Synopsis:

Adapted from a pulp magazine serial. To escape poverty and his controlling mother (Anita Linda), G.I. boy living in the slums of Manila, Joey (Fred Cortes Jr.,) is forced to become a gigolo. Fred Cortes Jr., is an only son to movie veterans Fred Cortes and Anita Linda. The undertaking failed miserably at the box office but is a favorite of the revered critic and Cultural Center film programmer Agustin Sotto III.

Synopsis:

Directed the Valentina, Ang Babaeng Ahas episode of the trilogy Darna, the Filipino comics superheroine created by graphic novelist Mars Ravelo. Award-winning actress Celia Rodriguez essays the role of Medusa-like villainess, Valentina, which propelled her to camp fantasy queen stature. The nubile Vilma Santos plays the Filipino Supergirl in this phenomenal blockbuster in film box-office history which catapulted her to superstar status and launched her in a series of Darna flicks. Marissa Delgado and Ruel Vernal also star in this film. This trend-setter ironically opened on the first day of government rice rationing, lending credence to the notion that movies, being the cheapest form of entertainment, prosper during times of depression.

Synopsis:

Directed Tarsan / Kangkong / Cheetah episode of the Filipino parody film of DC Comics superhero Superman trilogy. The early 70s idol of Philippine TV hosting, Ariel Ureta, acts as Superman, attracting all movie-going Filipinos from class C to A. Boots Anson-Roa is the magic balut agent who merchandises Superman paraphernalia. Gina Pareño is the white bikini-clad mystery woman whose craving for bananas transforms her, first into Cheetah, the cute monkey, and then later, to Kangkong, the destructive giant gorilla. The inclusion of Tarsan, played by Max Alvarado, as Superman’s nemesis in a boxing bout, in this deliberate send-up of American pop idols proved to be an even bigger blockbuster than the previously released Sine Pilipino fantasy, Darna, although it was more expensive to produce.

Synopsis:

Directed Dyango / Long Ranger episode of the trilogy, the finale of Ariel Ureta’s caper which spoofs two other Hollywood heroes (Dyango and Long Ranger). Ureta’s meteoric rise to screen stardom detoured with based on Captain Barbel, a local komiks serial. The Dyango / Long Ranger segment casts a real-life America SAG (Screen Actors Guild) member, Mike Parsons, whose authentic western costumes were rented from Hollywood outfitters. Gina Pareño is the gun-toting, singing, saloon girl. Danny Javier and Jim Paredes of the Apo Hiking Society sing the narration on camera.

Synopsis:

A literal depiction of the metaphor “Don’t play with fire.” The Director shoots the end credits during the Fire Prevention Month. He was involved with the sexual revolution from the late ‘50s to the ‘70s. Banned by the censors, two years later they decided to reshoot some of the scenes and hired Luciano B. Carlos to be one of the directors which eventually became “May Isang Tsuper ng Taksi”.

Synopsis:

Initially titled “Ten Years Ago”, this low-budget trilogy tells the stories of three high school alumnae who attend their reunion ten years hence. It stars four moderately successful actresses: Boots Anson Roa, Liza Lorena, Gina Pareño with Celia Rodriguez in star-making turns as Misses Faith (suspense-thriller), Hope (drama) and Charity (sex-comedy). The Charity segment, which the Director wrote, started a wave of imitations and spawned a spate of Gina Pareňo’s character notably Ishmael Bernal’s “Pito ang Asawa Ko.” This film provided roles that were otherwise taboo for lead actresses at that time because they were not the usual virtuous heroine types. Vic Vargas, Ricky Belmonte, Orestes Ojeda and Victor Laurel are the male stars.

Synopsis:

Critically acclaimed as one of the three best pictures of the year, along with “Krimen” by Jun Raquiza and “Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang” by Lino Brocka, by the Philippines Daily Express, that merited a front-page year-end review written by Urian. Variety, the international entertainment trade paper, gave it similar praise. A three-part, social drama on parent-child relationships, it stars: the Philippine movies’ most beautiful face, Amalia Fuentes as the Phaedra-like, uppercrust stepmother who falls in love with her stepson, the adorable Boots Anson Roa as the slum mother who has to choose between her bastard son and her good-for-nothing love, the alluring Pilar Pilapil as the social climbing fashion model who belittles her sacrificing adoptive parent. The film, the Director and the three actresses were all nominated for the FAMAS and the Catholic Mass Media Awards (CMMA), but only the child actor, Angelito, won as best child actor.
The advertising for this film carried the catch phrase, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the boldest of them all?” thereby starting the word “bold” to describe a genre.

