA

Well David, thank you for reminding me. The basic things sometimes, are the most important in anything.

So, here it goes. I know that not all the people out there are interested in this, but I'll make it quick and dirty. If you guys get something from it, good. If you think you already know everything on this subject, then let's just say that it is a review of what you already know.

• What is the most important thing in a story?
For me, it is the character. Why? Character creates action. Action moves the story forward.

• What are the things involved within a character?
Purpose, or goal. Like any person, a character in a story has a purpose. Good purpose, bad purpose. And when there is purpose, what does it make him do? Work on it. Strive, struggle, pursue.

• When the character pursues something, what does he experience?
Failures, obstacles, successes, triumphs.

• After all these trials, what is the ultimate thing a character must do?
Decide, hoping that the decision he made is the right one. Some character succeed, others fail. Some pursue their goal and would not stop until they win. Others give up and abandon their goals, their dreams.

These are the basic purposes of a character. From the Bible, to great literature and down to comic books, we encounter all these things in a character.

Therefore, when you're creating a character, that character must have a goal, or some kind of philosophy that he believes in. A story without conflict is like a penis that would not get hard. The Aussies would certainly not like that and they'd call you "dry blow".

So make sure that when you create your leading character in your story, give him a goal. Let him struggle to reach that goal. While trying to work to succeed in fulfilling that goal, give him triumphs and obstacles. Build it up by making the trials harder as he goes deeper into the story. Near the end, he will do the so-called "greatest performance of his life" by finally deciding on what he must do to "once-and-for-all" achieve his goal. That decision may make him win... or lose the game.

Many beginning writers are groping in the dark when it involves the technical aspects of scriptwriting. Take note that for any story to make sense and to work as comics, tv or movie (and even stage play), it has to have some sort of paradigm where your story will play wonderfully and beautifully.

Since ancient times, the Greek tragedy was already using this paradigm. Now, we are already in computer age, but the paradigm still works and the reason why we like a movie, a TV series, comics, or stage plays. Look at the image below to illustrate the division of the acts.

Why are the current telenovelas so boring and atrociously nonsensical?
Because the writers seem not to realize that scriptwriting also means time. Every second counts. If they think this way, there's no way in hell they're going to dilly-dally with their scenes and waste the time of the viewers.

Let me give you an example of a one-hour TV script.
We know that one hour is 60 minutes. But if you're a writer, you know that a one-hour TV drama is only 44 minutes script running time. The remaining 16 minutes are used up by COMMERCIALS.
Therefore, your teleplay should be divided this way:

For Comics: If you have 40 pages, divide them as follows:

10 pages - beginning
20 pages - middle
10 pages - ending

For Screenplays: a one hour movie is 120 pages of letter size paper
(8.5 inches x 11 inches)

30 pages - beginning
60 pages - middle
30 pages - end

If you have more questions, just ask me in the comment area and I would gladly answer them.

Toons, Comics, Games Invade Vancouver Art Gallery

2009-04-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

Since I am not very knowledgeable on Filipino comics, let me post something comics related. I hope you will find these two articles interesting.

– Heather Rankin

The Vancouver Art Gallery is bringing various forms of popular art together in one exhibition titled KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art. On view from May 17 to Sept. 7, the exhibit aims to reveal the uniqueness of each medium, while uncovering their histories, interrelations and future trajectories. The installation is co-curated by such influential artists and producers as Maus author Art Spiegelman, The Sims creator Will Wright, comic artist Seth and animated feature film director Tim Johnson (Antz, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Over the Hedge).

“Despite the pervasive presence of these media, little has been done to assess the ties that bind them,” notes Kathleen Bartels, director of the Vancouver Art Gallery. “By offering an interdisciplinary account in a major survey exhibition for the first time, we will illuminate their importance as a sustained cultural force.”

One of the largest exhibitions ever organized by the gallery, KRAZY! will occupy two entire floors of gallery space and is designed in collaboration with Tokyo-based architectural firm Atelier Bow-Wow. Divided into seven sections by medium, the exhibition will include a mini-theatre for viewing animation, immersive video spaces and environments for reading manga, graphic novels and comics. In all, the installation will offer more than 600 works of art, including original sketches, concept drawings, sketchbooks, storyboards, production drawings, films, video games, animation cels, 3D models, sculptures, books and more.

Specific pieces include George Herriman’s last three drawings for Krazy Kat; Lotte Reiniger’s 1927 The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the first feature-length animated film; sneak preview of Will Wright’s new video game, Spore; and a selection of drawings from Yuichi Yokoyama’s latest manga, New Engineering. Also included are works by Moyoco Anno, Lynda Barry, Marcel Broodthaers, Chester Brown, Cao Fei, Milt Gross, Pierre Huyghe, Ichiro Itano, Yoko Kanno, Satoshi Kon, Harvey Kurtzman, John Lasseter, Roy Lichtenstein, Christian Marclay, Winsor McCay, Sid Meier, Shigeru Miyamoto, Junko Mizuno, Mamoru Nagano, Claes Oldenburg, Mamoru Oshii, Katsuhiro Otomo, Nick Park, Raymond Pettibon, Iwatani Toru, Chris Ware and Masaaki Yuasa. Conceived and developed by Vancouver Art Gallery senior curator Bruce Grenville, the KRAZY! will travel to a New York City arts institution in March of 2009.

• • • • • •

Will Eisner Comic Book Award Nominees Announced

Diversity is the rule for the 2009 Will Eisner Comic Comic Book Industry Awards, which announced its nomination in 26 categories today.

The leading projects, garning four nominations apiece, are the graphic novels Skim, Alan’s War, Umbrella Academy, Fables and Madame Xanadu.

Among comic book creators, Emmanuel Guibert and Chris Ware each lead the pack with four nominations for their work. Dark Horse Comics lead the pack among publishers with 13 individual and five shared nominations, followed by DC Comics with 10 individual and two shared noms and Marvel Comics with nine individual and two shared nominations.

The winners will be announced July 24 at Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Best Short Story
* Actual Size, by Chris Ware, in Kramers Ergot 7 (Buenaventura Press)
* Chechen War, Chechen Women, by Joe Sacco, in I Live Here (Pantheon)
* Freaks, by Laura Park, in Superior Showcase #3 (AdHouse)
* Glenn Ganges in Pulverize, by Kevin Huizenga, in Ganges #2 (Fantagraphics)
* Murder He Wrote, by Ian Boothby, Nina Matsumoto, and Andrew Pepoy, in The Simpsons' Treehouse of Horror #14 (Bongo)

Best Continuing Series
* All Star Superman, by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely (DC)
* Fables, by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, Steve Leialoha, Niko Henrichon, Andrew Pepoy, and Peter Gross (Vertigo/DC)
* Naoki Urasawa's Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (Viz)
* Thor, by J. Michael Straczynski, Olivier Coipel, Mark Morales, and various (Marvel)
* Usagi Yojimbo, by Stan Sakai (Dark Horse)

Best Limited Series
* Groo: Hell on Earth, by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier (Dark Horse)
* Hellboy: The Crooked Man, by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben (Dark Horse)
* Lock & Key, by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW)
* Omega the Unknown, by Jonathan Lethem, Karl Rusnak, and Farel Dalrymple (Marvel)
* The Twelve, by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston (Marvel)

Best New Series
* Air, by G. Willow Wilson and M. K. Perker (Vertigo/DC)
* Echo, by Terry Moore (Abstract Studio)
* Invincible Iron Man, by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larocca (Marvel)
* Madame Xanadu, by Matt Wagner, Amy Reeder Hadley, and Richard Friend (Vertigo/DC)
* Unknown Soldier, by Joshua Dysart and Alberto Ponticelli (Vertigo/DC)

Best Publication for Kids
* Amulet, Book 1: The Stonekeeper, by Kazu Kabuishi (Scholastic Graphix)
* Cowa!, by Akira Toriyama (VIZ)
* Princess at Midnight, by Andi Watson (Image)
* Stinky, by Eleanor Davis (RAW Junior)
* Tiny Titans, by Art Baltazar and Franco (DC)

Best Publication for Teens/Tweens
* Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, adapted by P. Craig Russell (HarperCollins Children's Books)
* Crogan's Vengeance, by Chris Schweizer (Oni)
* The Good Neighbors, Book 1: Kin, by Holly Black and Ted Naifeh (Scholastic Graphix)
* Rapunzel's Revenge, by Shannon and Dean Hale and Nathan Hale (Bloomsbury Children's Books)
* Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books)

Best Humor Publication
* Arsenic Lullaby Pulp Edition No. Zero, by Douglas Paszkiewicz (Arsenic Lullaby)
* Chumble Spuzz, by Ethan Nicolle (SLG)
* Herbie Archives, by "Sean O'Shea" (Richard E. Hughes) and Ogden Whitney (Dark Horse)
* Petey and Pussy, by John Kerschbaum (Fantagraphics)
* Wondermark: Beards of Our Forefathers, by David Malki ! (Dark Horse)

Best Anthology
* An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories, Vol. 2, edited by Ivan Brunetti (Yale University Press)
* Best American Comics 2008, edited by Lynda Barry (Houghton Mifflin)
* Comic Book Tattoo: Narrative Art Inspired by the Lyrics and Music of Tori Amos, edited by Rantz Hoseley (Image)
* Kramers Ergot 7, edited by Sammy Harkham (Buenaventura Press)
* MySpace Dark Horse Presents, edited by Scott Allie and Sierra Hahn (Dark Horse)

Best Digital Comic
* Bodyworld, by Dash Shaw
* Finder, by Carla Speed McNeil
* The Lady's Murder, by Eliza Frye
* Speak No Evil: Melancholy of a Space Mexican, by Elan Trinidad
* Vs., by Alexis Sottile & Joe Infurnari

Best Reality-Based Work
* Alan's War, by Emmanuel Guibert (First Second)
* Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story, by Frederik Peeters (Houghton Mifflin)
* Fishtown, by Kevin Colden (IDW)
* A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child, by Rick Geary (NBM)
* What It Is, by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)

Best Graphic Album — New
* Alan's War, by Emmanuel Guibert (First Second)
* Paul Goes Fishing, by Michel Rabagliati (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki (Groundwood Books)
* Swallow Me Whole, by Nate Powell (Top Shelf)
* Three Shadows, by Cyril Pedrosa (First Second)

Best Graphic Album — Reprint
* Berlin Book 2: City of Smoke, by Jason Lutes (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Hellboy Library Edition, Vols. 1-2, by Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
* Sam & Max Surfin' the Highway Anniversary Edition HC, by Steve Purcell (Telltale Games)
* Skyscrapers of the Midwest, by Joshua W. Cotter (AdHouse)
* The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: Apocalypse Suite, deluxe edition, by Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba (Dark Horse)

Best Archival Collection/Project — Strips
* The Complete Little Orphan Annie, by Harold Gray (IDW)
* Explainers, by Jules Feiffer (Fantagraphics)
* Little Nemo in Slumberland, Many More Splendid Sundays, by Winsor McCay (Sunday Press Books)
* Scorchy Smith and the Art of Noel Sickles (IDW)
* Willie & Joe, by Bill Mauldin (Fantagraphics)

Best Archival Collection/Project — Comic Books
* Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*!, by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
* Creepy Archives, by Various (Dark Horse)
* Elektra Omnibus, by Frank Miller and Bill Sienkiewicz (Marvel)
* Good-Bye, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Herbie Archives, by "Sean O'Shea" (Richard E. Hughes) and Ogden Whitney (Dark Horse)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material
* Alan's War, by Emmanuel Guibert (First Second)
* Gus and His Gang, by Chris Blain (First Second)
* The Last Musketeer, by Jason (Fantagraphics)
* The Rabbi's Cat 2, by Joann Sfar (Pantheon)
* Tamara Drewe, by Posy Simmonds (Mariner/Houghton Mifflin)

Best U.S. Edition of International Material — Japan
* Cat Eyed Boy, by Kazuo Umezu (VIZ)
* Dororo, by Osamu Tezuka (Vertical)
* Naoki Urasawa's Monster, by Naoki Urasawa (VIZ)
* The Quest for the Missing Girl, by Jiro Taniguchi (Fanfare/Ponent Mon)
* Solanin, by Inio Asano (VIZ)

Best Writer
* Joe Hill, Lock & Key (IDW)
* J. Michael Straczynski, Thor, The Twelve (Marvel)
* Mariko Tamaki, Skim (Groundwood Books)
* Matt Wagner, Zorro (Dynamite); Madame Xanadu (Vertigo/DC)
* Bill Willingham, Fables, House of Mystery (Vertigo/DC)

Best Writer/Artist
* Rick Geary, A Treasury of XXth Century Murder: The Lindbergh Child (NBM); J. Edgar Hoover (Hill & Wang)
* Emmanuel Guibert, Alan's War (First Second)
* Jason Lutes, Berlin (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Cyril Pedrosa, Three Shadows (First Second)
* Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf)
* Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library (Acme)

Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team
* Gabriel Ba, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)
* Mark Buckingham/Steve Leialoha, Fables (Vertigo/DC)
* Olivier Coipel/Mark Morales, Thor (Marvel)
* Guy Davis, BPRD (Dark Horse)
* Amy Reeder Hadley/Richard Friend, Madame Xanadu (Vertigo/DC)
* Jillian Tamaki, Skim (Groundwood Books)

Best Painter/Multimedia Artist
* Lynda Barry, What It Is (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Eddie Campbell, The Amazing Remarkable Monsieur Leotard (First Second)
* Enrico Casarosa, The Venice Chronicles (Atelier Fio/AdHouse)
* Scott Morse, Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! (Red Window)
* Jill Thompson, Magic Trixie, Magic Trixie Sleeps Over (HarperCollins Children's Books)

Best Cover Artist
* Gabriel Ba, Casanova (Image); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)
* Jo Chen, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity (Dark Horse); Runaways (Marvel)
* Amy Reeder Hadley, Madame Xanadu (Vertigo/DC)
* James Jean, Fables (Vertigo/DC); The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse)
* Matt Wagner, Zorro (Dynamite); Grendel: Behold the Devil (Dark Horse)

Best Coloring
* Steve Hamaker, Bone: Ghost Circles, Bone: Treasure Hunters (Scholastic Graphix)
* Trish Mulvihill, Joker (DC), 100 Bullets (Vertigo/DC)
* Val Staples, Criminal, Incognito (Marvel Icon)
* Dave Stewart, Abe Sapien: The Drowning, BPRD, The Goon, Hellboy, Solomon Kane, The Umbrella Academy (Dark Horse); Body Bags (Image); Captain America: White (Marvel)
* Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #19 (Acme)

Best Lettering
* Faryl Dalrymple, Omega: The Unknown (Marvel)
* Jimmy Gownley, Amelia Rules! (Renaissance)
* Scott Morse, Tiger! Tiger! Tiger! (Red Window)
* Nate Powell, Swallow Me Whole (Top Shelf)
* Chris Ware, Acme Novelty Library #19 (Acme)

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism
* Comic Book Resources, produced by Jonah Weiland
* The Comics Journal, edited by Gary Groth, Michael Dean, and Kristy Valenti (Fantagraphics)
* The Comics Reporter, produced by Tom Spurgeon and Jordan Raphael
* Comics Comics, edited by Timothy Hodler and Dan Nadel (PictureBox)

Best Comics-Related Book
* Bill Mauldin: A Life Up Front, by Todd DePastino (Norton)
* Brush with Passion: The Art and Life of Dave Stevens, edited by Arnie and Cathy Fenner (Underwood)
* Drawing Words and Writing Pictures, by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden (First Second)
* Kirby: King of Comics, by Mark Evanier (Abrams)
* The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, by David Hajdu (Picador/Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Best Publication Design
* Breakdowns: Portrait of the Artist as a Young %@&*! designed by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon)
* Comic Book Tattoo, designed by Tom Muller, art direction by Rantz Hoseley (Image)
* Hellboy Library Editions, designed by Cary Grazzini and Mike Mignola (Dark Horse)
* What It Is, designed by Lynda Barry (Drawn & Quarterly)
* Willie and Joe, designed by Jacob Covey (Fantagraphics)

There you go, folks. Linda Barry, a Filipino cartoonist, is becoming unstoppable. I hope she wins!

The One & Only... ROSS MATIENZO

2009-03-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

In the old komiks industry, Coching and Redondo were the most copied by the younger illustrators. These younger illustrators had developed their own styles after a few years. Some became unique, others became a clone forever, and still a few remained just so-so.

And yet, there was one character whose style was something akin to what an out-and-out hippie would emphatically stand for: non-conformism.

Ross Matienzo was that character. He had his own style: unconventional, angular, bizarre if you will. His drawings were a celebration of the grotesque.

The one and only... ROSS MATIENZO.

Here's BES PASCUAL

2009-03-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

Well, someone requested to see what sort of work Bes Pascual did in RP komiks.
Here are some samples. If you're familiar with EC Comics (published in the 50s), I'm pretty sure this style will look familiar.

FELIPE ILAG, VIR AGUIRRE, AND RICO RIVAL

2009-02-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

Two eerie series by Mars Ravelo that I really like were:

ASUWANG & MARUJA

Asuwang was serialized in EXTRA KOMIKS in 1960-1961. Ravelo was at his best when he wrote period pieces. Among the best were Asuwang and Maruja. Asuwang was drawn by FELIPE ILAG. Though he was a proponent of FV COCHING, Ilag’s innovations made his work such a joy to behold. Like Rico Rival’s Maruja (set in the late 1800's - the series' beginning), Asuwang was set in the late 1800s as well, and Ravelo captured the period’s pulse like the way Rizal captured the Philippine society during his time.

Rico Rival’s MARUJA illustrations were his best. His costuming and fashion of late 1800s were very authentic looking. In fact, I chose him to be my illustrator for my Graphic novel Angelus (in the 1980s) because of his glorious work in Maruja.

And VIR AGUIRRE? He had drawn so many series that I dare say – were the most beautiful illustrations in Philippine Komiks history.

Here are the samplers of Ilag, Aguirre and Rival.

ROMNICK SARMENTA, Child Actor Nonpareil

2008-11-25T07:26:00.000-08:00

Gulong ng Palad was serialized over radio station DZRH (1949-1956). Written by Lina Flor, it was one of the most successful radio dramas (if not the most) in the history of Philippine radio. Luisa, the leading character, was played by Loida Viriña. Twenty years or so later, Loida proposed the idea to Marcial Sanson (who was the programming head honcho that time of Channel 2), to revive the soap opera. In the mid-70s, the second serialization of GULONG NG PALAD was launched by BBC-Channel 2. Loida, who used to play Luisa, now was the writer of the series. She was Lina Flor’s Sister in law – she was married to Lina’s brother: Virgilio “Beer” Flores who was a comedy writer. He was the scriptwriter of Tang-Tarang-Tang starring Pugo, Bentot, Rosa Aguirre, Sylvia la Torre and Leroy Salvador; He also wrote Sebya, Mahal Kita, with Sylvia la Torre, Eddie San Jose, Pugo & Bentot. When Beer Flores died quite untimely in his late-30s, Loida, his widow, became the writer of comedy series that starred Pugo and Bentot, and one of them was Si Tatang Kasi.

Marcial and Loida didn’t really think that a remake of an old radio soap opera would still appeal to televiewers. The TV network went ahead with it, anyway, and they started auditioning for the cast. The role of the mother was given to Caridad Sanches; the Father to Augusto Victa; Luisa was Marianne de la Riva; Carding was Ronald Corveau. When the character of Peping, the youngest son in the family, was searched, one child won the audition hands down, 4-year old ROMNICK SARMENTA.

The telenovela became an instant hit. In fact, all the competing telenovelas were dragged deep down into the gutter of oblivion and no other TV stations dared to compete its time slot. Together with the series, Romnick Sarmenta became a very hot child actor as well. Then, the network thought that it was time the tot had better had his own show. And that’s when I was assigned to write for a spin-off from the character of Peping.

The show was called: Peping, Ang Munting Anghel. The network thought that maybe we should write the series quite along the same storyline with Gulong ng Palad. I argued, however, that it would fizzle if we did that. I suggested that we will only use the title because it carries an easy recall. But the series should be a drama anthology rather than a telenovela. This is the only way we can keep its own integrity. When the drama anthology aired, it also became an instant hit that the televiewers were clamouring for more of the child actor. Romnick then was still “no read no write”, so we had to dictate to him the dialogs before the take. Despite this handicap, the kid delivered his lines brilliantly and acted so naturally that you believe in everything he did in a scene. Soon, another show was assigned to me with Romnick as the lead: BATA. It has a wider scope since it involved the stories of children. When the CHARITO SOLIS STORY was shelved due to threats of a class action lawsuit being filed by characters involved in the life story of the actress, the network decided to do another Romnick starrer, this time, two more TV dramas: True Story and Señor Santo Niño. And yet, apart from his own shows, we also used Romnick as guest child actor for Alindog, Alma Moreno’s weekly drama anthology, and Ulila, Rosa Rosal’s weekly Drama Anthology.

In the 70s, Romnick, no doubt, was the most talented Filipino male child actor alive (the other one was Darling Postigo, a.k.a. Julie Vega - who died at a very young age). It was amazing how a child as young as Romnick – was able to give life to a role despite the fact that he wasn’t even capable of reading the lines. We didn’t have to explain to him what kind of role he was going to play, we just dictated to him the lines during rehearsals, and even this was truly incredible, for we didn’t even have to repeat the lines for him! He remembered every dialog during the actual take. He was such an intuitive and creative actor. He listened to the dialogs of his co-stars and he has an instant understanding of what the scene was all about and he performed like a real pro: with conviction, precision, and right direction where the character is supposed to be going.

In an episode of Señor Santo Niño, Anita Linda played the role of a mother who paid more attention to her business than her own son. The son got involved in a life of crime and was eventually killed in a shoot-out. After the mayhem and the realization, we see her walking in a park, ruing the decisions she had made and its sad outcome in the end. That's when she looked in the eyes of a child (Romnick) and without opening his mouth, she heard him say: "Whatever you do the least of my brethren, you do unto me." Romnick's stare sent goose bumps to the crew while we were filming this and the final outcome when it was aired had the same impact to the audience.

But, like any other child, there were moments when he could get really moody, especially when he lacked sleep or too tired from his taping schedules. And when he was in these once in a blue moon demeanor, Marcial Sanson, the director, would scold him in-front of everyone. That’s when the boy would remain quiet and standing in one corner like a sad sack. Several times before, when it happened, I would come to him and try to cheer him up. Little did I know that Marcial was observing this all the time. Then the next time it happed, I was about to approach the child when Martial stood right in front of my path, saying: “Don’t even go there, Joemari. I want him to learn his lesson.”

So, there we were, just like one big happy family. I was a teenager, Romnick was my younger brother, and Marcial Sanson was our strict father, and Romnick and I were the sons who were both being disciplined by their father.

But, as what Shakespeare had said: “All’s well that ends well,” and we all lived happily ever after. Marcial, despite his strictness, was truly generous. People went in and out of his house and everyone was welcome. He has passed on a few years ago.

Going back to Romnick, I still have to see another Filipino child actor who could at least match his intuitiveness and brilliance. Reminiscing his wonderful performance as a child actor is a true delight.

An Old Photograph

2008-11-19T20:38:00.001-08:00

Visiting my sister, a Catholic nun in Montreal, brought back a lot of memories. I haven’t seen her for a while and seeing her again led us to reminisce the past, especially things involving our family.

She also showed me old photos. It was rather touching to see people and places captured by the camera many, many years ago. It is fascinating to imagine how a particular fleeting moment somewhere in time - was captured and immortalized. Looking at that particular moment when time stood still forever, can render a person awestruck.

One particular photo was that of my mother. It was snapped in 1948 in Escolta, Manila.

The city was ravaged by the Second World War that ended in 1946. This photo was taken two years after the war and Manila was still being restored to make it look like the way it was before the Japanese Imperial Army ruined the whole city. As can be seen here, the sidewalks crossing the estero is made of a temporary wooden bridge. My mom went to church in Quiapo, and after the mass she went to Escolta to go shopping. She was carrying here my older sister who was born in 1948. Following behind her was Rosita, one of the maids who was really good with children, and the guy behind Rosita was a guy named Inocentes, the driver.

I was baffled when my sister told me that the photographer was a total stranger. She explained to me that in the old days, photographers in Manila where everywhere. They take pictures of people passing by – without asking for permission. Then, these photogs would develop the photos and when they were ready, they would go back to their hang-out and wait for the people that they had photographed, hoping to see them pass by again. When they do, they would approach the subject of the photograph and showed them the photos and if they want to buy them they are more than welcome. This photo was one of those taken by a sidewalk photographer. And knowing my mother who would never let anyone down, I’m pretty positive that she must have paid him more than what he asked for.

Little did anyone know that in just a matter of few years after this photo was taken, Escolta became the financial district of the Philippines. It was also the glitziest part of Manila, something akin to LA’s Rodeo Drive or Vancouver’s Robson Street. There were shopping malls, specialty stores, boutiques, excellent restaurants, first class movie houses and what-not.

Photographs. Snap-shots of the past. Reminders of long lost memories. Harbingers of color swatch of emotions. They could bring happy or sad memories. No matter what emotions they evoke, it leaves you, the viewer, wistful, sometimes with feeling of loss.

What happened to the four people captured forever in this photograph?

