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THE
recent well-publicized skirmishes between Sen. Bong
“Titanic Action Star” Revilla and Optical Media Board
(OMB) chairman Edu Manzano brought back some measure of
excitement in local showbiz, what with two warriors
fighting over a muddled and muddy issue like the
so-called piracy of intellectual property. Training
their figurative guns at each other, the fight has
become, as the senator from Cavite claimed, something
personal.
Close
showbiz observers keep on ranting that if you’re a
lawmaker, stick to it and let those tasked to do the job
do their job. The senator accused the OMB of being
infiltrated with a mole, a “termite” that renders its
raids recently unsuccessful. So he needed to take
action, raiding the Makati Cinema Square about a week
ago and having photo-ops in the process.
 The
senator said he acted in his capacity as chairman of the
Congressional Oversight Committee, which covers the OMB.
As the
usual suspects have observed, there’s nothing wrong with
that—except that Senator Revilla has an entry in the
upcoming Metro Manila Film Festival. The usual suspects
say it’s an obvious attempt to drum up publicity.
And
there’s the usual angle that Manzano is a mainstay of
the Kapamilya Network, while Senator Bong is a Kapuso.
Amid all
this useless word war, us mortals are resigned to the
fact that like the illegal numbers game (jueteng), the
problem of piracy will never be satisfactorily solved as
long as the big fishes continue to swim and spread
millions of eggs on a daily basis. And that whoever
heads the OMB or the Oversight Committee in the future
will continue to raid and confiscate pirated items for
photo-ops.
A recent
visit at the malls gave us the better news.
Haven’t
you noticed how legitimate DVD, VCD and CD outlets now
peddle their wares at a much cheaper price compared with
a couple of years ago? Suddenly, an original DVD of a
Hollywood movie, like, say, the ‘80s classic The Killing
Fields, or the acclaimed Mexican film Y Tu Mama Tambien
(And Your Mother Too), now fetches for a mere P100 each.
Not bad.
Our
“mole” who made a recent visit to the Quiapo
dividi-dividi stalls told us that a pirated version
costs P40, nearly less than $1. But with it, of course,
there’s a risk that what you bought won’t play nice with
your DVD at home, or will have scenes that vanish out of
thin air, especially when you’re nearing the end of the
movie. Bummer.
Admittedly, nothing compares with the original.
Our
Quiapo “termite” also mentioned that what pirates have
been selling lately are mostly movies starring the likes
of Lindsay Lohan and, locally, Judy Ann Santos, or
concert DVDs of Jennifer Lopez and Michael Jackson.
Chances are, you’ll get copies with subtitles with an
English translation that seems to have come from someone
who studied the language under Jimmy Santos.
So
everyone will agree that if original DVDs, VCDs, CDs,
software programs and all items on optical media are
priced reasonably within the range of the minimum-wage
earner, few will patronize the copycats.
Before
we got lost in this much-debated matter, there’s a rumor
going around air-conditioned coffee shops and bars that
the Latin-American hunk who became world famous for his
role in the delightfully surreal Y Tu Mama Tambien is on
our benighted shores shooting a movie.
We’re
talking about Gael Garcia Bernal, also the
better-looking Ché Guevara in The Motorcycle Diaries. He
is reportedly somewhere in Subic Bay. Part of the cast
is Michelle Williams, real and reel-life wife of
Brokeback Mountain star Heath Ledger.
The
movie is titled Mammoth, directed by acclaimed Swedish
indie director and poet Lukas Moodysson. He is best
known for the cult favorite Fucking Amal (Show Me Love),
which has been nominated and won major awards in
credible film festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, Seattle,
London and the Verzaubert International Gay & Lesbian
Film Festival.
Our
actor-mole in Subic said the movie follows the narrative
structure not unlike
Babel, in which there are interconnected substories shot in
different parts of the world. The first segment was shot
in
Thailand
(“Day 1 to 16 on our shooting schedule,” our actor-mole
SMS us), the second is what’s happening in Subic, and in
January it’ll be in New York.
Then
again, our actor-mole was quick to add that Bernal was
not part of the scenes being shot here. Bernal was in
Thailand and will rejoin the cast and crew in New York. Whether our actor-termite got a sudden gag order from the moody
Moodysson, we’ll know later this week. And he’ll have
pictures to prove. At any rate, just having someone like
Bernal in our midst is good news. Beyond titillating the
carnal desires of his legion of female and male fans,
his presence (Moodysson and Williams, too) is an
assurance that, indeed, our country is fast gaining the
confidence of foreign film directors and producers.
Remember the decades when the likes of Apocalypse Now,
Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July were shot here?
Earlier
this year, we had Josh Hartnett in Mount Diwalwal in
Compostela Valley for a film he is starring in; midway
was Quentin Tarantino for that film festival; and now,
the brilliant Bernal.
As we
dance to the tune of Manzano’s totally retro “Papaya
Song,” we wish we can afford to be outside of Metro
Manila while its eponymous annual film festival takes
place, hoping to hear more good news as big as Mammoth. |
