British firm buys ‘Silip’
Remastered ’80s film to be released on DVD in US
By Bayani San Diego Jr.
Inquirer
Last updated 00:46am (Mla time) 12/17/2006
Published on page I1 of the December 17, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
“SILIP,” A 1986 FILM DIRECTED BY ELWOOD Perez, was bought by the British firm Boum Productions, to be released under the Mondo Macabro DVD imprint abroad.
The news was confirmed by Pete Tombs of Boum/Mondo Macabro, Perez and producer Wilson Tieng of Viking Films International.
“Silip” was top-billed by Sarsi Emmanuel and Maria Isabel Lopez and written by Ricky Lee.
Tieng and Perez told Inquirer Entertainment in separate interviews that “Silip” had its premiere at the 21st Chicago International Film Festival before it started its local run on the eve of the February 1986 Edsa Revolution.
“I sold ‘Silip’ to different countries in the mid-1980s,” Tieng related.
Over a decade later, British film critic Tombs’ said his interest in the Filipino film was sparked.
“I first came across it about 10 years ago, through a review written by [fellow UK] critic Tony Rayns in Sight and Sound [magazine],” Tombs recalled.
He said he had become “fascinated” with the idea that, even during the Marcos era, Filipino filmmakers succeeded in making films that “pushed boundaries.”
“It was a belated new wave,” Tombs told the Inquirer in an e-mail interview.
By sheer happenstance, he stumbled on an old VHS cassette of a Filipino film titled “Deflorazione” or “Flowers of Virginity” in a bargain bin in Rome, Italy.
“I recognized the cast as being that of ‘Silip.’ It was dubbed in Italian and was severely cut (25 minutes was missing). But I got the distinct impression as I watched that it was an unheralded minor classic.”
With dispatch, he embarked on a hunting expedition. “I asked everyone about it, but no one had seen the film or even heard of it.”
A year after finding the VHS tape in Rome, Tombs chanced upon a director’s cut of the film on video (dubbed in English and subtitled in Greek) on eBay where it was bought by a friend for $150.
“I was simply amazed and soon after I contacted [Tieng, who’s now with] Solar Films and began the process of licensing the title from [him] for a new DVD release in the United States,” he recounted.
Tombs wrote the book “Mondo Macabro” which, according to his e-mail, was “later commissioned as a TV series by Channel 4 in the UK.”
“As part of the research for the TV program, I visited the Philippines and interviewed [filmmakers] Eddie Romero, Peque Gallaga, Lore Reyes, Don Escudero and [actress] Manilyn Reynes,” he pointed out.
Movie classics
He had previously seen “acknowledged classics” like Lino Brocka’s “Maynila sa mga Kuko ng Liwanag” and Ishmael Bernal’s “City by Night.” “At the other end of the spectrum, I’ve also seen more outrageous examples of popular cinema, including the ‘Darna’ series, ‘Zuma’ and [pint-sized spy] Weng-Weng movies.”
Needless to say, he is quite acquainted with Philippine cinema.
In his e-mail, Tombs described “Silip” as “beautiful … visually.”
“[It] deals with primal issues: desire and repression; love and death; freedom and conformity; the dreams of youth versus the compromises of old age. These are subjects that have been dealt with before in cinema (in the Philippines, in ‘Karnal’), but here the conflicts are raw and the violence that results … savage and unfettered,” he explained.
In an interview with the Inquirer, Perez called his work, a “film on religious misdirection.”
Tombs insisted that, 20 years later, there is “still an audience for ‘Silip.’ There are always people who are looking for something new and different. There are plenty of films with much worse violence in them. [But] what ‘Silip’ has is passion and commitment … It’s an original.”
Tombs reported that the plan is to “release the film on DVD sometime in 2007.”
He is currently working on “remastering the film from the original negative to get the best possible version. We want to restore the original widescreen framing and correct the color timing. It’s important that the film looks good.”
He relayed that his company is also planning to release “another uncompromising film [of the same period], Celso Ad. Castillo’s ‘Snake Sisters,’ later in 2007
“If these releases go as planned, we certainly hope to license other Filipino films, including some more recent productions,” he affirmed.