My mother passed away almost five years ago. My sister became a nun and she lives in Montreal. Inocentes, the diver, when he got married, he asked my parents to be his God-parents and my parents gladly accepted, therefore he became our God-brother. As a wedding gift, my father gave him 10 hectares of land in Bicol and that’s where he settled with his wife. Rosita, the young maid who genuinely liked taking care of children, was given by my father with a bigger land when she got married, nearly 20 hectares, and just like Inocentes, she also became our God-sister. But, despite the distance, previous maids, drivers, cooks – that worked with our family – would always come back to visit us. Then, one by one, as I grew older, they began to disappear. When one disappeared, we knew the answer. He or she have passed on.

Then, you can only see them again in old photographs, photographs that are linked, so to speak, to the past. And then, the color swatch of emotions will once again engulf you.

TIME OUT: SAY WHAT? YOU CAN GO TO FARMERS' MARKET AND WATCH A PLAY?

2008-07-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

Indeed, you could. But that was many years ago, 1975 to be exact.
The group was called KALINANGAN NG LAHI, established by Loretta Lichauco.
They’ve selected the works of new playwrights, and funny how even an established film director like Lino Brocka and well-known komiks writer and screenplay writer/director Orlando Nadres joined in to showcase their first plays written (that was when they were also new writers).

The theater was on the third floor of the market, and when Miss Lichauco phoned me asking my permission to present two of my plays AMAG SA KARIMLAN and LUKSANG BITUIN (ARTISTA), I couldn’t believe that it was indeed at the Farmers’ Market. I found it quite amusing at first, but what the heck, it was a fantastic idea to bring theater in the market, and that was that. The group also went to different schools and each school was assigned to mount the play. I thought it was a fantastic idea to let the young people (who were more or less about my age) be exposed and have some training in stage plays.

My plays were assigned to JASMS. The actors were amazingly good and the director was brilliant, she was actually the valedictorian of their school.

Here’s the cover of the program.

And here's the list of playwrights:

Though I didn’t know what happened to KALINANGAN NG LAHI afterwards. I became too busy writing for TV, and in 1980, left for north America.

BILAO & SALAKOT: BOTH CAN FLY BUT INVENTED BY DIFFERENT FOLKS

2008-07-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

The previous post, I mentioned that BES PASCUAL wrote MAGIC BILAO in LAGIM KOMIKS. Thanks to SIMON SANTOS for sending me a movie ad of MAGIC BILAO.
It is actually written by AMADO S. CASTRILLO & AFLREDO ALCALA, serialized in REDONDO KOMIX.

On the other hand, BES PASCUAL wrote & illustrated BATIKOBRA AT FLYING SALAKOT, serialized in Lagim Komiks. Both appeared almost simultaneously, hence the confusion. Therefore, I apologize for being a SPACE CADET!

Here’s that wonderful Alfredo Alcala rendition of MAGIC BILAO movie ad. Enjoy the art, folks.

WRITER’S BLOCK – or WHY DO WRITERS NEED A WINNOWING TRAY – or WHO NEEDS BES PASCUAL’S MAGIC BILAO?

2008-07-05T14:26:00.000-07:00

New writers have one problem that we can also consider as a writer’s DEMON. This monstrous pesky vexation is simply called: WRITER’S BLOCK. One has to EXORCISE this demon in order to be set free from bondage.

And how do you exorcise this demon?

The answer is quite simple. Just like a MANANAWAS, SANTIGUADOR, MAMBABAWI, ARBOLARIO… they use the winnowing tray to triumph over the enemy. Therefore, as a writer, why don’t you use the same tool to overcome your writer’s block?

No, komiks writer-illustrator BES PASCUAL didn’t use the winnowing tray to exorcise his demon, but he used it nevertheless to write MAGIC BILAO in LAGIM KOMIKS in the 60s, which was made into a movie starring APENG DALDAL.

Pero, no, mi compañeros, amigos y colegas… I am not telling you to copy Bes Pascual’s fantasy tale and claim it as your own, but use only the bilao to redeem yourself from the clutch of the writer’s demon. And how do you do this?

Well, look at the image. How many kinds of fruit can you put in a winnowing tray?

A lot. Isn’t it?

Well, you can also do the same with your writer’s block.
You can win over this demon by using CLUSTERING.

The winnowing tray is your topic. The fruits are the related objects that need to be placed in the tray.

Therefore, if your subject is HOSPITAL, place that in the tray. Then, like what the image shows, write every possible things one can see or feel in the hospital. By doing this, it will open doors for you to develop your story.

Simple, but it works. Try it next time when you’re possessed by the demon. This is the best way to exorcise the bastud!

UNPLOTTED, ATMOSPHERIC STORY

2008-06-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

WRITING 101-PART3-CREATING A CHARACTER or WHY DID THE TITANIC SINK?

2008-06-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Answer: BECAUSE OF THE PESKY ICEBERG!

A character in a story is like an ice berg: only 1/5 of it is revealed to the vision of the beholder (the reader). The bigger chunk of it is hidden deep in the water. In the creation of a character, it is deliberately hidden because if everything is reveled all at once, there will be no more challenge to the reader.

However, it is MANDATORY that the writer who is creating this character must know his character inside out, or else, like the Titanic, he will bump against this ice berg and eventually sink.

Look at the image.

Area A is what the reader only sees. This area is the story proper. This is the world of your character where the story is taking place.

Area B is what the reader never sees, but an area that the writer must mandatorily know. Because, if you don't know your character inside out as the author... who will? Not Madame Auring or Rene Mariano for sure.

So what are we supposed to do to build a convincing, creative, authentic character that breathes with life?

A CHARACTER DOSSIER

Have a character sheet. Right down her name, her birthdate, her status in life, her mental capacity. Make sure to indicate her MAIN CHARACTER TRAIT and secondary character trait.

What is her:

• Religion
• Morals and sexual drive
• Superstitions
• Ambitions
• Desires
• Goals
• Height
• Weight
• Color of eyes, hair, complexion
• Posture, gait
• Eating habits
• appearance
• Health
• Nationality
• Social Class (both in ther [past & the present)
• I.Q. (intelligent or Boba)
• Home Life (When growing up– attitude towards parents, sibblings, relatives, friends, strangers)
• Amusements, hobbies, pleasures
• Faults and weaknesses
• Props in life: Cane? Baseball cap, jewellry. weapons, wheelchair
• Temperament
• Introvert/extrovert
• Imagination, sense of humor, weirdnes
• Views: environment, race, inequality, politics, issues
• Unusual or habitual gestures, expression, characteristic manner of speaking
• First impression on others
• civil status, sexual preference

and so on.

Do you know someone in real life that stands out? Why? Examine the reasons why. This will help as well. How does she treat herself? Is she too critical about her own personality? Is she over confident? Unsure of herself? Afraid of the world? Can she face and speak before a crowd? Is she shy?

In short, study her from the top of her head to tip of her toes.
Know her physical side, her mental side, her spiritual side if you will.

There is one very useful guide that helps me to create more distinct characters. I use Madame Auring's knowledge of the ZODIAC SIGNS. A pisces is totally different from a Taurus, for instance. A Leo is far from a Cancer. The zodiac opens doors for your characters. It is an open sesame to untold riches.

If you do it this way, every character that you create will be UNIQUE. It will be totally different from another character.

And when you have big scenes where several characters will be present, everyone will be totally distinct from one another. In a play I wrote in 1974 about Male Prostitutes called AMAG SA KARIMLAN, there were 6 call boy characters, 5 badings, and 1 woman. In the scenes where all the call boys appeared, each character is distinct because each one has a totally unique character and diction. Same thing happened with the badings. Though, because there was only one woman in the cast, she became the jewell, so to speak, in the play.

What is so handy with the character dossier is the fact that because you know him too well, whatever he does in the story, you will have all the CONTROL to keep him CONSISTENT within his character make up. In TV, Film & stage writing, distinct characters are a MUST when you have a big scene and all these characters appear in the same scene all together at the same time. If you don't bother to create your character with 3-dimensionality and distinction, I guarantee you that your scene will not survive. It will die a natural death, without a word, without a sigh.

Also, because you know the past of each character, you can suggest facts in the dialogs (in passing), for now, so that later in the story, the reader will be able to tie in all those mysterious dialogs afterwards. This is one good thing about the character dossier. YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL YOUR AUDIENCE EVERYTHING. They will figure it out by themselves. However, if the past of your character is haphazardly written, it will be tragic for him (your character) and for you (the writer).

It is also good to write well-developed characters, well, maybe in komiks or prose, so that when it is time to translate it into a tele[play or screenplay, you already have the background for each character ready. Now, it will be more crucial to have stronger characters because TV and movies are several times much bigger in scope than komiks, but more restrictive in form than komiks. You see, in komiks, you can show and tell, even the minds of your characters are possible to reveal to the readers. Not in Teleplay or movies. You have to show it since you cannot draw think balloons on screen. With well-developed characters, the battle is half-won when the time comes for you to write the screenplay or teleplay.

Therefore, young writers, be smart. Have a character dossier, also known as the ICE BERG PRINCIPLE. It will make a lot of difference.

UNPLOTTED STORY - PART 2

2008-06-25T18:13:00.000-07:00

Unplotted character Stories are often called MESSAGE STORIES because of their strong underlying theme. Writers, however, classify them as unplotted character stories, and , as such, they must follow a clearly defined FORM to be effective.

For the untrained, identifying an unplotted story can be difficult because the main character may often have a purpose and have to reach a decision. The unplotted story must also contain the basic element of all other types of stories:

Rule 1: Someone to root for
Rule 2: Something of importance, which must depend on the outcome
Rule 3: A definitive beginning, middle and end.

The difference in an unplotted story is: the purpose (goal/decision) of the main character is NOT the focal point of the story, and often, is not present in the beginning of the story. What is important is the REACTION of the main character to the unique situation in which he finds himself, or into which he is pulled, which is used to illustrate some truth-of-life that the author wishes to convey.

Now, there are five main types of unplotted character stories:

1. Character defeated because of circumstances.
The main character is sympathetic and deserves to achieve his goal or happiness, but in the end, he does not, because life-isn't-always-like-that.

Samples of this type:
• THE GRAPES OF WRATH (STEINBECK)
• DEATH OF A SALESMAN (MILLER)
• THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA (HEMINGWAY)

2. Character defeated because of weakness or obsession.
The main character is interesting and likeable but possessed by a negative dominant trait that drives him to destruction.

Samples of this type:
• MADAME BOVARY (FLAUBERT)
• WUTHERING HEIGHTS (BRONTE)
• RACHEL, RACHEL (MARGARET LAWRENCE)

3. Character prevails because of great sacrifice
The main character is interesting and prevails because of persistence, cleverness or sacrifice... his own, or that of a loved one.

Samples:
• THE AFRICAN QUEEN (C.S. FORRESTER)
• TOM JONES (FIELDING)
• BEAU GESTE (WREN)

4. Character regeneration

The Main character has a negative dominant trait or is controlled by a bad habit, whereby he is driven, led or shocked into benevolence, wisdom or rehabilitation.

Samples:
• CASABLANCA (BURNETTE & ALISON)
• LOST WEEKEND (C.R. JACKSON)
• CHRISTMAS CAROL (DICKENS)

5. Character degeneration

The main character, though interesting/pathetic, deteriorates morally, spiritually or mentally. Just before the end crisis, there is an upward trend, a flicker of hope that the hero will redeem himself, after which he slides downhill)

Samples:
• THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GREY (WILDE)
• DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (STEVENSON)
• NIGHTMARE ALLEY (W.L. GRESHAM)

All unplotted character stories contain strong CHARACTERIZATIONS, an interesting PROBLEM that builds to a CRISIS, where the end consists of one or more of the following:

1. Revelation of the unjust or pathetic cause of the problem
2. Expression of some sage philosophy or reality of life
3. promise of rehabilitation, usefulness or happiness

Here are some themes of unplotted character stories (again, I will use the classic ones for easy recognition)

THE GRAPES OF WRATH
A family's struggle against destitution and death, which strengthens its spirit to fight for what is right.

DEATH OF A SALESMAN
An average man's hopeless sense of failure in American society as he discovers himself aging.

THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA
Man's inevitable defeat in his struggle with existence – in spite of which, man can fight with dignity, courage and stoicism.

BEAU GESTE
Strong brotherly love prevails even after death.

TOM JONES
Protective devotion and pride can drive one away from his loved ones.

THE AFRICAN QUEEN
Two opposing personalities find love for one another as they bravely fight for survival.

MADAME BOVARY
A woman becomes corrupted as she tries to fulfill childish dreams of romance.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS
An under priveleged man's overt determination for wealth does not necessarily bring happiness.

RACHEL, RACHEL
A daughter's inability to find happiness while she remains under her mother's domination.

CASABLANCA
A hardened self-centered man becomes vulnerable to self-sacrifice when moved by affair of the heart.

Remember that the aim of unplotted stories is not necessarily to create strong suspense or highly satisfying endings, but to produce a definite EMOTION toward the main character in order to illustrate the truth (or theme) which the author wishes to convey.

