A conversation with acclaimed director Celso Ad. Castillo, the Godfather of Bold movies (Isla, Snake Sisters, Virgin People), and director of horror masterpiece Kill Barbara With Panic, The Mystical World Of Pedro Penduko and Return Of The Dragon (both with Ramon Zamora). With a string of films regarded more as "events" but virtually unknown outside his country, he personifies the term "world famous in the Philippines". [photo: Jim Gaines]
Our Manila tour guide, kung fu and jungle action icon Big Jim Gaines, practicing a well-worn Tagalog phrase "Gusto kong mag-wasak!" ("I want to go on a rampage!") [photo: Dani Haig]
GOON CONVENTION #2: The second gathering of the "old" faces of Philippines B films: [from l-r] Falcon Ferrer (son of Tony Ferrer aka Agent X44, aka Weng Weng's boss!)... me... Franco (Cleopatra Wong, One Armed Executioner) Guerrero... Dani Haig (Search For Weng Weng associate producer)... Steve Alcarado (former SOS Daredevils stuntman, goon and Weng Weng co-star!)... Nina Dandan (SFWW researcher & production assistant)... Palito (James Bone himself!)
Interviewing Rico Ilarde, the face of Filipino horror's New Wave (Woman Of Mud, Beneath The Cogon). This time it's me having a Ringu moment! [photo: Nina Dandan]
Coffee with Palito holding a faded newspaper ad for his anemic 1986 Rambo ripoff No Blood No Surrender, while our kind host and production assistant Roy Arabejo proudly shows his Search For Weng Weng T-shirt [photo: Jim Gaines]
Not one, but TWO interviews with Eddie Romero in the can! This time we go through Eddie's extensive filmography in detail, before he signs a pressbook for his LEAST favourite film Beast Of Blood. Eddie, you are a very patient man and a true gentleman. [photo: Nina Dandan]
"White and brown monkey brothers": A day trip to the country home of Cleopatra Wong director Bobby A. Suarez. Since closing his office in Santa Cruz, the old BAS Films plaque is proudly on display on his back door. [photo: Dani Haig]
Dolphy's right hand man Frank Gray Jr (director of Omeng Satanasia, production manager on Da Best In Da West) talking about his role in uniting Dolphy with Weng Weng! A chance meeting in the film archives of TV station ABS CBN, where weirdly enough I've spent countless hours watching Dolphy movies, including Da Best...! [photo: Nina Dandan]
Screening of the Search For Weng Weng rough cut at Cubao X's Mogwai, a film club/bar run by Gagamboy director Erik Matti. Probing questions directed from the beanbag are from leading film historian and filmmaker Nick Deocampo... [photo: Nina Dandan]
Just when you thought the Weng Weng obsession couldn't get any deeper... [photo: Jordan Arabejo]More interviews! A second chat with Eddie Romero (
More Weng Weng personnel: Frank Gray Jr, Dolphy’s right hand man and the guy who introduced Weng Weng to Dolphy (star of two early Weng Weng films The Quick Brown Fox and Da Best In Da West)… Rez Cortez, supervillain extraordinaire, and star of a 1977 (!) Weng Weng vehicle for the Caballes’ Liliw Films, Sila… Sa Bawat Bangketa [see the updated Weng Weng filmography here – there’s an even earlier cameo (this info is from Cora Caballes herself) in the 1975 actioner Silakbo. That makes 10 Weng Weng films confirmed so far, with another two under investigation]. And yes, I’ve finally spoken to Weng’s producer Cora Caballes – on the phone to her home in
My Breakfast With Bobby Part 2… We visited Bobby A. Suarez at his country house as he was planning his comeback film THE LADY EXECUTIONER (The Vengeance Of Cleopatra Wong getting the chop last year at the eleventh hour). Bobby has already cast Marrie (Cleopatra Wong) Lee, Gary Daniels, Richard Magarey, Nigel Hogge, James Gaines, Cynthia Luster and
Trudging through the halls of power: Dani and I had breakfast with Manila’s Chief of Police… dinner with the Mayor’s chief advisor Ruther Batuigas, the famed crime reporter whose body is a patchwork of bullet and knife wounds, and who has a habit of brandishing his .45 to punctuate his sentences!… and interviewed Mayor Lim himself, a former decorated policeman (nicknamed “Dirty Harry”!) who is determined to spearhead the Philippines film revival. All three business cards came in handy when a baranguay goon tried to pick Dani for a fight – he took one look at Ruther’s mobile number, then the General’s, turned and walked away very quicky. We called them our “Get Out Of Jail Free” cards!
Other stories to make it to the next blog: another Goon Convention at the National Book Store coffee shop in Quezon City, this time with “James Bone”/”Ram-Bone” Palito, Franco (One-Armed Executioner) Guerrero, Sixties karate star Roberto Gonzales, kung fu villain Rusty Santos, and Tony Ferrer’s curious son named Falcon… a karaoke crawl through the sleaziest parts of Manila (and getting mobbed by some VERY angry lady-boys)… watching Apocalypse Now – with two guys from Apocalypse Now (Jim Gaines and Henry Strzalkowski)!... going to a theatre in a shopping mall to watch Cirio Santiago’s right hand man Jo Mari Avellana direct and star as a dying Yiddish professor in a sold-out stage version of “Tuesdays With Morrie”… and going to dinner with Silip director Elwood Perez – only to find Amalia Fuentes, star of The Blood Drinkers and Curse Of The Vampires, sitting at the next table! ONLY in the
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