For my list, it'd be: MULANAY, BAMBANG, HOT PROPERTY. These are not sentimental or nostalgic favorites (otherwise I'd cite Goodah! and Bakit Kinagat Ni Adan Mansanas Ni Eba - both of which couldn't stand the test of time but are mere novelties), these works can each stand on their own, objectively, as very well-crafted efforts, suitable even for archival preservation.
MULANAY by Gil Portes and released in 1997 was maligned by film critics, citing it as I understand it, as "righteous" - meaning Portes helmed a film that wants to be "angat" from the usual inanities. Yes it does, it talks about the Doctor To The Barrios "ministry" pioneered by the truly lamented late Juan Flavier - as lived through by the Jaclyn Jose character, a doctor who got inspired to practice in an impoverished island off the coast of Quezon. Thats exactly the creative raison of Mulanay, to make a film that tries to pull itself out from the estero that Philippine cinema has become about - of bromances, star vehicles, TTF's, and FPJ-type revenge foregettables. And for that, it was universally maligned, which could've impacted its box-office receipts but not the zeal of some universities and other academic groups who asked students to go and see it. To date, Mulanay is not yet available on digitized/DVD form, while the entire upload on Youtube is pretty much exactly how the VHS copy performs, down to the scratches and skips.
BAMBANG would probably win as the most obscure, most forgotten work among Urian nominees of dekada 80, this one nominated as Best Picture for 1986 or '85. It featured the late Anthony Alonzo, a thug among many other thugs who dwells in Bambang, a notorious locale in the Sta. Cruz Manila district - who had a change of heart. Bambang is impossible to find, I rely on my memory for its drama. That an A. Alonzo picture (whose signature genre cannot be distinguished from the flood of Ace Vergels, Rudy Fernandezes, Philip Salvador's - got the idea?) gets noticed by Urian bespoked of an effort where the cinematographic and creative stars aligned together, this one for Alonzo and the Bambang of yesteryear.
HOT PROPERTY was a daring (at least in 80's standard) effort to tell the bedroom stories of Ayala Makati-type career girls - the picadillos, the quickie's, the wild night-outs of working girls Carmi Martin, Angela what's-her-name, Isabel Lopez. It was superbly made despite its titillating theme, hot but classy. Likewise now very obscure, and impossible to find.
If it'll qualify as movies, I'd also cite Ditsi Carolinos' MINSAN LANG SILA BATA and the colored sequel NO TIME TO PLAY. Both documentaries seared in my memory even after 20 years, for their raw depictions of children compulsed to work on poisonous, back-breaking, injury-prone jobs. First time on British-pressed blu-ray for Filipino oevres would be the forthcoming INSIANG and MAYNILA SA KUKO NG LIWANAG....
Topic: PinoyDVD's Best Movies of All Time [Blu-Ray/HD DVD] (2017 Thread) (Read 4965 times)