Always remember that in a an unplotted character story, the character's purpose (goal, decision( is not the focal point of the story and is often not present at the beginning of the story. The main thrust of the story is the THEME.

I hope, those who are asking what exactly is an unplotted story is, have benefited from this post. Most probably, many young writers are now truly aware of what a PLOTTED story is, so we will not touch that topic unless someone sends me an email asking for it. In this case, then, we'll discuss MODERN THEMES next time.

WRITING 101: TO PLOT OR NOT TO PLOT, THAT IS THE QUESTION.

2008-06-24T20:32:00.000-07:00

A reader named Ramon Lopez has emailed me, asking what exactly, is the difference between a PLOTTED STORY and an UNPLOTTED STORY?

In his book, CREATING SHORT FICTION, author DAMON KNIGHT expounds the basic make-up of a plotted story where he retold the tale of a familiar conflict:

A man in a rooming house was in the habit of taking off his shoes at night and dropping them on the floor one at a time, with a pause for rumination in between. The lodger below had complained about this many times. One night, after dropping the first shoe, the man suddenly remembered the complaints and put the second shoe down gently.

After twenty minutes had passed, an agonized wail came up from the floor below: "For God's sake, drop the other shoe!"

In one way or another, every plotted story makes us wait for the other shoe to drop. We are waiting for the resolution of a conflict, or the solution to a puzzle, or the explanation of a mystery, or just the completion of a pattern, and it is this anticipation, as much as anything else, that makes us read on.

True enough, plotted stories make the readers anticipate what’s going to happen next.

But, in an UNPLOTTED STORY, the readers WILL NEVER KNOW how the story will end. Therefore, the anticipation will be two-fold:

1. There seems to be no familiar indications as to what a reader will expect, and;

2. No definite clear-cut or familiar denoument that the reader could clutch and hang on to take him to the finale.

It is very apparent, therefore, that unplotted stories are less restrictive, less structured, and naturally – much more challenging to both the writer and his reader.

Though both forms have the same characteristics, and ingredients that as an author you must always remember to:

1. Give Someone to root for
2. Something of importance must depend on the outcome of the story
3. The story must contain a clear-cut Beginning, Middle and End

As an author, you must also not overlook to create an interesting main character (if possible, a sympathetic one), who faces obstacles he must overcome to achieve his desired goal. Or, in a nut shell: Desire, opposed by an obstacle, produces emotion.

We know as writers and readers that life means struggle. Yet, how do you, as a writer, achieve the greatest dramatic emotion?

Maximum intensity of desire
Opposed by
Maximum intensity of opposition
Produces
Maximum emotion

And what are the most distinct classifications to achieve this mission as a writer?

A. Obstacle between main character and the physical world
B. Obstacle between main character and another person
C. Obstacle between two desires within the same person

Does unplotted story then, work for the komiks?

Why not? I have done both in the 70s when I used to write komiks script for Atlas Publishing. For Ramon Lopez who emailed me inquiring about the possibilities of unplotted stories’ possibility to work effectively in komiks, here’s one example from the 1970s. I will also post a plotted one for you. It is an example of what I like to write, and that is: “A day in the life of…”

And a plotted story:

Ramon Lopez, as a new writer, you have your preference whether to plot or not to plot. It's all up to you, my son. If you want to write unplotted stories, I suggest you watch , for a starter, the film NASHVILLE by ROBERT ALTMAN. You'll be amazed how refreshing can an unplotted story be.

- Your Father Confessor

DOWN MEMORY LANE 3: ROSA ROSAL: PHILIPPINES' GREATEST CHARACTER ACTRESS

2008-06-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

When I was a child in the late 60s, I moved to the Bicol region. The first time I set foot in this little town in Sorsogon, culture shock engulfed my whole being. It was an extremely drastic change from the bright lights of the roaring city of Manila to the graveyard-like quiescent of a small town — a ranch to be exact. But soon, I discovered so many fun things to do in this little town: the pristine river, the clean ocean, the warm people, the cool weather. What’s more, this place showed me how beautiful its moonlit nights were, and how majestic, albeit lonely, its sunsets. Unlike Manila with all the amenities of modern living, this place offers not much in terms of entertainment: radio, komiks, and, thank God, the movies.

There were two movie houses in this town. One had 16mm screen, while the other one was considered more state-of-the-art because it had 35mm with a Cinemascope lens to boot — but both were showing older movies. Mostly double or triple bills, usually
a mixture of Hollywood and Tagalog films — that the newest would be at least seven to ten years old!

But to my advantage, because without these old movies, I wouldn’t have had the chance to see great spectacular classics such as the ones directed by Cecil de Mille, Willy Wyler and David Lean; or the heart-rending neo-realist films by Antonioni, Visconti, Rossellini, Puccini, Zavattini, De Santis, De Sica, Fellini, Pasolini, Truffaut. Nor the wonderful Tagalog neo-realist films by Lamberto Avellana, Gerry de Leon; and the biting sarcasm of Manuel Conde’s political satires.

I went to the movies regularly, and read komiks like there were no more tomorrow. Soon, I became interested in drawing and writing. Back then, Tagalog films were done mostly by Sampaguita Pictures, LVN Pictures and Premier Productions. Many were fantasy, adventures, and majority were love stories and domestic drama tear-jerkers.

But, the local films that left some indellible images in my mind were the ones made by Avellana and de Leon. They were less maudlin, more cerebral, and truly entertaining. They also used the crème de la crème actors of Tagalog movies.

And through the films of Avellana, I came to know the acting caliber of a thespian named ROSA ROSAL.

Delicately beautiful and radiating with presence on screen, Rosa Rosal is obviously the epitome of what defines a true performer. She utilizes with precision, her voice and body to tackle a role, and watching her (as a child who didn’t know a thing about acting or filmmaking), I felt the authenticity of every scene that she appeared in. I find every dialog she delivered extremely convincing and absolutely believable. Yet, what really makes her special is her high-caliber use of acting techniques coupled with her masterful layering of characterization.

Flash forward to mid-70s. A newly Mass Comm graduate and was writing barely a year for Alma Moreno’s weekly drama anthology ALINDOG, when Channel 2 offered me to write another weekly drama anthology. Rosa Rosal would be the mainstay actress in a show called ULILA. Without batting an eyelid, I accepted the network’s offer. I already knew how good Rosa Rosal is from the movies I had seen in my childhood, and now I will have the chance to write scripts for her.

The first time we’ve met during a production meeting, I immediately realized that this fabulous actress was not only a very good thespian, but is also a wonderful person: friendly, highly-intelligent, and quite down-to-earth. And there is another thing: she’s a pace-setter just like what a true artist is. And, I should not forget one more thing: she’s highly-principled especially when it involves a person’s civil rights. I remember the advice she told me in one of our many conversations:

“Joe, don’t let anyone step on you. No one has the right to step on anyone. And don’t let anybody in showbiz use you.”

For an eighteen year old, that advice sort of gave me a head's up for what Philippine Showbiz is all about.

I knew right there and then that it would be fun to work with her.
And was I ever right with my first impression. She made sure that she gets her script a week early so that she can study and build the characterization of the role she was going to play for that particular episode. And during tapings, she was way ahead of the other guest performers to come to the studio. She inquired about the full characterization of the role. She makes sure that she knew the complete background of the character she was playing. Then she slowly opens this character like a book, turning pages that builds up the character as the story progresses, making sure that she knew by heart every nook and cranny of the story where her character meets head-on all the obstacles and triumphs, building it logically and dramatically, thus delivering a tour de force performance every week..

Rosa Rosal’s generosity is always there. Helping the poor and the sick is her passion. Being exposed to many incidents in this type of endeavor, she has seen a lot of pain and suffering, of heroism and cowardice, of good and evil. And because of this, she has a wealth of amazing stories that needed to be told. She told me many, many of these stories, true-to-life incidents that I turned into episodes and episodes of ULILA, then TRUE STORY, BATA, SENOR STO. NINO and PEPING ANG MUNTING ANGHEL. Many were heart-rending, yet there were others that were equally exalting to one’s spirits, and many more were truly inspiring. Every week was a trip to terra incognita, a world that only Rosa Rosal had visited, and where she had interacted with true-to-life protagonists and antagonists – and the aftermath of their crossing paths. Every week, while I work for the PR Office of Imelda Marcos, I eagerly awaited Rosa Rosal’s phone call, hoping to hear another true-to-life story that I couldn’t wait to write for another teleplay.

What is so fun writing for Ulila, was the fact that Rosa Rosal isn’t only an extremely brilliant actress, she is also a character with unquestionable integrity in real life. That was a bonus for the show. People believe in her in real life, therefore it follows that they also believe her on TV. She oozes with humility and politeness. She doesn’t have the insolence of other big stars, especially the younger ones who think that they’re on top of the world just because they are well-known and adored by their fans. She worked like an honest-to-goodness artist, and every role she played gleamed and reflected truth - like a summer forest fire burning wildly, that as a viewer, you feel the heat and the blinding light right before your eyes.

Rosa Rosal, no doubt, is a unique Filipino actress.

Performers like her come few and far between. She is the epitome of what a true actress should be: beautiful, gregarious, polite, truthful, innovative, and without a doubt – a high-caliber performer that we see very rarely in Philippine Movies and Television. Rosa Rosal is the Philippines' greatest character actress to the truest sense of this word. A Philippine icon that all Filipinos should be proud of.

DOWN MEMORY LANE 2: THE INFLUENCE OF DOUGLAS SIRK

2008-05-09T23:27:00.000-07:00

When Hollywood was producing spectacular movies like the ones directed by WILLY WYLER, CECIL B. DE MILLE and DAVID LEAN in the late 40s and early 50s, the Philippine movie industry was also busy producing exactly the same thing: fantasy, adventure, and Biblical films. For sometime, Filipino actors were kings and queens, centurions, Tarzan-like characters, Samson or David. Filipino filmgoers were fascinated by Hollywood films and it was not unusual that Filipino films were borrowing almost everything from Hollywood.

In the early fifties, when neo-realism was king (Fellini, Passolini, De Sica, Antonioni), the Tagalog films were tackling the same socially-conscious subject of: poverty, oppression, human degradation. In the mid-fifties, when cowboys roamed the Hollywood silver screen, Filipino actors became cowboys, too.

Then, suddenly, in the late fifties, after the neo-realists faded, Hollywood discovered German Filmmaker DOUGLAS SIRK. This l’enfant terrible had changed the trend of films quite radically. The epic heroes and the bigger-than-life gunslingers had exited to the back door into oblivion. Moviegoers allover the world welcomed Sirk’s raw and down-to-earth characters, giving life to delicate subject matters in the so-called “romantic heavy dramas.”

Melodrama have originated from two words: Greek – melos (music) & French – drame (drama). Hence, when a person tells his “sad plight” to another to solicit sympathy, it’s not uncommon for the listener to quip: “Spare me the violin!”

In a Sirkian melodrama, “plastic” characters always parade on screen like fashion models (Try recalling some scenes from Joey Gosiengfiao’s PALOMA ANG KALAPATING LIGAW). Emotional scenes are always highlighted by a maudlin musical score to heighten the drama, and the actor is deliberately framed to give emphasis on what he or she is saying and/or doing. This frame could be a window, a mirror, a door, an object, or sometimes, through the use of light and shadow – done to accomplish one purpose: shove the visceral mission to solicit the audience’s emotional response.

In the fifties and sixties, Sampaguita Pictures, Premiere Productions and LVN Pictures (the big three in those days) produced romantic heavy dramas using Douglas Sirk’s style and visual technique: characters that were battered by forces beyond their control, and their lives were outlined by cultural mores that constrained their behavior and their moral choices. They have to deal with repression and their minds were usually dictated by fatalist view. They would have to face insurmountable trials and mountains of obstacles, yet in the end, deus ex machina comes to the rescue – but unlike the God Machine of the Greek tragedy – this Sirkian device is in the form of – happy ending, or the suggestion of it, though analyzing deeper, the viewer realizes that this outward display of hope is actually the antithesis of what is really going to happen.

Sirk’s melodramatic “Hollywood weepies” were obviously expressionistic, a school of thought in German cinema which was championed by the likes of Murnau (Nosferatu the Vampire) and Wiene (The Cabinet of Dr. Calligari) – where the set, décor, even the acting – become the equivalent of the characters’ inner mental state. Sirk used the same objects to expound his film, and yet he added irony and bitter commentaries about the social milieu that the characters are “thrown” into, thus every major character in his film resembles that of “Daniel” thrown by Sirk “into the lions’ den.”

Philippine radio soap operas of the 50s and 60s from Lina Flor’s GULONG NG PALAD, to Liwayway Arceo’s ILAW NG TAHANAN, and later, Maning Songco’s MORENA MARTIR, and of course, Aning (Aniano) Bagabaldo’s MILAROSA, ANG DASAL KO’Y AKING SUMPA, NAIS KO PANG MABUHAY, MAGHAPONG WALANG ARAW, BAKIT KITA IIBIGIN?, HINDI PA HULI ANG LAHAT – were all influenced by Sirk. In fact, NAIS KO PANG MABUHAY is ALMOST the Tagalog version of Sirk’s most successful film, IMITATION OF LIFE. Most of the above-mentioned radio soap operas that eventually became Tagalog movies, were “weepies” and the characters were all like Daniel thrown into the Lion’s den.