Synopsis:

Filmed in San Francisco and Carmel, California, U.S.A., superstar Nora Aunor plays a kooky domestic import from the Philippines, who causes all sorts of trouble between her US-bred singing master, Victor Laurel and his girlfriends. Housemaid ends up with the master. A screwball comedy with song numbers, it also features Senate lady Celia Diaz-Laurel, Laurel’s real-life mother, as his reel mother, with a bevy of all-American girl-types. This is the first of Director Perez’s forays into guerilla-style filmmaking, shooting without permits in downtown San Francisco, Union Square, Lombard, Golden Gate Park and Carmel, California. It features the first ever Gay Parade that is now an annual global event. To get a good shot; even summer tourists were requested to help control traffic in the finale at the busiest crookedest street. Pinay, a song composed by the then unknown Florante, as recorded by Laurel, is the theme song.

Synopsis:

This is about women passengers of a taxicab, Orestes Ojeda as the driver connecting the link of the four vignettes, two of them were directed by Perez. One is a camp comedy featuring Celia Rodriguez as a housewife who expresses her rebellion against the double standard Filipino marriage. Boots Anson-Roa stars in the other, a melodrama about the woes of a second wife. Celia’s co-stars are Alvaro Muhlach and the 5 year-old Aga Muhlach.

Synopsis:

A Goldoni style comedy that revolves around poverty-stricken girl (Trixia Gomez), who joins the cabaret (a dance hall with taxi dancers) to survive and to support her younger sister (Andrea Bautista, the producer’s daughter) and brother (the child Bong Revilla, an action superstar and current Philippine Senator). This movie launched the movie careers of Gomez and Rico J. Puno, the current singing sensation. Vivian Velez was discovered and eventually became a major player in the industry as a producer and a star. Others in the cast are Marlon Ramirez, Anita Linda, Bella Flores, Angie Ferro, and Marissa Delgado.
Presumed as a lost film until film buff and collector Jojo Devera found and partially restored the title in 2020. An anonymous donor who’s also a collector, gave Devera a DVD copy culled from U-matic tapes. The partially restored “Inday Garutay” is part of the PFA’s Elwood Perez Retrospective on the FDCP Channel.

Synopsis:

A much-acclaimed film on the subject of marital discord with the issue of divorce in the Philippine setting as its main agenda. Pilar Pilapil, Chanda Romero, Robert Arevalo, Tommy Abuel and the Director were all cited by the Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino, a group of critics and an award-giving body for excellence. Unfortunately, the defunct film outfit was unable to come up with a copy for review during awards deliberations. Earlier, the showing of this film was halted as it met censorship problems after a censored portion (Chanda Romero being mauled by jealous husband, Tommy Abuel, in the shower) was discovered to have found its way in the Lords Theater projection room.

Synopsis:

A Metro Manila Film Festival entry and a box office success starring legendary movie queen Amalia Fuentes and ex-husband, Asia’s best actor Romeo Vasquez in a stylish love-hate story about warring screen partners (as the duo was in real life) who eventually reconcile. It features picturesque language from the pen of Wilfrido Nolledo and picturesque Manila locales that earned the Director a nomination as production designer. Eddie Gutierrez, Rosemarie Gil and Vivian Velez also star. Don Gallardo, a popular male model, is introduced.

Synopsis:

Based on a Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) production, stage play written by Orlando Nadres is on the subject of labor unrest is re-fashioned into a box office feat in the Director’s first flick with the major film outfit now under the management of third-generation Vera-Perezes. It centers on the love affair of two stock clerks, Alma Moreno and Christopher de Leon as it assails the oppressive conditions in a work area, the stockroom. Eddie Garcia, Nova Villa, Lorli Villanueva and soccer star Tonio Gutierrez complete the cast.

Synopsis:

This 40th anniversary presentation was a smashing success at the box office. Christopher de Leon plays the sacrificing adopted son and Mat Ranillo III as the wayward real son of wealthy couple Anita Linda and Amado Cortez, are rivals over achievements and the love of a social-climber, Vilma Santos. All three were nominated for their performances, Mat Ranillo III won the FAMAS Best Supporting Actor award. Others in the cast are Lily Miraflor and Ma-an Hontiveros, in her big-screen debut. Its English-dubbed version, My Brother, My Wife, was entered in the Asia-Pacific International Film Festival in Taipei and the ASEAN Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.

