Who's afraid of Asiong Salonga?
MANILA, Philippines - Manila Kingpin: The Untold Story of Asiong Salonga. The title itself is intriguing, like a mixture of The Untold Story of Melanie Marquez and Zombadings: Patayin sa Shokot si Remington. It is no coincidence that both movies are products of a film festival. Both coming from the school of “Title pa lang, ulam na.”
Yet, what is there about Nicasio Rodriguez Salonga or Asiong that is untold? Surely this generation isn’t aware of Manila’s Most Wanted during years gone by. Why, we have our own set of present day crooks — all hogging the headlines faster than you can say Metro Manila Film Festival.
That this film is directed by Tikoy Aguiluz is what piques my interest. Tikoy is one of the most controversial movers of Philippine cinema, and is behind many an international film festival that brought actors, directors and producers over to our shores. By organizing these festivals, Tikoy became a conduit for exposing Filipinos to a broader range of film, both local and international. Now after years of actively organizing film events, he chooses to direct a film right smack in the center of glossy Pinoy film season — in black and white.
Is this our local version of The Godfather? That’s putting too much pressure. Yes, the movie has an impressive roster of stars, but so do all the rest of the MMFF entries. Will people find this as an interesting counterpoint to the Pandays and the Entengs of this season? Let’s wait and see.
Good Or Bad, It’s Still Publicity
There was much talk when the film barely made it to the final roster of films. There was so much noise about the film’s non-inclusion that eventually, by some stroke of luck, some film could not finish on time or had major revisions and Asiong Salonga made it into the Magic Circle, proof that good or bad publicity is still publicity.
ER Ejercito, who goes by the screen name Jeorge Estregan (after his father George Estregan), plays the lead alongside a stellar supporting cast. He says the black and whiteness of it all was meant to make the film more gangsta, reflecting the period that was the ‘50s and the ‘60s.
Written by Roy Iglesias and Roy Ventura and co-starring Carla Abellana, Yul Servo, Baron Geisler, Ping Medina, Ketchup Eusebio, Dennis Padilla, Amay Visaya and Gerard Ejercito, Manila Kingpin may seem to be the dark horse in this race, but then again, you’ll never know. What it lacks in gloss it may make up for in grit.
In the end, we here at Supreme urge everyone to support the Filipino films that we believe are worthy of our values as a people. In the immortal words of the late, great Michael Jackson, “It don’t matter if you’re black or white.”
In this movie’s case, it’s black and white.
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What is your favorite filmfest entry?
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