In komiks, there was Pablo S. Gomez’ FLORADEMA ANG BILANGGONG BIRHEN, DONATA, SIDRA; Mars Ravelo’s ALIPIN NG BUSABOS, ROSA ROSSINI, I BELIEVE, ETERNALLY; Francisco V. Coching’s TALIPANDAS, GIGOLO, MASIKIP ANG DAIGDIG; Clodualdo del Mundo’s MALVAROSA, KANDELERONG PILAK; Rico Bello Omagap’s APOY SA MAGDAMAG, ULILANG ANGHEL; are just a few of serialized komiks nobelas whose characters were written the Sirkian way.

Even our illustrators were also influenced by this expressionism device, that is, the framing of a character to emphasize his or her predicament, thus heightening the melodrama. Nestor Redondo, Alfredo Alcala, Tony de Zuñega, Alex Niño, Ruben Yandoc and many more (in fact, it included most younger artists who studied Redondo’s drawings) were all framing their character the Sirkian way.

(Image above: DAYUKDOK. The framing of the character through an ajar door is a typical Sirkian device that became popular in the 50s up to the late 90s when the komiks industry finaly collapsed).

In Tagalog movies, Gerardo de Leon used the Sirkian “frame” all the time. For instance, in Lilet, Celia Rodriguez was framed by the balusters to emphasize her internal conflict as past events in her life torture her. She appeared almost like a “prisoner” seen in-between the columns of the stair’s handrail.

Lino Brocka who was a Gerry de Leon fan, adopted the same framing when he began directing films. A cartwheel (a de Leon favorite object), was used by Brocka to frame Fernando Poe Jr, to emphasize the frame of mind of the character he was playing in Santiago.

Mario O’hara, a previous writer and actor of Brocka, also uses the sirkian framing like de Leon and Brocka. When he used to direct my scripts for Alindog, the window in the set, or a doorway, or even a lattice division between the kitchen and dining room – were all utilized beautifully to frame the characters.

Even now, the Sirkian influence could still be seen in many Tagalog movies. The framing makes sense, it adds drama, makes the scene visually beautiful. But, I only wish that the younger filmmakers eradicate the lugubriousness of Sirk’s orchestration of melodrama to solicit emotional response from the audience.

But, sad to say, the Philippine movie industry seemed to have got stuck and has been suffering from a fixation known as the “heavy drama obsession.” SINUNGALING MONG PUSO is just one example of Sirk's influence. But what made this film even more horrific is that all the actors in this film, except Vilma Santos, were a hopeless case of "acting running amuck". It was definitely patterned from Douglas Sirk’s smash hit films that many starred ROCK HUDSON: MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION (1954)’ ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955); THERE’S ALWAYS TOMORROW (1956); WRITTEN ON THE WIND (1956); A TIME TO LOVE AND A TIME TO DIE (1958); IMITATION OF LIFE (1959); to name a few.

Next time you watch a Tagalog movie, listen to a radio soap opera, watch a telenovela, read komiks – look for some Sirkian elements in them. Chances are they’re there, blatantly popping its lachrymose head, most especially if you made the mistake of blinking your tearful eyes.

DOWN MEMORY LANE 1: THE MAGIC OF CARMEN ROSALES

2008-03-24T21:00:00.001-07:00

What was the magic of Carmen Rosales?

I have always asked this question. You see, I have never seen her in person, and when I was old enough to watch movies, she was no longer around. From time to time, magazines and tabloids would feature her photos, but no studio or television network has ever bothered to show us, the younger generation, her films.

That's exactly why Carmen Resales became a mystery to me.
The more the older Filipinos raved about her, the more she became mysterious to me.

What I knew about her was rather sketchy. Older Filipinos say that she danced, she sang and she acted. Well, there were so many actresses who did all these, how come nobody talks about them the way people talk about Carmen Rosales?

I remember my mother telling me about her best friends ASUCENA VERA who became the wife of Sampaguita Pictures producer Jose R. Perez, and ELSA ORIA who was to be dubbed later on as The Singing Sweetheart of Philippine Movies (they met on December 8, 1930, during La Concordia's Immaculate Concepcion Day celebration. My mom, who was then Filomena Armengol, a French-Spanish young woman, was an intern at the Colegio de la Concordia. Elsa was an intern at Colegio de Santa Rosa, and Azucena was an intern at Santa Scholastica - they became friends for life). My mother told me that Elsa later on became one of the most popular actresses and singers in the Philippine movie industry.

Too bad, my mom was not a follower of Tagalog movies. So there's no way for her to tell me exactly how Carmen Rosales fared compared to Elsa Oria.

So, the mystery became more perplexing to me.

What was so special about Carmen Rosales to warrant such following, such love, such adoration?

Well, I searched the web for old black and white Tagalog movies on video, particularly the ones starring Carmen Rosales. I thought it was absolutely a long shot, but what the heck, I might just get lucky and find one. Kabayan Central has a copy.

ANG TANGI KONG PAG-IBIG. Starring Carmen Rosales and Rogelio de la Rosa, plus the young Luis Gonzales.

I became excited. I was about to demystify the mystery of Carmen Rosales.

ANG TANGI KONG PAGIBIG is based on Dr. Fausto J. Galauran's serialized novel in Bulaklak and Alimyon Magazines. It's a pity that the story and screenplay of this very popular film are not well written. The scriptwriter wrote his screenplay exactly the same way the serialized novel was constructed. Result: ANG TANGI KONG PAG-IBIG becomes an episodic love story that fluctuates like a spygmomanometer in action. Up and down, down and up, and up and down. One cliffhanger comes up, then it is resolved in no time, just for another cliffhanger to begin, only to be resolved just before the plot point begins to whet your appetite.

Surprisingly, Mar S. Torres' direction is quite creative. Even though the script is so limiting, he manages to expound this rigmarole of a screeplay, effectively. It's also fascinating to see the old Manila, just before immigrants from other countries went to live there. Back then, it looked so friendly, spacious and extremely clean. The last description is in bold type, for I think it would take a miracle before Manila could possess once again such clean surroundings. Seeing Rogelio de la Rosa and young Luis Gonzales walking in the streets of Manila made me wistful.

Wistful and not wishful, because I knew that deep inside me no one will see a spic and span Manila ever again.

Carmen Resales' performance made ANG TANGI KONG PAG-IBIG a classic. In this movie, she sang, she danced and she acted.

The Stanislavsky Method emphasizes the use of the voice and body as the tools of an actor. Carmen Resales used both tools quite competently. He eyes "lead," so to speak in Method Acting.

I have met many Philippine actresses during the late 70s and early 80s who were much more beautiful than Carmen Rosales (and I dare say Imelda Ilanan is one of the most beautiful actresses I've ever seen in my life), but not one of them has matched the expression of Carmen Rosales' eyes. Lolita Rodriguez came this close, but not quite. Carmen Rosales didn't have to say anything to express an emotion. A stare, or a glance, or a wink, was enough for us to understand what she was trying to convey. She was most effective when a scene was quiet. There was one particular scene in ANG TANGI KONG PAG-IBIG where she was wearing a surgical mask. It was an unforgettable close up, for by just using her eyes she was able to emote a color swatch of emotions. All the loneliness, the pain, the confusion, the happiness and anger of the character she was portraying came to life.

Mar S. Torres sure knew how to explore an actress' capabilities. I wish we had more movie directors like him. He was as intuitive and creative as Hollywood's Willy Wyler.

At last, I have unravelled the mystery of Carmen Rosales. I maybe thirty or forty years late to have discovered her, but it is worth it. I know that from now on, I will be raving about her too, just like the way the older generation did then and are still doing now.

What was the magic of Carmen Rosales?

The answer is simple: she was such a consummated actress, a singer, a dancer, but most of all, she was a master of improvisation and mime, a rara avis in the Philippine movie industry.

ANG TANGI KONG PAG-IBIG is available (unfortunately) on VHS only, from Kabayan Central.

COPYRIGHT AND ALL THINGS NICE

2008-02-28T09:35:00.000-08:00

A commentary from one of the readers of this blog named ZANJO was fair enough: that there was rampant plagiarism in the old komiks industry.

I am with Zanjo on this one, for personally, this is also what I think – based upon what I saw in the old industry.

Many serials were lifted from either a best selling novel that the masses didn’t even realize existed; a Hollywood feature film that made a killing at the box office; drawings of well-known artists from western comics were sometimes copied verbatim, flaws and all.

All these above-mentioned aspects were in fact the absolute reason why critics of the old industry were too harsh and mean-spirited. They want the industry to clean up its act, and for once be more original rather than a mere copycat of the original western creations.

But, who's to be blamed for this? The publishers? The writers? The Illustrators? The readers?

It’s rather hard to pin point exactly who.

Because historically, the Philippines have always played safe in terms of economics rather than originality or creativity.

Berne Convention, or Bern Convention, or International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (copyright law)

The international copyright agreement adopted by an international conference in Bern (Berne) in 1886 and subsequently modified several times (Berlin, 1908; Rome, 1928; Brussels, 1948; Stockholm, 1967; and Paris, 1971). Signatories of the Convention constitute the Berne Copyright Union whose intention was to recognize and apply copyright laws to all authors, regardless of nationality and/or country, and thereby began a movement for some international accord. At Bern, Switzerland, in 1886, representatives of 10 countries adopted the Berne Convention (formally known as the International Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), which established the Berne Union.

Some nations acquiesced to this union, others did it whole-heartedly, but unfortunately, the Philippines flatly rejected it during its early years of its existence.

Lawmakers thought that there were more disadvantages than advantages joining this union. If the Philippines had joined the union, we would have been mandatorily adhering to the rules without ifs and buts.

And the price to pay was hefty!

Every song we play on the radio, TV, movies and stage presentations, we MUST PAY ROYALTY to the authors.

Every book, recorded song, other reading materials – we must pay royalty to the authors.

Every film or tv presentations we do, we must pay the authors, including playing music on juke boxes while you sip beer in a night club or restaurant.

This is the reason why the lawmakers of our land decided that we’re not that rich. We’d be more deprived of all these modern world inventions if we did.

Therefore, we remained free of obligations. For instance, we can play music, adapt foreign music and make it a tagalog one, quote poetry or prose from a foreign work, and the devil may care if the authors balk about it.

And the rest…as we all say… is history.

However, since we did not join the union, other nations can also play our music, copy this and that from our country, and we can’t do anything about it as well.

One example that comes to mind is: DAHIL SA IYO.

When Mike Velarde (not the El Shaddai guy but the COMPOSER), wrote the song DAHIL SA IYO and was recorded in the fifties, it became very popular in this archipelago. Its popularity overflowed like tsunami from the shores of our islands, and after Tony Bennett recorded it as BECAUSE OF YOU and became a hit, many other countries followed suit. It was recorded in France, Germany, England, Spain, etc, and the poor Mike Velarde didn’t even get a cent from all these shenanigans.

After Sylvia la Torre recorded Levi celerio’s lyrics of WARAY-WARAY, again, the song was translated to different languages and no one from RP received anything. Even Eartha Kitt had daringly recorded it in Tagalog! And this recording is still being played on the radio allover the world.

When Hollywood used to visit the Philippines to do all those smash hit war movies, most of the Filipino compositions used there were taken without permission. There were several of them used Filipino compositions, and one of them even unabashedly used AY, AY, KALISUD as the theme song of a John Wayne film! I could no longer remember exactly which one (BACK TO BATAAN, maybe), but it did happen.

But, let's face it. We raked in more advantages than disadvantages from this stand. If you listen to the songs recorded in the Philippines during the 50s and the 60s (try listening to TIA DELY'S program on DZRH) and you'll realize that during those years, we have recorded more tagalog songs based upon smash hit records from USA and UK, translated in tagalog. To name a few:

ANG KAWAWANG COWBOY by Fred Panopio (from Rhinestone Cowboy)
IKAW LANG ANG IBIGIN KO (from My Song of Love)
KINSE ANYOS SA MUNTINGLUPA (from Pretty Baby)
ROSANG TATTOO (from Rose Tattoo)
KAY SARAP-SARAP (from QUE SERA, SERA)

Meanwhile, it is so convenient to use recordings from other parts of the world in the Philippines. In the 70s, when the Philippines produced a glut of amazingly wonderful music (in fact the world produced really good music during this decade), when I was writing dramas for TV, I made sure that every episode I write, I specify recorded music that fits the theme of that episode to heighten the impact of a scene or story as a whole. I mean, can we afford to pay STREISAND, for instance, for her song LOVE COMES FROM THE MOST UNEXPECTED PLACES for an episode of ALINDOG? Even our own local recorded songs are free from any fee obligations. I had a feast using those wonderful, thought-provoking original ASIN MUSIC for my tv episodes in those days. I mean I feel bad that the composers didn’t get any remunerations from their work, but it's just the way it is and we can’t do anything about it. Besides, these musicians have no representatives, or publishers even, who would take care of all royalty matters. Say if you want to use AEGIS’ song for a film or tv drama, you can’t be chasing the band in Singapore or Tokyo or Hongkong to negotiate royalty matters. Besides, TV stations would rather not pay them in the first place.

