Pinoy Cinema in 2005

Mario Bautista gives us the rundown of Pinoy cinema in 2005. Apparently, only 49 films were made last year, and a huge lot of them were digital films.

When the SM chain of malls banned R-18 movies in 2004--which somehow coincided with that D’Bodies incident, but anyway—I sort of expected bold movies to go to an all time low. But 2005 proved me wrong as El Niño Films and Cesar SB. Abella, director of Tag-ulan Noon Ang Bukid Ay Basa, Malikot Ang Agos ng Tubig, and Kikay: Kaakit-akit, kaaya-aya, kikiligin ka, among other things, did brisk business as they churned out low-budget sex movies and comedies almost every month. It didn’t matter that they have no media mileage or big-name stars. And the ones with the longest credits for 2005 included starlets Raja Montero and Kat de Santos (of Teteng Baliw fame) and comedians like Bonnel Balingit and Palito. Who would have thought that they’d be even busier than the A-listers?

Of the 49 Pinoy films made in 2005, I only saw a baker’s dozen: Let the Love Begin, Bikini Open, La Visa Loca, Ang Lagusan/The Tunnel (which I thought was either sci-fi or horror, and I was horribly wrong), Pinoy/Blonde, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Lasponggols, Sitak, Ang Anak ni Brocka, Ilusyon, Mulawin: The Movie, Blue Moon.

It’s actually more if I include So Happy Together, but I guess they counted it with 2004’s offerings. No bold movies for me. And I’m not even happy with all of the movies I actually watched. My top three include Maximo Oliveros, Bikini Open and Blue Moon. So there. Hopefully, 2006 will be better. And everyone’s predicting that digital movies will even be bigger this year. But we will see.