Direk Lester Ong upbeat about more int’l opportunities for Philippines-made action content
It took years for former stuntman Lester Pimentel Ong to realize his “dream,” but he’s now one of the filmmakers leading hardcore action back to our screens.
He is the director of Amazon Prime Video’s original Filipino series One Good Day and co-director on ABS-CBN’s recently-extended primetime drama The Iron Heart. He previously served as director in the series La Luna Sangre and Bagani. As fight director, he’s best-known for his work in Panday, Lastikman, Imortal and Indio.
“Yes, I dreamt of (directing). I aspired for it. Masyado lang siya matagal bago ko siya nakuha, but thankful that I’m here. Stuntman palang ako, yun na gusto ko,” direk Lester told The STAR in a recent exclusive chat.
After almost 30 years in the business, from stuntman, fight choreographer to now director, he has two big learnings from being involved in action-oriented projects. First, on the directing side of things, is that “no matter how good the action is, the narrative should always be the priority.”
“Action should be helping the narrative. It should push the story forward or make the journey of the characters more interesting,” he said.
On the production side, he shared, “What I’ve learned is sobrang kulang ang action projects coming out from the Philippines. I see a lot of opportunities regarding this because we aspire to be part of the international community that provides movies and series on streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime Video, Viu… There’s a big demand for action.”
Direk Lester is confident that when fight sequences in his works One Good Day and The Iron Heart are compared to those of Hollywood movies like Bourne Identity, “hindi siya malayo.”
He further explained, “Anything that is happening inside the building, interior, kaya natin mag-match sa choreography and movements sa Hollywood,” referring to “close-quarters combat, hand-to-hand fighting and interior scenes of gunfights.”
When it comes to filming “external” or outside the building scenes, such as helicopter or car explosions or big car chases, he admitted, “We don’t have the budget. We don’t have the enormity of blasting a helicopter, an airplane. A car chase is something that we cannot do in our streets because you have to close them down for several days or even weeks.”
But despite budget and time limitations, he’s proud of Filipinos’ capability in stunt work and more so of Pinoy actors.
“We are at par, especially our actors. They are really one of the best in the world. I don’t know if you would agree with me, but our Filipino actors are not any lesser (actors) than the Koreans, not any less than Hollywood actors.”
Growing the action industry
For direk Lester, one advantage of doing action productions in the country is that we have actors with martial arts backgrounds. He cited The Iron Heart lead star Richard Gutierrez who has been studying martial arts since he was around seven years old. Although he’s better-known as a favorite romantic-drama leading man, Ian Veneracion, who topbills One Good Day, has “spent his whole lifetime training in martial arts.”
With streamers looking for action content, he believes there’s a need to “grow the action industry” and consequently, a need for more action actors, directors and stuntmen whose skill sets can compete with foreign counterparts.
He said, however, that “if hindi nagpo-produce ang Philippines for action, nag-ii-stagnate yung growth natin. I mean, konti since siempre ‘pag ang isang bagay ay bihira mo gawin or konti gumagawa, the craftsmen, artists, stuntmen, choreographers, all the other people involved, ‘pag hindi sila madalas nagtatrabaho, the frequency, siempre the skill set mas mabagal mag-improve.”
“That’s what I realized, there’s a lot of opportunities for us in action in the Philippines because we have a lot of good actors that are real martial artists na hindi nafi-feature or na-sho-showcase yung galing nila,” he added.
In the future, he wants to work anew with Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, as well as Angel Locsin (he had worked with them in La Luna Sangre and Imortal, respectively). He also wants to direct Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera, and veteran actors (again) like Joel Torre, Albert Martinez and Michael de Mesa.
Since Angel is not active in showbiz, he believes the industry needs a new female action star. “I am hoping to work with Maja (Salvador). I worked with her briefly in The Iron Heart. I think she has very good potential in action since she’s a good dancer.”
Martial artist through and through
Direk Lester himself has been a martial artist all his life. Growing up in Chinatown, Binondo, his introduction to cinema was through Chinese action movies.
“Once in a blue moon, my father would bring us (to Chinese theaters) to watch. My father is a martial artist. Kaya ako pinapanood ng tatay ko nuon, it was to motivate us to train harder,” said Lester, whose four other brothers and four boys, except for his special son, are trained in the martial arts.
Lester joined showbiz almost three decades ago to become a stuntman. His first film was Star Cinema’s Ex-Con (2000) starring Victor Neri and directed by the late Toto Natividad.
He also worked abroad as a martial arts performer and won medals for the Philippine National Wushu Team in international sporting events such as the Southeast Asian Games and Asian Games.
During his time as an athlete, he learned the martial arts of action superstars like Jet Li. “I was sent by the government, through the Philippine Sports Commission, to train on scholarship in Beijing, yung school (Beijing Sports University) nina Jet Li. It’s the hotbed of martial arts in China. Every year, we would be brought there to train.
“Many of the athletes there, after they finished their training, would go into show business (as stuntmen and action directors) because the path was led by Jackie Chan and Jet Li,” he said.
Initially, Lester thought there was no place for him in the local entertainment scene. At the time, the dominant style was more western in influence.
“Nung unang panahon, the action style sa Pilipinas was very western-influenced. Very American-influenced yung action nila FPJ, very Clint Eastwood, cowboy way of fighting,” he said.
“With that style, yung hinahanap nila ay malalaking mama na goons-looking. Siempre ang liit ko, so I thought, wala akong lugar dito sa action industry in the Philippines.”
Things later on evolved. Producers began hiring martial arts experts. Lester recalled earning P3,000 per day when he entered the business sometime in 1999. “Malaki na yun because we had experience overseas. Because we were skilled martial artists, we were given a higher pay.”
When he became a fight choreographer, Jericho Rosales’ Panday (2000) was among his first projects.
Now, he’s not just a director, but he has also taken a leap into producing. Direk Lester is one of the founders and owners of the content production house Studio Three-Sixty behind One Good Day and the upcoming Summer Metro Manila Film Festival entry, Love You Long Time featuring Carlo Aquino.
Feeding his passion
Interestingly, direk Lester is a successful businessman behind the Binondo Food Group of restaurants and stores, including RBX Rice in a Box, Kyu Kyu Ramen, Wangfu Chinese Café from Singapore, among others.
In his mid-20s in 1999 to early 2000s, already married with two young kids, stunt work became hard to come by as the movie industry suffered from widespread piracy.
He was forced to open a small food business in Pasay called Rice in a Box with a capital of P80,000, using his wife’s recipes and their wedding gifts like rice cooker, etc., as equipment.
“It was a desperate move that became a blessing,” he recalled.
He has since been more focused on his entrepreneurial side, but he never left the action scene. His food business supports and feeds his filmmaking passion.
“It is my passion, it makes me alive. I think of filmmaking all the time,” direk Lester said.
“But I’m very passionate about food also. For me, magkalinya sila (they are aligned in terms of purpose) — making people happy through food and entertainment. It’s the same thing but ibang paraan lang.”
- Latest
- Trending