Synopsis:

Three kinds of beer house dancers are dissected in this three-part motion picture about raw urban life. Asia’s best actress Charito Solis, Chanda Romero, Trixia Gomez and Vivian Velez are supported by Eddie Gutierrez, Rosemarie Gil, Dave Brodett, Freddie Quizon, Jordan Crisostomo (later renamed Ronald Corveau) and the child actress Cherie Gil who displays depth and sensitivity, stealing scenes from no less than veteran Charito Solis.

Synopsis:

Directed the third segment of the trilogy about a teenage rebel, Alma Moreno, daughter to society matron played by Rosemarie Gil. Moreno, as a victim of parental neglect resulting from being involved in the wrong company, gets impregnated by her scoundrel boyfriend, Ricky Belmonte that suggests riding a roller coaster to induce a miscarriage. Al Tantay also has a walk-on part in this film.

Synopsis:

Directed the third segment of the trilogy about a teenage rebel, Alma Moreno, daughter to society matron played by Rosemarie Gil. Moreno, as a victim of parental neglect resulting from being involved in the wrong company, gets impregnated by her scoundrel boyfriend, Ricky Belmonte that suggests riding a roller coaster to induce a miscarriage. Al Tantay also has a walk-on part in this film.

Synopsis:

Alma Moreno, a komiks vendor and movie fan, insinuates herself into the household of her idol, Amalia Fuentes, stealing the latter’s career and lover, Ricky Belmonte, who also romances the two superstars.

Synopsis:

This box office hit stars Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon whose young love affair is marred by family conflict coupled with pressure by small-town morals. After many years, they meet again in the city as successful career people, only to be drawn into another scandalous liaison. Despite all pressures, social, economic and otherwise, they throw all caution to the wind. Baby Delgado (Mutya ng Pilipinas title holder) debuts as the spoiled daughter of Tony Carrion, the boss. She hooks de Leon with a promise of career promotion. The film also stars Anita Linda, Romeo Rivera and Mario Escudero.

Synopsis:

Estranged, real-life husband and wife Nora Aunor and Christopher De Leon are involved in a triangle with then live-in lover Tirso Cruz III. Nora, Christopher and child actor Bongchi Miraflor were nominated for best performances by FAMAS in this enormously successful venture. For the first time, the Director utilizes the services of a production designer (Dez Bautista) and art director (Butch Garcia) to do the work he used to do, without credit, in his previous directorial assignments, thereby starting the practice at Regal Films. The film also stars Anita Linda, Lily Miraflor, Bibeth Orteza and Sandy Garcia.

Synopsis:

Legendary thespian Zeneida Amador plays a self-sacrificing lesbian, the surrogate parent to blind girl Chanda Romero. She enters into a marriage of convenience with sole heir, Sandy Garcia, whose wealthy father, Panchito, unaware that his only son is a homosexual, believes that he should bear children for the continuance of the family name. Family lawyer Eddie Gutierrez is a closet queen. Ronaldo Valdez, Vivian Velez and Trixia Gomez also perform important roles. Former president Joseph Estrada guests in his usual toughie image. When bullied by the macho Amador, he loses his composure, exhibiting his limp wrist in this gender-bender comedy.

Synopsis:

This box office record-breaker made Rio Locsin the major star of 1979. Locsin plays a rape victim-turned-movie star, who returns to her hometown to avenge the injustices she suffered in the hands of a feudal lord and the townspeople who previously maligned her. Completing the cast are Rollie Quizon, Ronald Corveau, Tonio Gutierrez, Anita Linda, Johnny Wilson and Subas Herrero.

Synopsis:

Filmed in New York, U.S.A., this film depicts the Filipinos’ passion for the green card. Bembol Roco, an innocent abroad, gets enmeshed in a tumultuous affair with an overstaying alien played by Vilma Santos. Santos’ Boyfriend, Victor Laurel has abandoned her for a white woman, Alexandra Dulaney, to obtain an American citizenship. A half-bred, US-born Christopher de Leon, realizing Santos’ sterling qualities, follows her to the Philippines after she gets deported. Oldtimer Rosa Mia is featured in a very special role. Once again, the song Pinay, now a popular song, is featured, this time using the voice of its composer who has become a known singer, Florante.

