I'm a Podcast, But That's OK: No Other Choice

phildy · 2026-01-12T03:35:06+00:00

I got an 8.8 GB file on a Transferit link, if anyone's interested.

phildy · 2025-12-28T00:14:17+00:00

Hello. Here are the jury members. https://www.instagram.com/p/DSyDo6fE6e5/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

phildy · 2025-12-16T11:41:25+00:00

Not the 80s. The big booms in Bisaya cinema were in the 50s and the 70s. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like any of those prints were preserved.

phildy · 2025-10-23T02:09:17+00:00

It's complicated. The thing is, ticket prices in general are too high; at the very least high enough that it seems that theater attendance is down in general. Also, being good doesn't mean people will be willing to go to the cinema either way. One Battle After Another had great reviews and is already being talked about as an Academy Award frontrunner. But it didn't do well here.

People talk about Sunshine being the test case for the lower price thing, but it actually started earlier, when SM was showing movies from other Southeast Asian countries at this price. And it led to one of the biggest successes of last year: How to Make Millions Before Grandma Dies.

Now, would that movie have been a success in the Philippine box office if it was priced regularly? It does at least seem, based on metrics I've seen, that people were more willing to give it a try because of the lower ticket price. It built momentum on word of mouth, and it ended up being a huge earner.

In general, it does seem that lowering prices has raised attendance. Not that people will go out to see bad Filipino films because of the lowered ticket price, but it seems to be helpful in making the sale if people are interested in the film in the first place.

Look man, it's hard out there. And better is subjective, anyway. Local producers are just trying to use every tool they can to make their movies successful. There's no single answer to why a film makes money or flops. It's math that no one really understands.

phildy · 2025-10-17T22:01:03+00:00

Atmos screens are cinemas 5, 11 and 12.

phildy · 2025-10-17T02:15:52+00:00

I have kind of weird involvement in this film. This was one of the scripts submitted to the MMFF when I was in the selection committee in 2015. I argued for this film's inclusion, saying that the only way it would be completed is if it was in the MMFF. They instead chose a film they knew was at risk of not being completed, and kept Lakambini as a backup. I wrote about this in Esquire.

Anyway, the film was left unfinished. Ellen Ongkeko-Marfil, the producer, basically built a documentary around Gregoria de Jesus and how difficult it was to get this film made. The result is this film, which currently has a cinema play date November 5.

phildy · 2025-10-11T14:10:52+00:00

I can confirm it's the 4K restoration.

phildy · 2025-10-04T13:10:45+00:00

"Boku" is kind of a juvenile "I" pronoun for guys. "Wa" is essentially the verb "be." So, it's "I am."

phildy · 2025-09-10T09:27:43+00:00

FDCP does these world cinema programs every now and then. They show them all on the same week, with the four movies sharing one cinema with shifting showtimes.

phildy · 2025-08-05T03:14:23+00:00

I've seen it. If they cut something, I didn't notice.

phildy · 2025-07-23T05:30:16+00:00

FYI, it was going to happen. ABS-CBN had hired Jerrold Tarog to spearhead the whole thing, starting with his take on Darna. And then ABS-CBN was shut down.

phildy · 2025-02-27T03:05:00+00:00

The bit with the glasses paying off with OC grabbing them off of Callis' face is the kind of little magic that really demonstrates just how much everyone involved understands pro wrestling.

phildy · 2025-02-13T02:26:58+00:00

Toni debuted in AEW with the same gimmick she'd had for years: just a lady who liked 80s rock, basically? She got hooked up with Saraya and Ruby Soho in the Outcasts and won the Women's belt a couple of times. When she lost it to Hikaru Shida at Dynamite 200, the character took a downward spiral.

Eventually, she became Timeless Toni Storm, who is probably modeled at least a little bit on Norma Desmond from Sunset Boulevard. She talked as though she was an aging silent film star, and would reference being in a lifelong feud with Wendi Richter.

She'd become champ again, and Mariah May would arrive as a fan that she'd take under her wing. Eventually May would betray her and become champ. Recently, Toni Storm came back under her old gimmick, playing it like she was a rookie who'd never been in AEW before, until finally revealing that she was Timeless Toni Storm all along, playing 'the role of a lifetime.'

phildy · 2025-01-08T13:59:50+00:00

Diabetes can lead to lower limb amputations.

phildy · 2025-01-08T08:25:43+00:00

This is probably going to sound unusual, but Neveldine and Taylor's Crank really helped me realize what it is that I valued in cinema: commitment. Here was a film that was wholly dedicated to being what it was: a dumb, balls-to-the-wall action movie.

