Cebu Calories

June 23, 2005

I was in Cebu again two days ago.  Most likely I’ll head down there again soon.  I’m lucky to have current projects that make me travel down to Cebu often lately. 

There are plusses and minuses in going to Cebu.  The plusses are obvious:   nice beaches, no Manila stress, and the food is good.  The minuses:  The food is good!  I ate three consecutive hotel breakfast buffets.  Luckily, the resort also had a very nice health club and spa, so I did the gym and sauna and massage thing.  But that didn’t burn enough calories.  Nor did my short swim from the shore to a floating deck.  That swim was like 20 seconds and then 20 minutes on the deck getting a sun tan.  Sun tanning doesn’t burn enough calories either.

As a former swimmer, I am so used to consuming calories good for four persons. So, you can imagine my disappointment when I ate dinner at the hotel’s fancy restaurant.  I ordered a prawn salad.  Three small shrimps!  I ordered a salmon steak.  It could fit in my hand!  And why in the world would the chef have to cut the one asparagus stem in half?  It was already only one piece of goddamn asparagus and they had to cut it in half pa!  So, I ate as much of the bread and butter as I can.  I hate leaving a restaurant hungry.  So, I ate the next day at the hotel’s Chinese restaurant and ordered dimsum for four.

If you’ve been a constant companion of my blog, you’ve read many entries about my trying to lose weight.  The badminton has worked to maintain my weight.  But I think I need to lose about 15 more pounds.  I have to make my swimming regular, and more intense.  And maybe I should start running again.  Running burns the most calories for me, I think.  But my age and current weight prevents me from running well.  My knees cannot take the resistance, also my spurs.  The solution:  less calorie intake.

But how can you resist breakfast buffets?  There are breads, cereals, juices, waffles, congee, bacon, omelletes, sausages, sushi, coffee, and yogurt.  Good thing I’m not going to Cebu again that soon.

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.“

- Adelle Davis 

 

BATMAN BEGINS the best!

June 16, 2005

I knew just from watching the trailer that BATMAN BEGINS will be a great movie.  I didn’t realize it would be even greater than that.  Halfway through the film, I was in tears, feeling so emotional that I was experiencing such a fantastic motion picture.  I don’t remember feeling this way in the cinema for quite a long, long time.  I feel so stupid saying this, but I want to say thank you to director Christopher Nolan for giving us his vision.

Batman the comic book, the tv series, the cartoon series, the two Tim Burton films, and perhaps even the two Joel Schumacher debacles, were all supposed to have the concept of fear based on Bob Kane’s original idea for the caped crusader.  Batman brought fear to criminals who bring fear to the innocent.  But this is the first time, I think, that Batman was truly scary.  Michael Keaton wasn’t scary.  Val Kilmer was funny.  And let’s please forget about George Clooney.  Christian Bale, who has always been good ever since the excellent EMPIRE OF THE SUN, finally captured the guilt, the pain, the anger, and the fear that made Bruce Wayne turn into Batman.  We now know why this comic book character is supposed to be the darkest and the most conflicted.  

Batman is the most human of all superheroes, mainly because he doesn’t have super powers.  But this film explains his humanity by showing that the human soul is not always inclined towards good.  Vengeance leads to violence.  Misplaced virtues and ideologies lead to corruption.  Pride clouds compassion.  Bruce Wayne wants to kill.  Batman doesn’t.  Yet it is Bruce Wayne as Batman who can kill, and does.  That complexity is within all men. 

Can mankind rise above suffering without dishing out suffering to get there?  That is probably the saddest question I can ever ask.  Think about all the evil that has happened throughout human history caused by wanting to do “good.”  And it still happens today.  But light in all this darkness exists.  Bruce Wayne/Batman soars above evil because good  exists all around him, although we might think there is no more hope. 

The exchange between Bruce Wayne and Alfred (played by the brilliant Michael Caine) sums it all for me:

“You have not given up on me.” - Bruce Wayne
“No, I have not.  And I never will.” - Alfred

There is our hope, people.

 

Mickey Rourke Resurrected

June 13, 2005

SIN CITY is a cool movie.  Actually, most films associated with Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino can be categorized under cool films.  Their movies also fall under an undeniable description: violent.  But this blog entry isn’t going to discuss the merits of a Robert Rodriguez film, nor Tarantino’s.  I want to say I’m so happy to see Mickey Rourke back!  His part in SIN CITY is by far the best, and his segment the most enjoyable.  Not too mention we again see how good an actor he truly is.

I’ve never been a fan of Mickey Rourke.  I don’t really like DINER, and I think his performance in YEAR OF THE DRAGON was lazy.  And who cares about 9 1/2 WEEKS?  But since the early 80s, Mickey Rourke has been touted as a promising leading man.  But I suppose his personal life is weird, that’s why he fit soft-porn projects perfectly like WILD ORCHID, and also we are not surprised he become a steroid-filled professional boxer.  And he always carried his stupid little dog way before Paris Hilton ever did.  Hmmm, Mickey Rourke and Paris Hilton in a soft-porn project?  (Geez, I’m disappointed in myself that I actually took two precious minutes of my life mentioning Paris Hilton).

I read somewhere that even though Mickey Rourke has not been in major movies in the past 20 years, nor has he been in the list of top picks to star in movies, big directors always want to cast him.  He was good as a crooked small-time lawyer in Francis Ford Coppola’s THE RAINMAKER, and I guess he was okay in ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO, even if he was carrying his stupid little dog in every scene.  And what happened to his face?  Boxing, steroids, and plastic surgery made his face look monstrous.