Synopsis:

In this smash hit, small-town and high school chums, Vilma Santos and Alma Moreno envy and adore each other as in the old saying, “There’s always something in your success that hurts even your best friend.” Poor friend Alma tries to make good as rich friend Vilma, still unsatisfied, steals the latter’s husband, Christopher de Leon, her obsession since girlhood. Recognizing that he is only a trophy in the bitter competition between the two, Christopher dumps them both. With no small amount of sapphism, the two females find comfort in each other’s arms as in the good old days. Anita Linda, by now a fixture in almost all of the Director’s ‘70s to ‘80s movies, is also cast. Panggoy Francisco, son to ‘50s star Fred Montilla, plays an important role.

Synopsis:

The launching film of Marichu Vera Perez of the distinguished Sampaguita family was a big box office success. Rival movie goddesses Rio Locsin and Lorna Tolentino are pitted against each other in this suspense-drama about three stepsisters. Kristine Garcia plays the young Lorna, while Mark Gil debuts in this film. Romeo Rivera, Vivian Lorraine and Lucita Soriano lend support. Also starring are Greggy Liwag, Herbert Corpuz and Joe Fabregas, winners of the contest for male lead roles. Original hit songs fill the soundtrack to aid the entry of composer-recording artist Rey Valera as musical director. Filmmaker, reviewer and author Rafael Guerrero acclaimed this film as one of the Director’s best.

Synopsis:

Second-generation actress Cherie Gil, daughter of ‘50s singing idol, dubbed as the Elvis Presley of the Philippines Eddie Mesa, and enormously talented performer Rosemarie Gil, is launched to stardom as a rebellious victim of a family dysfunction. It stirred quite a sensation with the help of crowd-drawing young actor Lloyd Samartino. Stage actress Celia Diaz-Laurel plays the snobbish mother, while former senator Freddie Webb plays lover to both mother and daughter. Romeo Rivera and Alicia Alonso play very important roles. Joey Reyes debuts as a screenwriter at Regal Films.

Synopsis:

Former child star Gina Alajar gets a complete make-over as she is relaunched into mature roles exploiting her true-to-life experiences as a recently separated wife of Michael de Mesa, also her ex-husband in this movie. A long court battle provides the powerful finale as Alajar loses a case of adultery in a country which does not recognize divorce. Jimi Melendez, in an auspicious debut, completes the triangle and lends box office power. Marissa Delgado, Perla Bautista, Anita Linda, Angie Ferro, Aida Carmona, Domingo Landicho, Bibeth Orteza, Laura Danao, Lillian Laing and Deborah Sun are members of the two warring factions. Subas Herrero and Ruben Rustia are the competing lawyers of the opposing sides.

Synopsis:

Partly filmed in Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A., Alicia Alonso and Raul Aragon play important roles in their careers as separated husband and wife in this project with a provocative title due to its sexual connotation in the Filipino language. The story is about overseas contract labor. In exchange for financial gains is the breakdown of Filipino family ties and values. Completing the ensemble are Rio Locsin, Alma Moreno, Lorna Tolentino, Ricky Belmonte, Alfie Anido and Victor Laurel.

Synopsis:

Vilma Santos won the FAMAS Best Actress award for her portrayal of an escort service girl who fights for her rightful place in society. Christopher de Leon got a Best Actor nomination, while Anthony Castelo and Deborah Sun were nominees for Best Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively. The Director was also nominated for this box office sleeper. It opened second at the tills but due to its audience appeal, it eventually surpassed its direct competition (the biopic Kumander Alibasbas was a Joseph Estrada starrer). To this day, we can pinpoint at least two known local directors who have adapted the gripping courtroom scenes which gave an unforgettable finale to this melodrama.

Synopsis:

“All the things we did once upon a summer…” was the trailer pitch for this zestful, teenage romp. The love teams of Gabby Concepcion and Snooky Serna, and William Martinez and Maricel Soriano were born out of this huge hit. Bella Flores and Angie Ferro are the fighting old fogies on opposite sides of the fence. Dina Bonnevie, Celia Rodriguez and Jimi Melendez make guest appearances. Fifties melodies, out of the Director’s nostalgic reminiscences, provide the soundtrack to this classic teen flick that had the ‘80s fans swooning and rooting for their respective idols and eventually rolling down the aisles towards the riotous ending. The musical numbers shot in Baguio City were eventually used as an added attraction to Marilou Diaz-Abaya’s “Boystown” to boost its audience appeal.