The Bern Convention became a reality from the insistence of French author VICTOR HUGO (Les Miserables). The world moved on since then. However, we remained the same in the Philippines.

So, Zanjo… this is the sad reality of the status quo in the Philippines.

Therefore, as audience or reader, let’s just be discriminating. If a komiks serial is lifted from another Stephen King work, for instance, but claimed by the scriptwriter to be his… then, you know what to do: Don’t patronize his BALDERDASH.

MGA AWARD-WINNING MODERN WORLD LITERATURE ADAPTED FOR KOMIKS

2008-02-23T20:29:00.000-08:00

May panahon noong 70s nang i-suggest namin ni Vincent Benjamin Kua kay Mr. Tenorio na dalhin ang award winning modern world lit sa komiks. Isa ito sa mga na-brainstorm namin kung paano pa mai-angat ang lokal komiks. At dahil hindi makaabot sa mga masa ang mga panulat na tinuringang pinakamagagaling sa makabaong panahon, nakumbinsi si Mr. Tenorio na may merit nga ang suhesyon na ito.

Na-assign sa akin ang mga foreign works, kay Vincent ay mga local.

Later, gumaya na rin ang iba pang publications at gumawa rin ako sa kanila.

Narito ang ilang halimbawa kung paano ko ginampanan ang bagay na ito, sa pag-asang maibahagi, halimbawa, ang mga gawa nina O Henry at Leo Tolstoi. Ang nakakabigla, napakaraming sulat kaming natanggap sa mga adaptations na ganito at nagdulot ito sa amin ng tuwa, na kahi't ang mga tema ay hindi naman talaga pang-komersiyal ang appeal, pero kinagat rin ito ng mga mambabasa. Dito namin napatunayan ni Vincent, at maging ni Mr. Tenorio man, na may puwang rin ang HIGH-BROW na mga obra, basta't dalhin mo ito sa masa. Ika nga'y... i-extend mo ang iyong mga kamay bilang komikero, at malugod mong ipakilala kung sino ba, halimbawa, si Leo Tolstoi, o si Luigi Pirandello. Ang ilan ay napunit na ang mga pangalan ng awtor kaya hindi na nakasama.

ANO'NG KASAMAAN ANG MAGAGAWA NG SALAPI?
adapted from THE LOTTERY TICKET
by LUIGI PIRANDELLO

ANG KABAYO NI MANG TEBAN
adapted from TO WHOM SHALL I TELL MY SORROW?
by LEO TOLSTOI

ANG MGA KAWATAN
Adapted from THE WILL OF ALLAH
from an African Short story

SLAVE MENTALITY OF THE FILIPINOS

2008-02-16T21:05:00.000-08:00

Since time immemorial, I have been noticing how Filipino workers would generally succumb to the old cliché: DON'T BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU.

In the old komiks industry for instance, some talented people (writers and artists) tend to do whatever the publishers blatantly ask them.

Don't start a UNION!

Don't start a GUILD!

Don't create any work that the company thinks would be against its policies.

Many bowed their heads and let the monopoly thrived.
Very few progressive-minded talents disagreed and did EXACTLY what the bosses have forbidden them to do.
The meek ones remained in the publication. The bold ones were annihilated to kingdom come.

I have nothing but respect for these group who were so valiant enough to fight for what is right.
And for those YES MEN, I have nothing but disgust for you. In a court of law, an accomplice to murder is also guilty of murder. Therefore, this meek group of people, condoning the CONSTRICTION of these so-called monopolous publishers, became an instrument to aid the business men to treat the outspoken ones like excrement, to say the least.

Reasoning such as the following is the height of one's imbecillic thinking:

"Dibat ang taong pilit niyong sinisiraan na mang-gagamit ay siya ngayong nagpapakain sa mga nawalan ng trabaho sa komiks. At kahit sa sandaling panahon may kaunti silang panapal na nailagay sa matagal na nilang butas na bituka.
hindi obserbasyon o sour graping ang sagot mr. cool. aT DI PANINIRA! "

As long as we get people with such stupid reasoning and outlook, there will always be unfair practices involving treatment, salary, even artistic freedom.

Why can't these people see the light? Why can't they realize that without them as talent of a publishing company, THERE WILL BE NO BUSINESS? The publisher may be the hand that feeds you, but it's YOU who make it happen so that that hand will have something to feed you in the first place. Isn't this simple enough to be seen, felt, realized?

What's wrong with these group of senseless people, trying to denigrade themselves by believing they are actually SLAVES and therefore should just follow their MASTERS with closed eyes?

"That's BALONEY! Stupid is not written on my forehead," Judge Judy will surely say.

These meek and mindless creatures, have, what Philosopher Friedrick Nietzsche would call, THE SLAVE MENTALITY.

These people blindly believe that there is something virtuous about their own enslavement, and therefore they seek it and languish in it. They think there is something virtuous about self-belittlement and the psychological crippling that goes with it. The slave mentality promoted psychological feebleness; and it regarded all of this as honourable.

If you belong to this group, whoever you are, please wake up and smell the CHAMPAKA.
Do what is right. You are not BELOW your publisher. You are EVEN with your publisher. You work for him, he pays you in return. Symbiosis. Period.

Meanwhile, for those who formed a workers union, special mention for that well-known artist who reportedly SLAPPED AN EDITOR, and for those who defied the publishers for treating them unfairly – Let's all stand up and give them all a big hand of applause.

Never again should komiks writers and illustrators allow any monopoly in komiks publishing. The time has come that talent fees be upgraded according to the current standard of living. Komiks writers and Illustrators are human beings, too. Treat them fairly.

EMBELLISHING MARTIAL LAW

2008-01-13T00:30:00.000-08:00

The Martial Law years were the "healthiest" years of the Philippine komiks. These were the years when the komiks were published twice a week (from weekly in the late 60s) . Writers and illustrators during these years were all busy bees, and everyone was raking in the big bucks. There were too many jobs in the industry. Publishers mushroomed everywhere. Writers created more logical stories, and even if we lost the likes of Redondo, Alcala and Niño to the US and Coching (by retiring), we still had the likes of Mars Ravelo, Elena Patron, Pablo S. Gomez, Jim Fernandez, Nestor Malgapo and other excellent writers and illustrators.

But, the most ridiculous claim I've ever read was that the Philippine movies were totally suppressed that there were only bad ones that were made during this decade.

Balderdash!

The 1970s were the years when the Filipino movies shone and was noticed by the whole world. It was also the time when materials adapted from the komiks became very good movies and were given accolades in international film festivals.

True, there were incidents when a film for instance would be told by the censors to change the title, like RICO BELLO OMAGAP’s IMELDA, ANG ULIRAN. The censors simply made it ANG ULIRAN, and neither Cirio Santiago nor Mr. Omagap was bothered by it.

There was also the case of MANILA BY NIGHT, which the censors changed to CITY BY NIGHT. Sure, Bernal wasn’t too happy. One can call it repression if you will, but don’t tell me just because a title was changed a little, it already caused the film to look bad?

A bunch of bull!

In those years, as a writer, for instance, if you had pushed the envelope further, you could have gotten away with a lot of realism in your work. This is exactly what I did when I was writing TV dramas in those days. I will put some snippets of one teleplay, an episode of ULILA, just to give you a sampler of what sort of materials in those days that were approved by the censors and what they didn’t.

In this sampler, despite the extremely delicate subject, the TV Censors, then headed by CHITANG GUERRERO NAKPIL, didn’t changed a bit of the dialogs. However, she summoned me to go to the studio to discuss one thing: make sure that the ending of the story should say that the kids who live in their push cart were helped by the government and were placed in a foster home to give them a good life. I wasn’t happy when they did this, but even if I lost some argument, I’ve also won some. So here are three SEQUENCES to illustrate what it was like in the 70s, the Martial Law years.

PROGRAM: Ulila
EPISODE: “Joselito”
WRITER: Jose Mari Lee
PRODUCER: Rebecca Cabrera
DIRECTOR: Mario O’Hara

Cast

Mainstay:
ROSA ROSAL as Aurora
The loving mother.

Guests:
MICHAEL SANDICO as Joselito
Aurora’s son, 15 years old, very good-looking and kind.

LITO ANZURES as Fernando
Aurora’s disillusioned husband.

JOEY GALVEZ as Bunny
The homosexual pimp, gay bar operator, opportunist.

JOSE DE VILLA
The rich pedophile, a customer in Bunny’s bar.

ESTRELLA KUENTZLER as the good neighbor.

Introducing:
JANICE DE BELEN as Ana
Aurora’s daughter, 7 years old.

EXTRAS to play as hospital patients and Gay Bar customers

In SEQUENCE 1 – the characters of Aurora, Fernando and Joselito are established. Joselito picks-up recyclable garbage in Smokey Mountain. Fernando is now disillusioned and lost interest to find a job. It is difficult for someone like him who barely finished elementary school. Due to his depression, he drinks as soon as he finds some money. Basically, Joselito is the bread winner as Aurora is ill. She had Hepatitis B when she was young, and now cirrhosis.
It was also established here that Ana is the youngest daughter. Joselito goes to school at night, trying to finish high school.

SEQ. 2: INT. ONE-ROOM HOUSE, NIGHT OF THAT DAY
Bunny, with shoulder bag, sits at the table, angry, speaking very rapidly. Fernando, sober, and like a meek lamb, sits beside Bunny.

BUNNY:
Kung hindi ko pa ipagtanong itong lungga mo
hindi ko pa makikita ang anino mo. Ang galing-
galing mong mangutang, ang kunat mong
magbayad. Aba’y namuti ang mga mata ko sa
kahihintay sa pagsipot mo, ah.

FERNANDO:
Kaya nga nakikiusap naman ako sa iyo, e. Wala
lang talaga akong maibigay sa iyo ngayon, Bunny.
Nabawas ako sa trabaho at nagkasakit pa’ng asawa
ko. Nasa ospital nga siya ngayon, e.

BUNNY:
Kesehoda kung may sakit ang asawa mo. Ang
obligasyon ay obligasyon.

FERNANDO:
Huwag ka sabing mag-alala at magbabayad naman
ako. Ngayon lang naman ako pumaltos, a?

BUNNY:
Ngayon ka nga lang pumaltos, pero tatlong buwan
Ka nang hindi nagbabayad ng tubo.

Joselito comes in and stands at the door. There is worry on his face. There are several prescriptions in his hand.

JOSELITO:
Itay… ay, may bisita ho pala tayo.

Bunny suddenly keeps quiet upon seeing Joselito and the anger in his face disappears. He gazes at Joselito admiringly from head to foot.

FERNANDO:
O, nariyan ka na pala. Kumusta ang inay mo?

Joselito walks heavily towards the table.

JOSELITO:
Hindi na ho masakit ang tiyan niya ngayon. Pero
mahinang-mahina ho siya. Ang dami nga hong
reseta, e.

FERNANDO
(to Bunny)
Nakita mo na, Bunny? Talagang gipit kami ngayon.

BUNNY
(raising an eyebrow)
Bakit… puwede naman nating pag-usapan ito, a?
Napaka-pogi naman nitong anak mo.

FERNANDO:
(smiling maliciously)
Hmm, parang nahuhulaan ko na ang iniisip mo.

BUNNY:
Bakit hindi mo agad sinabi sa akin na may pogi ka
palang anak. Ni sa bangungot ay hindi ko inakala ito.

FERNANDO:
Nagkamaling umibig sa akin ang asawa kong mestisa, e.
Pero ang gusto kong malaman ay kung talagang
Interesado ka dito sa anak ko.

BUNNY:
Hindi lang interesado kundi interesadong-interesado.
Alam mo, may bagong tayong bar na ako ang namamahala.
Ang 906 bar sa Ermita. Pakikinabangan ko ang batang ito.
At siyempre, makikinabang din siya.

FERNANDO:
Ano naman ang gagawin niya roon sa bar. Dishwasher?

BUNNY:
(indignant)
Ano? Sa kapogihan niyan, paghuhugasin ko lang ng plato?
Gagawin ko siyang star hospitality boy.

FERNANDO:
Ospital? Bakit ospital naman ngayon. Akala ko sa bar ikamo?