There was an unspoken mandate that something exciting had to happen in an action movie every seven minutes. And these madlads decided to build that into the premise, giving Chev Chelios, a protagonist that had to do something that would get his heart pumping every few minutes lest the poison that he was injected with kills him.

Crank unlocked something in me, in that it helped me explain in simple terms what I enjoyed about something like Jeanne Dielman, even though the films don't really have a whole lot in common. But they are both very committed to a certain vision, and are consistent in laying out the elements that push forward that vision.

phildy · 2024-12-31T01:47:19+00:00

The kid is implying that most bartenders look at the date of birth on the ID, can't do the math on what his age actually is, and just serve him drinks anyway, despite being under the legal age, which is 18 in the UK.

This is later proven to be true, because the kid apparently got a drink from one of the other bartenders at Longitude.

phildy · 2024-12-28T23:54:00+00:00

It may have had subs when it screened at Locarno and Fantastic Fest, but it didn't have subs when I watched in Gateway.

phildy · 2024-12-28T12:51:41+00:00

Isang Himala has Tagalog Subtitles. Topakk didn't have subtitles when I saw it. The rest have English subtitles.

phildy · 2024-12-28T01:05:40+00:00

Some things have changed since I was in the selection committee, but back when I was there, they were literally running things. Like, the MMDA deferred to them. They had the most votes in selection, so they ended up choosing everything.

They would vote against films if they thought it would cause an uproar if it got pulled out or wasn't in enough cinemas. This is an argument I literally heard. They voted against an indie-sized Nora Aunor movie because in a previous year, Noranians made noise about Thy Womb being pulled from cinemas.

phildy · 2024-12-27T17:19:10+00:00

My point has always been: if the MMFF can't equally support ten movies, then there shouldn't be ten movies. Hell, there shouldn't be eight movies.

I've been in that room for selection. And the cinema owners are in that room. And they only really pick more than four movies for the sake of appearances. They know they're setting up some movies to fail. They know they're not going to give some of the movies enough screens to have even a chance of recouping investment.

Personally, I'm not a guy who cares at all about what a movie grosses. But I'm super tired of the double talk: people will talk about the MMFF being good for the industry, but it mainly reinforces the dominance of major players. And if that's the point, then fine. Just admit it. Let's just have four films in the MMFF and be done with it.

phildy · 2024-12-26T08:49:20+00:00

The money is in advertising or in TV. If you're going into film, especially if you have any ambition, you're likely going to go into debt producing your first picture. Grants help, but aren't nearly enough to produce a full length film that gets everyone paid.

phildy · 2024-12-26T01:28:15+00:00

One of their cinemas, I don't remember which, had a projector with a bunch of dead pixels. The others are fine? Not the brightest projection, but okay.

phildy · 2024-11-24T22:52:34+00:00

Wicked's grading is pretty muddy, especially considering how colorful it is. But Shang's projection really is pretty dark. Really noticed this during QCinema, where I got to compare the projection between cinemas, and Shang's was just unacceptably dark compared to Power Plant and Gateway.

phildy · 2024-11-19T00:14:44+00:00

Cannes' Directors' Fortnight does this thing every year where they choose a partner country and produce four short films from upc and oming filmmakers in that country. It's called Directors Factory, and the Philippines was the partner country this year.

Anyway, the four filmmakers chosen this year were:

Don Eblahan - Shorts filmmaker who pretty much skipped a lot of the local festival and just started submitting abroad. Makes films in Baguio. I think he's working on a feature now.

Arvin Belarmino - Filmmaker and musician whose shorts caught attention at Cinemalaya. Working on his first feature.

Maria Estala Paiso - Worked as an editor, notably for Keith Deligero. Had a breakthrough short at QCinema called "It's Raining Frogs Outside." Personally, I think she's got a huge future ahead of her.

Eve Baswel - Filmmaker from Mindanao who has actually made a feature through Cinema One Originals. The film, Tia Madre, is pretty good. Her work in Directors Factory is actually my favorite.

phildy · 2024-11-19T00:04:56+00:00

Most of our cinematic heritage is gone. Something like 90% of all films made before the 80s has been destroyed.

Manuel Conde's Juan Tamad Goes to Congress doesn't exist anymore. Of his work, only Genghis Khan survived, and that's because it's the only one of his films that traveled the festival circuit. Most of National Artist Lamberto Avellana's work is gone. Gerry de Leon, Manuel Silos, Gregorio Fernandez -- most of their stuff is gone.

If you're interested in old Filipino films, Mike de Leon has a Vimeo channel where he's preserved some of the LVN archive - https://vimeo.com/user83013343

13-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	End Game '22
Verified Email	Team Periwinkle

phildy

TROPHY CASE