[Reflexive Cinema] Pinoy Blonde: still 'swabe at mabango' 12 years later

As part of a year long centennial celebration of Filipino film, the Society of Filipino Archivists of Film (SOFIA) in partnership with the CCP, will be showing several films about filmmaking with its "Reflexive Cinema" series. The first film on the lineup is Peque Gallaga's 2005 film Pinoy Blonde, and yesterday I decided to attend and take a look again at the film. So today, I'll be giving a short re-review of the film and telling you all about a few things that have changed since then.

This film holds a very special meaning to me and this blog, because it is the very first Filipino film I ever reviewed on Present Confusion. Looking back, 2005 was a really interesting year for Philippine Cinema: output was down in the doldrums (around 30-40 movies a year) and even commercial blockbusters were feeling the sting. The sexy 'bomba' films of the late nineties/early 00's were winding down too. The movie theaters were then dominated by Hollywood blockbusters and Asian Horror.

At the same time, we were slowly seeing interesting local films coming out: these were smaller scale dramas or comedies that tended to eschew normalized conceptions of what local cinema had become. The one film I distinctly remember from this time was Mark Meily's Crying Ladies, which was a hit with audiences during the 2003 MMFF. When Pinoy Blonde came out, we were still months away from the first edition of Cinemalaya, which showcased Filipino independent films to audiences in a major way. (Sure, programs like Gawad Alternatibo had been on the scene for far longer, but it had not really received much mainstream attention, if at all.) Also later in 2005, Cinemanila would be showing foreign art films and local independent films in ALL Manila cinemas. Filmmakers like Khavn and Ato Bautista were either releasing or making their own films such as Ang Pamilyang Kumakain ng Lupa or Ang Aking Pagkagising mula sa Kamulatan. Other films coming out later would include the Villaluna/Ramos directed Ilusyon and a film called Masahista, the debut feature from a relative unknown named Brillante Mendoza.

Twelve years ago, I was your average student-type person. I was obsessed with films from neighboring countries in Asia, but I had a limited knowledge of films from my own country. My filmic education was mainly through watching movies via VHS rentals and Sine sa Dos, and hearing stories from my mother about films from the Marcos era such as Kapit sa Patalim, Himala, and so on. When I started this blog, I honestly wasn't sure where it would go (the blog wasn't even  exclusively about film at the time.)  Twelve years later, and I'm a professional (more or less), I've accumulated a good deal of knowledge about local cinema (but still severely lacking, to be honest) and my writing style has changed (though it's still not very good, in my opinion.)

So while you couldn't exactly say Pinoy Blonde caused any of what was to come, and you couldn't really place it as the fulcrum of contemporary local cinema, it's placed in a rather interesting position, in the middle of a paradigm shift from old 90'/00's aesthetics to what we have today.

Looking at the film (and my review of it) today, the film has aged surprisingly well. It's no longer as 'unconventional' as I thought it was back then, and it still has its share of flaws, but it was overall just as entertaining as it was when I saw it in theaters for the first time. It's an odd yet interesting combination of homage, comedy, and 3D and 2D animation. It's also an examination of the collaborative and creative processes that take place when one makes a film.

We see this quite clearly with the imagination sequences that happen frequently with the two protagonist filmmaker characters. They often look at certain things as frames in an imaginary movie. Though they have aesthetic differences, they share a love of cinema that is undeniable. In the post-screening Q&A, Peque Gallaga conceded that the two characters could serve as reflections of himself and longtime directing partner Lore Reyes. Their exchange of ideas is a process that filmmakers go through all the time. Epi's later encounter with Ricky Davao's character, an intelligent hitman with his own opinions on cinema, helps him realize the true meaning of this very process and the process of creating flesh and blood characters that elicit true emotions rather than just creating caricatures that spout cliched lines.

The tributes really come out in full force. I remember the stylized parody of our films as seen through the archives of international film festivals past. In my first review, I make the point that it's ironic that many of our old films are being discovered in foreign lands - while in our country, the same classic films are lost, used as filler for fireworks, or consigned to some other horrible fate. Since then, a dedicated effort has come up to preserve and find classic films and restore them to crisp, high resolution quality.

A rare few other references are now a bit dated. Most of the scenes referenced in dialogue refer to Hollywood blockbusters from the early 2000s. While some have gone on to be classics in their own right, I don't think many people will find, say, The Scorpion King memorable. In retrospect, some of the other parodies are funny or ironic in retrospect, such as the character of Salonpas being a parody of Alfredo Lim (who would eventually become Mayor of Manila again two years after the film's release.) It's also interesting to rewatch the film and see references in how certain scenes were shot, mostly from action films from that particular time, such as Reservoir Dogs or Kill Bill. The pacing of the film was fine for me this time (strange how I felt Hong Sang-soo was slow paced back then - I clearly hadn't seen enough slow cinema at the time!) 

Ultimately, to be honest, my opinions on the film haven't changed. I guess in some cases, the more things change, the more things remain the same. So I end this with my ending paragraph from my 2005 review, which I still believe today:

"In closing, Pinoy Blonde is far from a masterpiece - yet among recent Filipino releases, it ends up as a mishmashed, intelligent, quirky little film, probably one of the best of the year, so far. It ultimately feels like Peque Gallaga's love song for Philippine Cinema, one that treats its subject matter in the Filipino way - that of hallowed reverence with a little bit of that trademark Filipino humor sprinkled in. Watch it. You may come out of it with something you never expected."

The Reflexive Cinema series runs every second Saturday of the month, except for August and January 2018. Stay tuned for more articles on the subject.