Synopsis:

Gabby Concepcion’s initial venture into movie production was filmed on location in Frankfurt, Germany; Nyon, Switzerland; Lourdes, France; Venice, Italy and Manila, Philippines. “For those who believe in God, no explanation is necessary. For those who do not, no explanation is possible.” This Catholic miracle motion picture finds its way on television every Lenten season. Through the Director’s inimitable style of guerilla filmmaking, what could have been a travelogue becomes a well-made film with a well-told story of faith in the healing power of the Lady of Lourdes, starring Concepcion, Snooky Serna and leukemia victim Roxanne Abad Santos. Ms. Abad Santos was given FAMAS posthumous recognition for her performance in this box office record-breaker.

Synopsis:

A box-office Metro Manila Film Fest entry, revolves around a family that faces a scandal when a virtuous father, award-winning actor Robert Arevalo, is accused of embezzlement during the office Christmas party. His wife (Liza Lorena), children (Gabby Concepcion, Kristine Garcia, Bongchi Miraflor), mother (Mary Walter), relatives (Aida Carmona, Domingo Landicho, Mely Tagasa), friends (Marissa Delgado, Raul Aragon) and office associates (Mila Ocampo, Johnny Wilson, Eddie Mercado and Tony Carrion) are caught in a web of lies and intrigues, trials and tribulations that challenge and eventually strengthen the ties that bind them. Snooky Serna is Gabby’s doubting girlfriend. A subplot about another conflicted family with parents (Alicia Alonso and Bert Martinez), common-law wife (Lucita Soriano), son (William Martinez), daughter (Aiko Melendez in her first screen appearance) and William’s sweetheart (Maricel Soriano).

Synopsis:

Filmed in San Francisco and Napa Valley, California, USA, the title takes off from the real-life romance of decade-older Gabby Concepcion to decade-younger Janice de Belen. Rebuffed by the conservative Chinese family of his fiancée, Cathay Chai from Binondo (Manila’s Chinatown), because he is penniless, Concepcion moves to San Francisco to seek his fortune. When he already has the means to claim his sweetheart years later in Greenhills (the new Chinatown in Metro Manila), she is already married. His hopes dashed, he nonetheless recognizes that destiny is taking its course as it was once hinted by a fortune cookie, for in comes the once impish Janice whom he met abroad and has blossomed into a sweet young lady. She is in town for a visit. They profess their love for each other with Gabby vowing to wait for her even if it takes forever.

Synopsis:

This controversial blockbuster gave instant stardom to Claudia Zobel, marketing her as a new object of desire, as well as to Patrick dela Rosa, her screen partner. Manjo Del Mundo is featured in the older-brother role. One summer in a small town, a sensitive boy’s consciousness is awakened by the intrusion of a girl, Claudia, and her touring drama group, the Manila Experimental Theater Arts League (METAL). Claudia is Magdalene in the city group’s rock musical on Jesus Christ. Opposing the show is Robert Arevalo (Patrick’s father, whose gruffness is patterned after the Director’s own) who plays Jesus annually in the traditional passion play of the parish during Holy Week. Opinions clash and loyalties disintegrate, but eventually regenerate between father and son. Outside views, good or bad, are now eschewed. Ergo the outsider, in this case, is the girl.

Synopsis:

A holiday in an island paradise turns into a macabre adventure for American fashion model-turned actor, Leonard Urso. In this film, Stella Strada (whose demise came after making another movie that same year) got a posthumous FAMAS Best Actress nomination for her twin role, one, a beautiful, enigmatic girl who saves her crazy sister, her other character, who is kept chained in a dungeon of a Gothic manor by a cruel caretaker, Lorli Villanueva. Leading man Dennis Roldan investigates the gruesome deaths of Tani Cinco, a Japanese tourist and Jimmy Fabregas, the weird uncle and owner of the ancestral house. Jose Hipolito is introduced.

