Last year, the former Bad Boy of Philippine Movies returned to his matinee idol ways, romancing Sharon Cuneta in his sweet, self-depracating manner in Viva Films’ Pagdating ng Panahon. It was a welcome breather, alright.
But Robin’s turf is those slam-bang movies where he roughs it up, looks at his enemy in the eye, falls flat on the ground to wrestle with the bad guys, gets his hands and feet dirty squaring it off in some rumble or other.
That’s why making another film of this sort is like coming home to him. Robin will give anything to feel the ground pounding under his running feet again, the sound of a gun firing and a bullet zinging past him, while the cameras grind on and on.
One could almost hear him cry, "It feels good to be in (movie) battle mode again!"
Those shadowboxing and calisthenics sessions even when he wasn’t shooting a movie have paid off. Robin is as lithe and fit as a bull for those taxing scenes.
Even that tattoo around his wrist (an old one, he assures you) sure comes in handy.
This time, the cameras grind on and on and on – with no respite in-between sequences. In Hari ng Selda, Robin’s reunion film with mentor-discoverer Deo J. Fajardo, the steady cam took it all in: real-life prisoners (the friends Robin made while behind bars) in their bright orange uniforms, the power play that leads to rumbles, the deceptively-tranquil facade of the New Bilibid Prisons, where the action took place.
"If you bungle up, it will show," Robin relates.
The fact that he spent three years behind bars (from 1995 to 1998, for illegal possession of firearms) went a long way in helping Robin play the title role of Muntinlupa inmate Anghel.
So familiar is Robin with the prison way of life he co-wrote the story of Hari ng Selda himself with Direk Deo. Robin even supervised the shooting of some of the scenes.
"Seventy to 80 percent of what viewers will see happened in real life," says Robin proudly.
He should know. Robin was prepared to serve out his nine-year prison term until Sen. Ramon Revilla came to the rescue. He authored a bill that amended the sentence on illegal possession of firearms. Because of this, Robin became a free man on April 7, 1998, six years short of his prescribed prison term.
His stay behind bars gained Robin a group of friends bound by a common goal: freedom. Unlike nonprisoners, who stick together usually for material reasons, Robin and his fellow-inmates gravitated toward each other for a plain and simple need: camaraderie.
Since the friendship rested on such a solid foundation, it has withstood the test of time. Four of Robin’s friends behind bars were supposed to give him moral support at the aborted first presscon of the movie (Robin got sick worrying about the kidnapping of half-brother Gino Padilla, whose body was found a few days ago), but one of them was not allowed to leave.
Robin may value his freedom more than anything else in the world today, but his good memories of prison life lead him back to "Munti" to make a film that will open people’s eyes to the realities and the pathos behind bars.
And because prisoners are human beings who fall in love, Hari ng Selda has a romantic twist. Robin, who always admired leading lady Angelika de la Cruz’s beauty from a distance, got her as leading lady and love interest.
"I’ve always followed her soap series, Esperanza, even while I was in prison. In fact, no one could take me away from television at that time," he reveals.
So it was that Robin got to kiss Angelika in a romantic scene calculated to provide that kilig factor in Hari ng Selda. This will soften the hard-action highlights of the Viva picture.
Joyce Bernal was called in to direct the feel-good parts. After all, who else can give the soft, feminine touch to otherwise "macho" film than a woman herself?
Not Deo Fajardo, director of Hari ng Selda, who nurtured Robin’s career since he was a teenager and a mere babe in showbizlandia.
Trust Deo to take care of directing Robin as he jet-skis, jumps from heights, does those shoot-outs and blasting scenes. But leave the sweet, light stuff to Direk Joyce, on whose shoulders fell the delicate task of calming Angelika down in her first ever kissing scene on screen (Hari is the first of six films she will be doing for Viva).
"The scene was necessary (Angelika plays a psychology student who falls in love with Robin’s character whom she meets on an exposure trip to jail). Otherwise, I myself will not do it at all," says Robin.
After all, prisoners, their romantic passions kept in check behind bars for so long, can turn out to be more expressive, more demonstrative with their feelings. It’s as if a dam suddenly breaks, releasing a flood of water that can’t be stopped. That is the message Robin’s kissing scene with Angelika aims to convey.
It’s this realism – this faithfulness to life behind bars – that will hopefully carry the day for Hari ng Selda.