Chito Rono's ''Boy Golden'':Fun time at the movies

If one of the reasons for going to the cinema is to have one hell of a fun, then the versatile and prolific Chito Rono's latest film, "Boy Golden", should be one best example. This loosely true-life based gangster film is simply pure fun - and pure absurd fun at that! It possesses that distinctive kind of alternately awesome and ridiculous filmic sensibility that we rarely encounter in Pinoy cinema, with the result that we are just blown away because of the uncannily crazy delight that it brings to us. The last film of Rono to embody this kind of sensibility was, I think, the Rosanna Roces-starrer "Curacha:Ang Babaeng Walang Pahinga" - and this was even way back in 1998! Right from the opening gunfight, set to the jukebox tune of Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes" (which turns out to be the film's "fetishistic" song), the director goes on to stage action setpieces that appear to become stranger, more ridiculous, more bizarre - if not more fun - than the last. And one just has to simply revel in it to fully enjoy it with a wide-eyed gaze - and this is not even without its accompanying blood and gore! The director, who has recently become associated with a number of horror flicks (some genuinely inventive like "The Healing", while others are outrightly inferior like "T2";but last year's "Shake, Rattle & Roll 14" is surprisingly fun), is not actually alien to making an "action" film. I remember that back in 1993, he made the Vilma Santos and Ronnie Ricketts-starrer "Ikaw Lang", with a number of nearly absurd "action" scenes and over-the-top kontrabida roles by Cesar Montano and Zeny Zabala. And in some ways, his Sineng Pambansa entry, the excellent "Badil", may be considered an "action" film, albeit more terrifying and gritty because of its quiet intensity. But here in "Boy Golden", he pulls no stops in delivering an all-out bombastic gangster movie, with no deep pretensions whatsoever in regards the concepts of crime, revenge, loyalty, retribution and justice. He is simply having a fun time at the movies, and so we are. It greatly helps that Rono was able to assemble a pool of actors who was more than ready to enjoy the game. Needless to say, his gallery of supporting characters was superb - and loony (Eddie Garcia, Tonton Gutierrez, John Estrada, Baron Geisler, Dick Israel, Roi Vinzon, Gloria Sevilla). But what amazes me here are the turns of Jeorge Estregan (in the title role) and KC Concepcion (his femme fatale). Before seeing the film, I said to myself that I would just have to endure whatever awful things that these two may deliver onscreen. Surprisingly, all throughout these two celebrities just deliver all the goods! We may not find nuance in their characters, but we can see that they find an honest glee in the awesome kick-ass quality of their roles (Jeorge without his squirm-inducing OA antics, KC without her bland pa-tweetums). If there's ever one reason why we should still bother with the yearly MMFF and shell out our hard-earned couple of hundreds at the box-office, "Boy Golden" should be it. And no, I was not just simply having a fun time in saying it. 

The gangster and the femme fatale in Chito Rono's outrageously fun ''Boy Golden''