Synopsis:

Considering that the Philippine movie industry is taxed exorbitantly, this highly praised event film proved to be doubly successful financially after getting a B-rating from the Film Ratings Board, endowing it with a fifty percent tariff exemption. A poignant Cinderella story, top-rate portrayals, sumptuous rural and urban scenery as well as a rich soundtrack furnish strong production values to this reunion project of the now-legendary “Guy-and-Pip” (Nora Aunor’s and Tirso Cruz III’s pet names to their fans) love team.
Nora, daughter to Majordomo Perla Bautista, falls hopelessly in love with the mistress’s son, Tirso. To force him to marry the haughty heiress Dona Bonnevie, rich matriarch Armida Siguion-Reyna banishes Nora from the hacienda and out of Tirso’s life. Nora’s strength of character is tested by the decrepit Mary Walter in the proverbial fairy godmother role. Upon her death, the old lady, actually a rich woman, bequeaths a fortune to Nora. With characteristic dignity and pride coupled with none-too-small amount of naiveté, she returns the money to kindhearted grandson Edu Manzano, who, to help her out, requests Ella Luansing to employ her in the flower shop he secretly finances with Nora’s rightful inheritance. Through twists and turns of events, the once-arrogant Armida admits her misjudgment and accepts the virtuous Nora. Arguably, Nora and Tirso had never been more affecting and more endearing a love team on screen than in this photoplay.

Synopsis:

Riding on the crest of the enormously successful Till We Meet Again and of the newly revived Nora-Tirso-Elwood tandem, this sixteen-day quickie was rushed to catch the deadline of the Metro Manila Film Festival. It lost in the awards derby but was successful at the box office. Prodded by Rowell Santiago, her new-found manager, Nora Aunor, the other half of a winning duo in a provincial amateur contest, leaves her partner, Tirso Cruz III, for the city to try to make it as a singing star on television. On her way up, she gets to meet, push, shove, trip and step on different entertainment figures: Jackie Lou Blanco, Lani Mercado and most prominently, Miguel Rodriguez who becomes her transient paramour. Inday Badiday, German Moreno, Ike Lozada, Marissa Delgado have cameo appearances. Stumbling down, depressed and lonely, she seeks out her former self and gets renewed, ironically, with the advice of her former singing partner and loyal lover, the dying Tirso. Alone on stage, as she sings in a successful concert, she pines for her lost love.

Synopsis:

In the remote countryside of Ilonggos, various women are sexually abused by local men. Two sisters meet Simon, the most attractive man in the village, and fight over him--one constantly haunted by Catholic dogma because of the abuse she suffered previously.
Film historian and former Toronto Film Festival director, David Overbey has likened this entry to the Chicago International Film Festival, in style and content, to the works of Pier Paolo Passolini. Maria Isabel Lopez (as the sex-starved village catechist) and Sarsi Emmanuelle (as the irreverent returnee) are the protagonists in this Third World peek into the subject of religious misdirection.

Synopsis:

Angela Perez is a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace. To avenge the violation of her womanhood, she works her way to the top armed with her sexuality. In her stormy path, Val Sotto, Roy Alvarez, Jaime Fabregas, Tony Carrion are the victims she leaves ruined in her wake. The debuting singer Lambert Lorenzo is the lone survivor.

Synopsis:

The Director’s somewhat heavy-handed treatment balanced this somehow convoluted plot, making it an emotional, thrill-a-minute, roller coaster ride. Audience reaction made it a mega-hit which sat well with the FAMAS, conferring it eight awards including Best Picture. Vilma Santos as the suffering Monica Quijano, won the Best Actress award, while Miguel Rodriguez, as her insufferable tormentor, the Best Supporting Actor, for their over-the-top performances. Arguably, the quintessential Filipino movie replete with elements of song and dance interspersed with melodrama, rhetoric, action and suspense, it also earned honors for Song, Editing, Production Design, Cinematography and Direction.

Synopsis:

Though unaccredited, this is the Director’s story that he has imbued with his most personal views on life, love, career and happiness. This is also his most critically acclaimed work. Despite its length (more than two hours), this novelistic film is visually exciting, well-paced, and has a feeling for detail. Showing the great gap that yawns between the rich and the poor, the movie also reveals the last vestiges of Spanish feudalism.
Peasant proprietor’s daughter Magnolia de la Cruz (Nora Aunor) accuses rich, aristocratic, landowner’s son Anselmo Gonzales (Tirso Cruz III) for having robbed her of the honor to go up the stage as high school valedictorian during graduation rites. What follows is a bittersweet contest for love, wealth, honor and power between the two of them, spanning two generations. Nora Aunor turns in a well-modulated performance playing first, determined barrio lass that grows up into a powerful woman, succeeding in acquiring the wealth of a proud but resentful man who always considers her déclassé, and whose love she lusts for but is always at arm’s length. Second, the daughter she bears who stubbornly falls for the son of the man her mother loves and hates. The big surprise is Tirso Cruz III who gains acting prominence for the first time in his father and son roles, succeeding handsomely in displaying a multi-dimensional range.
The film received numerous nominations and was conferred a total of eighteen awards by the FAP, FAMAS and other award-giving bodies (URIAN and STAR). The film and the Director won two awards each (FAP and FAMAS). Nora won three from FAP, FAMAS and Urian. Tirso also garnered three (FAP, FAMAS and STAR). Screenplay got two (FAP and FAMAS). Editing, one (FAMAS). Music, one (FAP). The production designers cornered the most awards (FAP, FAMAS, STAR and URIAN).