That is why he was perfect as the honorable criminal killer in SIN CITY.  They actually had make-up artists make his already grotesque face even more gruesome, so his character would look the mold of a comic book anti-hero.  Even his muscle-bound body was right for the part because we could believe he can be shot a dozen times, get run over by a car over and over, and still survive.  And he survived electric shock too!  That scene was hilarious.  

I’m really happy Mickey Rourke found SIN CITY.  Talent will never disappear, and if partnered with other talents (like smart directors who constantly find him work), then we get a gem of a picture.  Most of all, I get a warm feeling that the resurrection of a dead Hollywood career is as traditional as rags-to-riches success stories.  But isn’t it more inspirational when it’s a “once up-goes down-goes up again” kind of success?

“Is that the best you can do?” - quote from SIN CITY by Mickey Rourke 

“Ang Panday” vs the Jedi

June 1, 2005

I’m now one of the legions of Star Wars fans that saw the final installment of the saga created by American filmmaker/mogul George Lucas.I like “Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” very much.My favorite among the six is still “The Empire Strikes Back,” but Episode III is truly an excellent movie. Ten days ago, this film set a one-day box-office record, earning $50 million in North American theaters alone.It will earn a few extra bucks for I’m sure to watch it again on the big screen, and I’ll purchase the original DVD when it’s released.Plus, I can’t resist buying an Episode III hat.

 

The smartest move George Lucas ever did was to keep the merchandizing rights to his ‘Star Wars’ franchise.Since 1977 when the first movie was released, George Lucas’s personal fortune has skyrocketed to $3 billion dollars.That is a lot of ‘Star Wars’ tickets, videos, video games, hats, t-shirts, lunch boxes, toys, coffee mugs, towels, pillowcases, watches, books, comics, and posters sold.Ironically, his dream as a film student was to make small, personal films.But being a master marketing man, he protected his product by keeping creative control over all his work.Lucas said, “I took over control of the merchandising not because I thought it was going to make me rich, but because I wanted to control it. I wanted to make a stand for social, safety, and quality reasons. I didn’t want someone using the name ‘Star Wars’ on a piece of junk.”

 

I’m not the first, nor the last, to discuss the devotion towards this saga.George Lucas recreated for our era the long-standing traditions of myth and storytelling. He isn’t shy to admit he based his world of legends from Joseph Campbell’s book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces.Likewise, Mr. Lucas doesn’t hide that the premise of the original ‘Star Wars’ was taken from Akira Kurosawa’s samurai movie, “The Hidden Fortress.”Aren’t the Jedi Knights simply the samurai of Japan’s imperial times, wielding light sabers instead of samurai swords?Fantasies, heroes, villains, and romance have always entranced us.George Lucas just added fantastic special effects, together with a massive marketing machine that has “The Force” on its side.Purists might say motion picture marketing borders on the dark side.But I bet Master Yoda would agree that movies need to be sold to the widest audience possible.

 

Hollywood movie marketing madness begins each year in January with the awards season.First, film critics’ circles hand out their top ten best of the past year.It’s always good for a movie to land on a critic’s list for a cineaste would choose to see a critical favorite.Soon after, the Golden Globes announce their nominations, adding prestige to a motion picture, plus an enormous promotional kick.Winning gives the film even more impact.Then come the Screen Actors Guild Awards, the BAFTA (British Academy Awards), and of course, culminating with the most important awards night of all, the Oscars.Winning an Academy Award guarantees bigger box office revenue.This year’s Best Picture Oscar winner “Million Dollar Baby” tripled its gross sales in one month. After winning gold, it added another 40 percent from its total.This is in the United States alone.Clint Eastwood’s film earned an extra 95% from worldwide receipts, totaling $196 million.It is no wonder movie studios covet prizes, even only nominations.

 

It would be wonderful if a Filipino movie wins an Oscar.So far, we’ve never been nominated.Many claim earning an Oscar nomination is more about money and politics, rather than quality.That is why the academy put a stop to blatant campaigning.In the past years, movie studios would buy full-page ads in Hollywood dailies like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter, urging academy members to vote for their films.If earning a spot in the top five entails millions of dollars in advertising and PR, then our Philippine producers are in trouble.A basic promotional campaign of a major Hollywood movie costs more than 20 tagalog movies combined.For example, the prints and advertising costs for 2001 best picture winner “A Beautiful Mind” was $30 million; not including the budget to produce this Russell Crowe movie, which was $78 million.The most expensive Filipino production would be around 100 million pesos, or a mere $1.8 million.Don’t expect Robin Padilla to be walking on the red carpet with Catherine Zeta-Jones just yet.

 

In 1993, an official Viet Nam entry “Scent of Green Papaya” was nominated for Best Foreign Film by the academy.Although set in 1950s Viet Nam, the film was shot entirely in a sound stage in France, and funded by the Paris-based Fondation Gan pour le Cinema.Still, the movie was directed and starred Vietnamese talents.There is no available information about its production budget, but one can easily assume it cost more than any Regal, Star, Seiko, Viva, or Unitel production.Case in point, the production designer converted Paris studios into Viet Nam.Precise set design and daily sound stage rentals are expensive.Moreover, its director Tran Anh Hung won the 1993 Cannes Film Festival Camera D’or for best cinematography.This could only mean that high quality cameras, lenses, lighting, and expensive film stock were used.Film developing and film color processing in laboratories go over tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes in the hundreds of thousands especially if tons of film were shot.It really takes a lot of money to compete in the big leagues.

 

I hear local heartthrob, Jericho Rosales, will take over the role of “Ang Panday.”But no Filipino folk legend, nor American superhero for that matter, can beat the force, fame, and finance of a Jedi.Only James Cameron’s epic “Titanic” earned bigger box-office than any single film.But who wants to buy a ‘Titanic’ beach towel?And how can there ever be a sequel?Frankly, let’s not try to compete yet.Let’s just make good movies.