Ricky Lee: Grace of an artist

MANILA, Philippines - Because Ricky Lee came to the cinema via literature, National Artist for Literature, Bien Lumbera, affirms his naivete and sophistication as serendipity. “He did not know enough of filmmaking to make him seek to be mainstream. Instead, without his being aware of it, he wrote scripts that broke rules and conventions, and thus opened spaces for the Filipino film to explore subject matter, characters and themes that tradition had kept out,” Lumbera wrote.

This naivete, which Lee calls outright katangahan, enabled him to find new horizons as a writer despite his childhood poverty, growing up an orphan in Daet, Camarines Norte. All that his heart desired was to put into the written pages all the imaginary worlds and characters he encountered in the books he borrowed in their town library, that made him forget his hunger and deprivation. He won awards for his literary works and later, for his screenplays — armed with this katangahan that made him permeable to life’s lessons and experiences.

This katangahan has enabled him to write more than 150 film scripts since 1973, secured for him more than 50 trophies from various award-giving bodies, including a 2003 Natatanging Gawad Urian Lifetime Achievement Award from the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics). He is fabled for having worked with many Filipino film directors, most notably with Lino Brocka, Mike de Leon and Ishmael Bernal.

Four decades after his wild foray into the cinema, Lee is trying to pass on his craft to those who care to sit down with him at home, in his home studio, ABS-CBN, or anywhere that would-be disciples are willing to start that journey he calls Trip to Quiapo, as in the title of his exhaustive scriptwriting manual, first published in 1998, now in its seventh reprinting.

In this book, he recounts the story of three writers: One, who takes the conventional route and gets to the destination ever so quickly; another who takes a circuitous route until he gets to his goal; and still another who doesn’t even reach the Quiapo we know, but convinces us that the place he reaches after many hits and misses is also Quiapo. He considers the last as the greatest writer,” because the world in which literature, the arts, and the cinema, including our very lives becomes so rich and meaningful, is one where there is not just a singular Quiapo to journey to.”

At the Faculty of Arts and Letters of University of Santo Tomas, where he was invited by fellow writer Prof. Eros Atalia to share his craft with Communication Arts majors, in the department chaired by Prof. Nicky Salandanan, Lee exhorts budding writers and film makers to be daring. “Walang mga bituin kung walang dilim.” Do not be afraid to commit blunders, experience rejection and undergo pain. “Ang mahusay na manunulat ay laging nakatayo sa bungad ng bangin.” When one is in the brink of a fall, he learns.

Though not formally entrenched in Psychology, as he studied to be an English Major at the University of the Philippines, Lee’s art is anchored on the dichotomy of the psyche: Tao sa loob (subconscious self ) and tao sa labas (conscious self). It is the subconscious which presents the most challenging opportunity for the film writer and director to develop conflict, and he had conceived unforgettable characters for classics like Himala, Salome, Brutal and Karnal with this in mind.

His own tao sa loob is amazing for an amiable generosity that has pushed him to conduct workshops for free since 1982. As the late National Artist for Film, Lino Brocka, testifies: “From his writing workshops to his journalistic pieces on street children, hindi nya sinosolo ang talent at technique nya. His is the grace of an artist.” Katangian, not katangahan, has made his trip to the Quiapo of his dreams his legacy.