Synopsis:

This successful launching vehicle fulfills the bid for stardom of Ruffa Gutierrez and Zoren Legaspi, backed by the Director’s formula that brings out the best in newcomers, providing them material to showcase their best assets. Desirous of the unattainable, nouveau riche Eddie Gutierrez, together with petulant wife, Gloria Diaz and sweet teenage daughter Ruffa, visits the island-resort of his boyhood to flaunt his new stature to the ideal woman of his past, Charo Santos, docile wife to windbag resort owner, Ricky Belmonte and mother to well-mannered adolescent, Zoren. Old flames are rekindled and old wounds are reopened, rocking both marriages. Their children, young and impetuous, unaffected and sincere, fall deeply in love with each other and defy their clashing parents’ objections.

Synopsis:

A mild success at the box office, this film showcases Ms. Aquino’s immense charm and sensitivity, obscured only by her status and its attendant brouhaha. This expensive, glossy, romantic melodrama has political overtones satirizing a transitory period of uncertainty and instability when malevolence and deceit mingle freely with benevolence and righteousness within the fabric of society. The main backdrop is the palatial residence of Eddie Garcia. In this opulent setting is a beautiful woman (Charo Santos) seemingly magnanimous, but in fact a sly, steely butterfly who spins a web of intrigue and treachery, meant to discredit and eventually eliminate the rightful successor (Kris) to a position of wealth and power. Others in the cast are Gary Valenciano, Jean Garcia, Gina Leviste, Alicia Alonso, Ernie Zarate, Raffy Bonanza and Nida Blanca.

Synopsis:

Directed the Tetchie Agbayani segment entitled “Kaliwete” of the trilogy, “Isang Gabi, Tatlong Babae” was reused by marketing man, Joey Gosiengfiao. The segment was from a finished episode of an unfinished film called “Playboy” and the suggested title for it is “Kayumanging Kaligatan”. The beautiful, brown bodies of Tetchie Agbayani and Manjo del Mundo lend visual grace to the rustic landscape of this short film. A slender sketch on a barrio woman’s rebellion against male chauvinism provides the filmmaker a canvas for painterly experiments in composition richly evocative of Amorsolo paintings.

Synopsis:

Pacita M (Nora Aunor), a bawdy, two-bit singer in a cheap club, has only one love, her teenage daughter Grace (Lotlot de Leon). Her world is shattered when a stray bullet accidentally hits the girl in the head, turning her comatose and, in all probability, will remain a vegetable all her life, that is if she recovers. Pacita favors that her daughter’s respirator be taken off so that her daughter may die with dignity. Her mother-in-law, Mrs. Estrella (Armida Siguion-Reyna) opposes her, believing that it is only God who can take away a person’s life. What follows is not so much a battle between two women with their convictions of good and bad but more of a journey towards self-realization and maturity. Pacita, the caricaturish singer who puts on all sorts of make-up and disguises to hide her true self from herself, now realizes that Grace has to die in order for the real Pacita to come alive. Nora Aunor’s tour de force performance explores the many faces of grief eliciting honors from four award-giving bodies.
This undertaking won awards for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Story, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Music and Song in the Metro Manila Film Festival. FAMAS also conferred awards of excellence to the Picture, Director, and Screenplay. FAP gave its nod to the Director and Actress and Screenplay. KRITIKA gave it the Gold Prize for Best Picture, Director and Actress. It was a finalist for the Silver Screen award for the Best Asian Feature Film in the 1992 Singapore International Film Festival and participated in the following film festivals: Ontario Cinematheque “Toronto Festival of Festivals;” Hawaii International Film Festival; India International Film Festival; Southeast Asian Film Festival held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and the Filipino-American Film and Video Exposition in San Francisco.

