4 Filipino films listed among Asia’s Best 100

CEBU, Philippines - Four Filipino films made it to the 100 Best Asian Films list released on Sunday to mark the 20th anniversary of the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea.

Named to the festival’s “Asian Cinema 100” are two films by Lino Brocka — “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag” (tied with 14 other films at No. 18), and “Insiang,” (tied with 32 other films at No. 48).

Also at No. 48 is Mike de Leon’s “Batch 81”, while Lav Diaz’s “Melancholia”was tied with 45 others at No. 66).

Originally released in 1975, “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag” starred Bembol Roco (billed as Rafael Roco, Jr.), Hilda Koronel, Lou Salvador, Jr. and Tommy Abuel. It won six FAMAS awards in 1976: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actor. It was also hailed by the Gawad Urian as one of the best Filipino films of the 1970s.

“Insiang” was the first Filipino film to be shown at the Cannes International Film Festival. It was an entry to the 1976 Metro Manila Film Festival where it won Best Cinematography for Conrado Baltazar, Best Supporting Actress for Mona Lisa, Best Supporting Actor for Ruel Vernal and Best Actress for lead star Hilda Koronel.

Based on a teleplay by Mario O’ Hara, who co-wrote the screenplay with Lamberto E. Antonio, “Insiang” went on to win more awards in the FAMAS (Best Supporting Actress) and the Gawad Urian (Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture and Best Director for Brocka) which would also later hail it as the Best Film of the Decade.

Released in 1982, “Batch 81” was screened at the Director’s Fortnight section of Cannes that year. The drama involving the initiation rites of a fictitious college fraternity went on to win several awards at the Film Academy of the Philippines and the Gawad Urian, including Best Picture and Best Screenplay.

The most recent among the Filipino films in the list, “Melancholia” was originally released in 2008. Diaz’s seven and a half hour masterpiece starred Angeli Bayani and Perry Dizon and won the Horizons Award at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.

Surprisingly, Ishmael Bernal’s “Himala,” which topped the Top 10 Best Asian Films of All Time in a poll conducted by CNN International in 2008, was snubbed in the Busan list.

Bernal, however, made it to the festival’s complementary list of the 100 Best Asian Directors where he is ranked No. 40. The other Filipino filmmakers in the list are Lino Brocka (No. 16), Lav Diaz (No. 26), Gerardo de Leon (No. 32), Brillante Mendoza (No. 40), Mike de Leon (No. 62), Lamberto Avellana (No. 62), Mario O’ Hara (No. 62) and Kidlat Tahimik (No. 62).

Based on a poll of 73 noted filmmakers and critics, the “Asian Cinema 100” is a collaboration project between the Busan International Film Festival and the Busan Cinema Center to shed light on the values of Asian film.

The festival will update the list every five years “to act as a guide for the aesthetic value and history of Asian cinema and to discover hidden masterpieces and talented directors of Asia.”

Among those who took part in making the selections are celebrated film critics Jonathan Rosenbaum, Tony Rayns, Hasumi Shigehiko, and renowned festival executives, programmers, and directors Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Bong Joon-ho, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

The films that made the Top 5 in order of rankings are Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” and Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon” from Japan, Wong Kar-Wai’s “In the Mood for Love” (Hong Kong), Satyajit Ray’s “The Apu Trilogy” (India) and Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “A City of Sadness” (Taiwan). –I nterAksyon.com