BUNNY:
Que imbecile! Hindi ospital. Hospitality. Malaki ang kikitain
niya sa trabahong ito. May suweldo na, may tip pa. At huwag
mong isnabin ang bar ko, ha? Mga class na tao ang nagpupuntahan
doon. Mga sosyal. Mahina ang dalawang daang piso na kikitain
niya roon gabi-gabi.
(approaching Joselito and touching
the boy’s behind)
Kaya lang, baka naman dyutay ka?

FERNANDO:
Dyutay? Bisaya ka rin bang tulad ko?

BUNNY:
Lokah! Usong salita iyon sa mga bakling. Hindi kaya…maliit…
ang kargada… nitong anak mo?

Joselito cringes, embarrased.

FERNANDO:
(laughing)
Ah… iyon ba iyon? Pasensiya ka na’t wala akong kaalam-alam
sa mga usong salita ngayon. Para malaman mo eh, di imbestigahan
mo. Sige, Joselito. Maghubad ka na’t ipakita mo ang ari mo.

JOSELITO:
Tay, naman… huwag naman ho dito.
(to Bunny)
Talaga ho bang importante iyon?

BUNNY:
Siyempre. At kung talagang gusto mong kumita at makatulong
sa inay mong may sakit, gagawin mo.

JOSELITO:
Doon na lang ho sa may batalan. Baka may makakita sa atin
dito, nakakahiya.

BUNNY:
Mabait na bata itong anak mo, Fernando. Masunurin.

Bunny brings out his wallet and hands two hundred pesos to Fernando.

FERNANDO:
(delighted, eyes wide open)
Ito ba ang unang suweldo niya?

BUNNY:
Of course not. Pakunsuwelo ko pa lang sa iyo iyan.

JOSELITO:
Salamat naman at may pambili na tayo ng mga gamot ni inay.

FERNANDO:
(taking the prescriptions)
Ako na’ng bahalang bumili ng mga iyan. Sige na, punta na kayo sa batalan.

BUNNY:
At pagkatapos ay isasama ko siya at bibilhan ko ng mga bagong
damit, sapatos, at kung anu-ano pang mga kakailanganin niya.

JOSELITO:
Makaya ko ho kaya ang trabahong sinasabi ninyo?

BUNNY:
Kayang-kaya mo, darling. Madali, pero malaki ang kita.

JOSELITO:
Itay, bilhin na agad ninyo ang mga gamot ni inay.

FERNANDO:
Oo, ako na’ng bahala. Sige na.

Joselito and Bunny EXIT CAMERA.

SEQ. 3: INT. GAY BAR - SAME NIGHT

KANSAS’ “DUST IN THE WIND” COMES IN as CAMERA PANS SLOWLY on the dimly-lit bar, PASSING BRIEFLY the BAR CUSTOMERS, then RESTS on Joselito. He is well-dressed, seated at the bar counter. His inhibitions are now gone, he seems to look more mature and more bubbly, though the childlike winsomeness that contrasts charmingly with his good looks is still visible. Opposite the counter sits Bunny, wearing a blouse and looking more like a woman.

BUNNY:
Sa trabahong ito, kung magiging mabait ka lang sa
customers, tiyak na malaki ang kikitain mo. Kaya
huwag na huwag mong kalilimutan ang mga itinuro
ko sa iyo kanina. Pupunta dito ngayon si
Don Paquito de Ylaya at susunduin ka. Pagbutihin
mo ang pakikitungo sa kanya at madatong ang gurang
na iyon. Milyonaryo.

JOSELITO:
Huwag ho kayong mag-alala. Kabisado ko na ho lahat.

BUNNY:
Huwag mo nga akong hino-ho. Bata pa ako. Bunny
ang ang itawag mo sa akin. At maski ang mga
costumers, huwag mong hoho-in. Ayaw nilang matatawag
na gurang sila kahi’t gayot na gayot na ang hilatsa ng mga
pagmumukha nila.
(places a stick of cigarette in
Joselito’s lips).
O, mag-aral kang manigarilyo.
(lighting the cigarette)
Kailangang matutuhan mo rin iyan para lalo kang
magmukhang macho. At ang pagtayu-tayo mo.
Kailangang laging maganda ang pose, ha?

Don Paquito de Ylaya enters the bar and walks directly towards the counter.

BUNNY:
Hola, Don Paquito. Ven aqui, señor, ven aqui.

Don Paquito sits beside Joselito. He looks at Joselito and quite impressed of what he sees.

PAQUITO:
Excelente, Bunny. Napaka-guwapito nga. Pero teka…
menor ito. Baka masabit ako, ha?

BUNNY:
Ganitong mga edad naman talaga ang type mo, di ba?
Don’t worry. Ang magulang pa mismo ang nagbigay ng go signal.

PAQUITO:
Ay, muy bien. Talagang maaasahan ka.
(opening his wallet and hands several
paper bills to Bunny)
Sige … lalabas na kami.

BUNNY:
(delighted, placing the money
in his bossom)
Muchas Gracias, Don Paquito. Mabait na bata iyang
si Joselito. Masunurin iyan. Ano man ang ipagawa mo
sa kanya, gagawin niya. At tulad nga ng sinabi ko sa iyo
noon pa man… the best lang ang ibinibigay ko sa iyo…
and nothing but.

Don Paquito and Joselito walk towards the main door and go out. Bunny takes the money out from his bossom
and greedily counts them. He is almost giggling after counting and places them back inside his blouse.

SEQ.4: INT. ONE ROOM HOUSE – NEXT MORNING

Fernando and Ana are seated at the table. They have just finished their breakfast.

ANA:
Ang sarap naman ng agahan natin, itay. Malaki ho ba
kagabi ang napagbilhan ni kuya sa mga basura?

FERNANDO
Hindi na galling sa basura itong kinain natin ngayon.
May bagong hanap-buhay na ang kuya mo at malaki ang suweldo niya.

ANA:
Ay, talaga? E di palagi nang masarap ang kakainin natin ngayon?

Joselito comes in. He looks tired and sleepy.

ANA:
Wow. Ang ganda ng suot ng kuya, o.

FERNANDO:
Nariyan ka na pala. Inumaga ka, a?

JOSELITO:
Isinama ho ako ni Don Paquito sa bahay niya, e.

FERNANDO:
Ang laki siguro ng bahay ni Don Paquito, ano? Bigatin ka na
ngayon, ha? Don na ang kasama mo. Aba’y halos hindi kita
nakilala diyan sa suot mo, a? Para kang anak-mayaman.

ANA:
Oo nga kuya, lalo kang nagmukhang pogi.

FERNANDO:
Hoy, Ana. Tama na yang kadadaldal mo. Mahuhuli ka sa
eskuwela. Mabuti pa’y pumasok ka na.

Ana gets up and picks up her books from the table.

JOSELITO:
Ingat ka, Ana. Tingin ka bago tumawid.

ANA:
Oo kuya.

Ana exits.

Joselito moves languidly towards Fernando and kisses his hand.

FERNANDO:
Malaki ba naman ang kinita mo?

Joselito pulls some paper bills from his pocket and hands them to Fernando.

FERNANDO:
Tatlong daan?
(giving back the money to him)
Ikaw na ang magtago nito’t meron pa naman akong
Kaunti dito. Totoo nga pala ang sabi ni Bunny na malaki
nga ang kikitain mo roon.

JOSELITO:
(placing back the money in his pocket)
Apat na raan nga ho ito, e. Kaya lang namili na ako ng mga
prutas at pagkain ni inay. Galing na ho ako sa ospital.
Matutulog ho muna ako at mamaya’y babalik ako sa ospital.
At saka sabi nga ho pala ni Bunny huwag n’yo nang
bayaran ang utang ninyo sa kanya.

FERNANDO:
E di lalong magaling. Siguro’y milyonaryo yung
Don Paquitong iyan, ano?

Joselito goes to the bamboo bed, takes off his shirt and sits down.

JOSELITO:
Itay… hindi ko ho yata kaya ang ganitong trabaho.
Ang sakit ho ng katawan ko, para ho akong binugbog.

FERNANDO
(Laughing)
Ganyan lang iyan sa umpisa. Pag nasanay ka na, wala ka
nang mararamdamang ganyan. Kumain ka na ba?

JOSELITO:
Oho.

FERNANDO:
Alagaan mong mabuti iyang katawan mo. Kailangang
laging magkorteng pangromansa iyan para maraming
maloko sa iyo.

Joselito lies down on the bed. He stares sadly at the ceiling. There’s a beat, then…

JOSELITO:
Hindi ko ho yata makakayanan ito, Itay. Ayoko ko ho
ng ganitong trabaho. Nandidiri ho ako. At saka, hindi
ba’t kasalanan ito?

FERNANDO:
(suddenly annoyed)
At sino ang may sabing masama? Sino’ng may sabing
kasalanan? Ang kasalanan ay ang magnakaw dahil
nakakaperhuwisyo sa kapuwa. Tingnan mo ang sarili
mo ngayon. Ang linis mo. Ang bango mo. Hindi amoy
basura. Mas dapat kang mandiri sa kakakalkal ng
basura sa tambakan. Ang dumi-dumi na, ang bahu-baho pa,
at kakarampot lang ang kita.

Joselito gets up and looks out the window. He swallows hard, before…

JOSELITO:
Hindi bale na hong marumi at mabaho sa tambakan, itay.
Hindi bale na rin ho kung maliit ang kita. Basta’t hindi
masama ang trabaho.

FERNANDO:
Huwag kang tanga. Kasalanan ang magtrabaho ng ganyan
kung mayaman ka. Pero kung mahirap ka, kabanalan ang
magtrabaho ng ganyan. Kabanalan dahil gusto mong tulungan
ang iyong inang may sakit.

Joselito sighs, suddenly remembering his mother.

FERNANDO:
Kung hindi mo masikmura ang trabaho mo ngayon, pilitin mo.
Ano’ng masama kung sipsipin man nila ang ari mo? Matapos
kang maligo ay malinis na naman ang katawan mo. Pilitin mong
magtrabaho dahil diyan tayo giginhawa. Ikaw lang ang maaaring
magligtas sa iyong ina. Matitiis mo bang hayaan siyang basta na
lang mamatay dahil wala tayong pambili ng kanyang gamot?

Joselito says nothing. In agony, he rests his head against the window.

FERNANDO:
Kailangan ngayon sa mundo ay maging praktikal. Kung may
maipupuhunan ka para maging salapi… ipuhunan mo. Guwapo ka.
Puwes, iyan ang ipuhunan mo para kumita ng kuwarta. Kung puro
karangalan ang iisipin mo, mamamatay kang nakadilat ang iyong
mga mata. Tandaan mo iyan.

CAMERA MOVES SLOWLY AND RESTS ON Joselito, revealing the extreme sadness in his eyes. The WHISTLE of an approaching train is heard, then FADING OUT as the scene FADES OUT.

This is just an example of what a writer can get away with during Martial Law years. As long as you din’t side with the “left,” and/or directly attack Marcos and his policies, you could write with freedom. Though it would have been good if I wasn’t told to include the “goodness” of the government, but that I only added to Rosa Rosal’s EPILOG. This episode was based on a true story. I was walking along Avenida with friends one night and I saw Joselito and his sister near Recto Avenue. They were in a push cart. I asked them where they live and where their parents were. He told me his life story, and that the cart was their home and at the same time what they used to pick up recyclable garbage. I gave them some money and told them to go back there the next night. I told Rosa Rosal about them and she immediately found a home for them. Years later, Joselito became an accountant and his sister became a teacher. And it was all because of Rosa Rosal. Yet, in the epilog, I had to say the government did help the children, something that gave me a heavy heart, but the episode was allowed intact except for the closing spiel that Rosa Rosal had to deliver.

After all, it wasn’t really that bad for komiks, TV and movie writers during Martial Law years. There wee some annoyance, of course. Though some people just embellished their tales about Martial Law, saying that it was detrimental to their writings. Though some komiks publishers were too leery to publish new themes because they thought that their publication will be shut down. Two of my komiks nobelas were pulled out just after the 4th chapter, because the Censors thought that the public was not ready yet to be rattled by incendiary themes such as doctors playing God and/or medical malpractice, themes I delved into in my nobela called AKO’Y TINIK AT ROSAS and Tourism black eye in TOUR GUIDES, an exposé on tour guide prostitution in the country. •

Filipino Movies: Ingenious or Ignominious?

2008-01-02T13:24:00.000-08:00

The Filipino Movie industry has been around for more than a century.

In spite of this, Filipinos are still debating one thing: Are Filipino movies good or bad?

Our movie industry is riddled with too many contradictions that everybody has an opinion about them. Too good, too bad. Too progressive, too backward. Too intelligent, too banal. Too original, too clichéd.

Others think that it has a very bright future, but some believe that it is hopeless, doomed, and even dead.

But, what exactly are the problems of the Filipino Movies?

Let's scrutinize the people involved in our industry.