Synopsis:

Former screen partners Snooky Serna (as a seamstress about to get married) and Albert Martinez (as a former jeepney driver) are involved in an emotional love triangle with Janine Barredo (as the rich girl who always gets what she wants). Ms. Barredo got a STAR New Actress of the Year nomination in her first movie appearance. Others in the cast are Ricardo Cepeda, Carmina Villarroel, Jeffrey Santos, Kevin Delgado, Dinky Doo Jr. and Caridad Sanchez.

Synopsis:

Sheryl Cruz as Dolora X discovers a well-guarded secret about her past that triggers a highly charged conflict between her and Charo Santos in this tearjerker. Sheryl’s touching characterization elicited a FAMAS Best Actress Nomination. Charo’s interpretation of an uncouth woman gave her a FAMAS Best Supporting Actress nomination; however, the FAP nominated her for Best Actress. Aga Muhlach as a young lawyer received kudos from film critic Nestor Torre.

Synopsis:

“Reputasyon” is a morality tale of the 90s with baby-boomer sentiments and sensibilities. The Filipino generation-x is confused because of cultural, social, economic, political and moral cross-currents. It relates: the struggles of a young girl, Miya (Miya Nolasco) in her critically acclaimed first starring role, as she goes through the discords in her life; the sacrifices of an OCW (overseas contract worker) single parent, Molly Brown (Amalia Fuentes), to raise her daughter who, to her eyes, is becoming wayward; the dilemma of a politician-father Eric (Romeo Vasquez), to acknowledge the existence of a child he was not aware of but recently; the conflict of a stepmother, Margette (Gloria Diaz), to fight and face not so much other people as herself.

Synopsis:

Lupe (Seaman’s Wife) plunges right into the exalted bliss and harrowing secrets of female desire, swimming through the uncharted territory of the feminine mystique. A wife’s fidelity is tested. She is in conflict, suffers a great deal as she chooses the morally acceptable over the way of the flesh. Eventually, her sacrifice pays off. Ostensibly sensual, this texture piece is a Filipino morality tale that blurs the lines between entertainment, serious commentary and just plain gossip. Andrea del Rosario is the wife in her launching vehicle. Leandro Muňoz is the husband and Jordan Herrera is the lover. Lara Fabregas and Marissa Delgado play an important part

Synopsis:

The name Belinda Bright may well be the brightest spot in this noir-ish concoction. Re-named after the late 1950s actress, Belinda Lee of the UK who starred in a film with the same title. She Walks By Night, the former bit player Ivana Capes (real name: Marianne Decima) has since starred in Imus Productions’ Kapitbahay for a hefty fee and touted to crossover as a recording artist in Indonesia. Belinda in the femme fatale role pits father (Ricky Davao) against son (Jay Manalo) that causes the Manalo character to ditch his good girl sweetheart played by Ynez Veneracion. Veteran actress Marissa Delgado and thespian Dido de la Paz perform pivotal parts.

Synopsis:

Hoping to reconnect with his roots in the city of his birth, Lex (PMPC New Star Awardee, Vince Tañada) returns to Manila. He writes a screenplay for an indie film based on his neighbors in a flat he moves into and what he believes is going on behind their closed doors… but are they really the people he thinks they are? He realizes that his perceptions are in conflict with the objective facts. Is it even possible to create a work of fiction that is true to the facts when the very act of writing entails reimagining those facts? In the process, he discovers that his illusions of filmmaking, romance and the city itself are at odds with the truth.

Synopsis:

Drawing from his personal adventures and misadventures, film director, Elwood Perez veers away from standard-issue plot conventions in this paradoxically moral tale of a young man en route to becoming a creative artist. In didactic Pilipino komiks tradition, Ronnie Liang embodies the schizoid character of Mario/Galogo, an up-and-coming graphic novelist in this treatise on the otherwise lofty subject of learning given the characteristic, wildly entertaining Elwood Perez touch. In a voyage of self-discovery, this protagonist---alternately ingenious and ingenuous---plunges into the territory of the exalted, the charmed and the bizarre, swimming through the uncharted waters of the unique Filipino experience, emerging from it all as an authentic Manileño imbued with the thought that tolerance is sophistication. The multilingual cast is a convergence of Manila denizens of cross-cultural persuasions.