THE TECHNICIANS

We have the best. They are well trained and very hard working. Even if you give them antiquated facilities, they will always manage to get by and do their job competently. No doubt, an old facility will show its limitations on film, but we must admire our technicians' patience, ingenuity and resourcefulness. Remember how Raul Silos, Sr. invented the Siloscope, a type of lens that projected a wide screen image, long before Hollywood invented the Cinemascope, a wide angle lens capable of projecting spectacular, bigger-than life films. And how do you think Francis Ford Coppola managed to create his award-winning film Apocalypse Now sans the help of the Filipino technicians? We can conclude therefore, that given the most modem facilities, our technicians could do an even better job.

THE PERFORMERS

Who says all our actors are lousy? Sure, we have lots of awful ones, but we also have a
great number that we can include in our crème de la crème list. It is a pity that many have passed away like Charito Solis, Pancho Magalona, Leopoldo Salcedo, Vic Silayan, Dindo Femando and Rita Gomez, but we have others who are still alive and kicking and they're very good. Rosa Rosal, Lolita Rodriguez, Hilda Koronel, Christopher de Leon, Vhong Navarro, Cesar Montano, Tommy Abuel, and superstars Nora Aunor and Vilma Santos, plus many, many more.

THE SCREENWRITERS

We have a very small number of Screenwriters. In 1981, the Screenwriters Guild of the
Philippines (of which I was a member) had only 61 scriptwriters working for the Filipino movies. In an industry that was producing at least 400 films a year, each
Screenwriter has to write 6.6 screenplays to fill the demand. We have good scriptwriters, but to produce 6.6 screenplays a year, can we expect a well written screenplay? Mind you, most of these scriptwriters are also writing for television dramas and working full-time in an office. In my case, I had to write at least 8 teleplays every week to avoid replays (which the sponsors hate). However, if you were working for a network owned by "You know who" during his regime, the network was able get away with many things. Case in point: when Alma Moreno became too busy with her film assignments, Alindog had replayed one episode ten times. When the show's sponsors finally complained, that was the only time the network did something and Charo Santos became a regular replacement for Alma Moreno.

THE DIRECTORS

Again, it's a pity that many good ones have left us, like Gerardo de Leon, Lamberto Avellana, Ishmael Bernal and Lino Brocka, but we still have others who are as competent, like Eddie Garcia, Eddie Romero, Laurice Guiilen, Mariiou Abaya, Mario O’hara, Chito Roño and more. Of course we're not trying to discount the fact that we also have a stable of asinine movie directors.

THE PROBLEMS

Filipino Movies eve trendy.
No doubt, this problem is rampant. Whatever genre makes a killing at the box office causes every producer in town to jump on the bandwagon. Result: a glut of the same stuff being produced without regard to quality and uniqueness. Even titles are trendy. There was a time when long titles were in vogue. Every Filipino movie had a long title: DILIGIN MO NG HAMOG ANG UHAW NA LUPA (written by Diego Cagahastian); IBALIK MO ANG ARAW SA MUNDONG MAKASALANAN (written by Marina Feleo Gonzales); LUMAKAD KANG HUBAD SA MUNDONG IBABAW (written by Henry Cuino); Then the trend focused on one-word titles: BRUTAL (written by Ricky Lee); ATSAY (written by Edgardo M. Reyes); JAGUAR (written by Jose ”Pete” Lacaba). Then the word PUSO (heart) became so popular (as if we didn’t have enough of this in the 1950s): SINUNGALING MONG PUSO; DITO SA SKING PUSO; NARITO ANG PUSO KO; PANGARAP NG PUSO; And many, many more PUSO. I was in fact, waiting for someone to make a movie called: PUSO NG SAGING SA AKING KARE-KARE.

Filipino Movies refuse to learn.
Not all, but many people in our industry are in the so-called DENIAL STAGE. Like a cancer victim who asks initially: “Why me?” Many in the the Filipino film industry ask the same question.

An actor, for instance, would ask: “Why me?” If you tell him to attend an acting workshop. “What? You are telling me to study acting, me, the superstar? I became a millionaire from acting!” Yet ask him what a SWIMMING POOL TECHNIQUE is, and he wouldn’t know the answer.

A director may ask: “Why Me?” Because he refuses to learn his craft better. He thinks
that he knows everything. But try asking him the difference between Montage and Mise-en-scene and he'll look at you as if you're an alien f.o.f.s. (fresh off flying saucer) and that you must be eradicated immediately.

When screenwriters gather, it's natural for everyone to talk about his or her latest project. And when you bring up the idea of conducting a seminar- workshop for screen writing, a screenwriter will ask (and you guessed it right) "Why me?" "I've been doing this job for 100 years, what do I need a seminar for?" But try asking him the difference between a Purpose accomplishment story and Purpose abandonment story and he wouldn't have the slightest idea.

Filipino Movies are constricted.
No doubt, this is the pits. The late Film Director Gerry De Leon once said of the Philippine Censors: "Pusakal" (Ruthless). And I totally agree. They have been like this since the 1940s. There was a time when the Philippine Board of Censors for Motion Pictures required every writer to get an approval first of his story before he or she could negotiate with any film producers. Of course it required an approval fee. If they reject your material, the fee is forfeited! Where in the world can you find such censorship? You’re right, only in the Philippines.

And now, the censors are dipping their fingers everywhere. They even have the power to SUSPEND a performer from appearing on TV if that talent had said something that the Censors think was not supposed to be said. Sonafabitch! I would hate to be working on Philippine TV these days.

THE SOLUTION?

The Filipino Movies should stop being trendy and being a copycat.
Let's be more creative. Let s stop imitating Hollywood. It's not bad to pick up good things from Hollywood (such as learning how to use the latest facilities to improve the "look" of our films). MOON CHILD (Itanong Mo Sa Buwan) by Chito Roño proved that we can also make Filipino Movies with superior technical quality. For instance, let's quit being fascinated by Michael Douglas' FATAL ATTRACTION that we made Aga Mulach had the same fatal attraction with Vilma Santos in SINUNGALING MONG PUSO.

The Filipino Movies must accept the fact that learning is a continuing process.
A person, including a filmmaker, will always learn something new if he updates himself on new things. The trouble with many people in the our film industry is they tend to shrug their shoulders on new things.

The Filipino Movies must be liberated.
Enough is enough. The Board of Censors must just be there to CLASSIFY films and not to be the nation's holier-than-thou guardians of every Filipino's morality. Let the filmmakers explore the subject of their films with all the freedom they need.

And finally, we confront the question: Are the Filipino Movies ingenious or ignominious?

In my own opinion, most Filipino Movies nowadays are bad. But, we can do something to improve them. However, I'm afraid it will remain an industry of irony, just like the country itself: too much rain, too much sun; Too much enlightening, too much superstitions; Too many palatial houses, too many people living in the dump; Too much patriotism, too much braindrain; Too much hate, too much love. And this is summed up by a Tagalog expression that goes: Sala sa init, sala sa lamig. (Ill-suited to the heat, ill-adapted to the cold). •

BAKYA CROWD

2007-12-25T22:54:00.000-08:00

More than-half-a- century ago, when most Filipinos only watched Hollywood movies and watching Tagalog films and reading comics were looked down, a small sector of the population (who didn’t cave in to the ridicule of the population at large) had religiously watched Tagalog movies.

Touched by the patriotism of this group, National Artist and Film Director Lamberto Avellana coined an endearing word to describe them: "Bakya Crowd." Bakya, a locally-manufactured wooden slipper widely used in the 1950s by the underprivileged (but not necessarily uneducated) Filipinos, was indeed very appropriate, for these moviegoers were mostly Bakya wearers.

As the years passed, this term has evolved and a new connotation and a stigma has
been attached to it, too. In the 1950s and early 1960s when someone was referred to
as "Bakya," that person had a very poor taste and less educated that he or she would watch a Tagalog movie. Social history tells us that in those years, only a handful of theaters in Manila (only three to be exact: Life, Center & Dalisay Theaters) showed Tagalog films. Most theaters in Manila were exhibiting Hollywood flicks exclusively. Every Filipino filmmaker was having a tough time trying to convince highly-educated, aristocratic-minded, colonial mentality-proned population to go and watch their very own compatriots' lives unfold on the silver screen.

The small nationalist group didn't mind even if most of the actors and actresses looked Caucasian (most performers during those times were Eurasian or Amerisian (mestizos and mestizas).

Susan Roces and Amalia Fuentes

The scenario changed suddenly, when, in the mid-sixties, during the height of
Amalia Fuentes and Susan Roces' popularity, throngs of young people began
patronizing Tagalog movies, that within a span of five to seven years, more and more
theaters began exhibiting them. In the 1970s, the ratio of theaters showing Tagalog
and English movies was fifty-fifty.

Yet, in spite of this change, the term "Bakya Crowd" lingered, and again, its meaning had mutated like a nasty virus.

Exception to the Rule: Nora Aunor

When the so-called phenomenal superstar Nora Aunor entered the movie scene, the Filipino movies were revolutionized, so to speak, but only in terms of personalities. After more than seventy years of reigning, the popularity of mestizo and mestiza movie stars in Tagalog films began to decline. Suddenly, a petite, dark-complexioned girl from the Bicol region became the superstar of this Caucasoid territory. More young people (and of course the young once, as well) became movie fans. As the population became younger and younger, more young people joined the movies. In fact, when I was in university taking Mass Comm, several of my classmates were acting and singing in the movies: Peria Adea, Rod Dasco, Rex Dimavivas, Marsha de Rivera, Lou Soratorio, and others. During this time, if you were caught watching a Tagalog movie, you were no longer considered "Bakya". But, if you were a movie fan of a local superstar, well, that's another story. You will be branded as "Bakya."

I have always believed that the 1970’s were the worst of times and the best of times for Filipino films. Despite the drastic improvement of the writing in the komiks and the progressive upward movement of the films by L’enfant terrible film Director Armando de Guzman and newcomers Lino Brocka, Ishmael Bernal, Romy Suzara and Joey Gosiengfiao, we also have the other half who produced quickies like there were no more tomorrow: Artemio Marquez, Leody M. Diaz, Romy Villaflor, Ben Feleo and others. But, the most prominent among these quickie film directors was Artemio Marquez, who happened to direct mostly Nora Aunor films. The proliferation of Artemio Marquez’ sing-and-dance films was totally a waste of time. Clearly, all the films were made just to tickle Nora Aunor-Tirso Cruz-Manny de Leon fans. Hence, in our Speech and Drama classes, Perla Adea was teased a lot by yours truly and by my best buddy, Renato Malay (son of journalist Armando Malay).We teased her day-in and day-out until one day she couldn't take it anymore and she cried, really cried in the speech lab. She broke my heart. I apologized to her and never, ever teased her again until the end of that semester. Four years later, when we were already degree holders, we had an accidental reunion at Broadcast City. She was one of the guest actresses in my T.V. show Ulila. But that's another story...

So how on earth did such a symbolic, innocent word originally coined with such endearment, end as something insulting?

When the masses are hungry, entertain them

In the early sixties, during Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal’s term, the Philippine economy was booming. We were second in line to Japan's economic
prosperity. When Ferdinand Marcos' regime came, we began to lag. We lagged and lagged until we lost the race to all the ASEAN nations. Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, and Taiwan all became very prosperous, except us. Marcos' rule lasted for twenty-one years, and within this time frame, we lost our once upon-a-time high standard public school education. From almost 100% literacy rate, we went down to 83%; Most of the ones affected were the under-priveledged. They quit school because they could no longer afford to stay there. At a very tender age, they had to eke out a living to help the family survive. Most young people became maids and gardeners of the affluent Filipinos. Others became jeepney drivers, underpaid blue collar workers, sidewalk vendors, handy men, door- to-door salesmen. Child prostitution became rampant.

The Tagalog movies were there to help the poor escape from the harsh realities of their everyday existence. The komiks, the movies and religion became the opium of the people. Meanwhile, the filthy rich movie producers banked on the masses' Achilles heel. Despite the huge improvement in the quality of the Filipino films, some producers continued to produce projects that exploited rich people versus poor people stories, always making the rich evil, and the poor, saintly, and always triumphant in the end.

Having such an extremely inexpensive and escapist entertainment, a poor man can go where so ever he wishes - in his imagination.

The other half of the filmmakers were the ones who were guilty of these low quality escapist melodramas that came out year after year after year. They thought only of pleasing the fans of the current superstars. They didn't try hard enough to uplift the
mentality of the fans who were now refered to as the new "Bakya Crowd."

"Whatever the fans want to see, give it to them," quipped one multi- millionaire movie producer.

Such uncaring reasoning was the root cause of the deterioration of the Tagalog
Movies starting in the late 1980s and still continuing these days. The masses were never given the opportunity to appreciate worth-seeing, high-quality films. The pillars of the film industry (producers, directors, and writers) should reach out to the masses, and start believing that the audience of Tagalog movies are not stupid, and therefore they deserve better movies. If the filmmakers change, the audience will change with them. Artists are supposed to be pacesetters. They must lead. When these changes take place, the term "Bakya Crowd" will become extinct. •