joey gosiengfiao rules!

except for the movies he made in a failed attempt to ressurrect alma moreno's career in the '90s ("virginia p.", etc.) after the latter was dumped by dolphy for zsa zsa padilla, i never really saw any of joey gosiengfiao's kitsch-y films he made during his heyday in the '70s, which, thanks to film enthusiasts, have now become cult classics.

last saturday, my friend, jo atienza, hosted myself, anselmo and jo's friend mae, to an all-day mini film festival at her apartment in burbank.

she bought a projector just for the occasion - it was like watching a movie for free!!! i didn't have to sneak in to theaters to catch 4 movies in one day!

jo has a vast collection of tagalog classics. thanks to her i saw (finally!) peque gallaga's classic war film "oro, plata, mata", mike de leon's subversive masterpieces "sister stella l" and "batch '81".

this saturday she treated us to four different movies.

we started the afternoon with "bomba star", joey gosiengfiao's treatise on the evils of cinema (if you can call it that! - hahaha) starring alma moreno, celia rodriguez, marissa delgado (i have never seen her any prettier than in this movie), eddie gutierrez, ricky belmonte, vergel de dios, george estregan, and a host of star cameos!

the movie opens with an homage to "gone with the wind" and "sunset boulevard" (how he was able to do it is part of the fun! - hahaha).

after the opening credits this is what awaits the viewer: marissa delgado dressed in a flowing night gown rushes down this grand staircase holding her best actress trophy while a reporter waits at the foot of the stairs holding a humongous cassette player for a recorder. the background music? you guessed it, the theme from "gone with the wind"!

after the grand entrance, the movie cuts to the interview. marissa's character stella now channels norma desmond. it's so freaking hilarious!!!

the movie's plot is ridiculous but joey gosiengfiao made a very, very interesting movie (where do you find a teenaged alma moreno running on a street covering her boobies; jumps to a pool of mud and emerging fully naked with only the dirt covering her?).

the movie goes from high drama to comedy in a blink of an eye. and the dialogues - omg! they are something one wouldn't forget in a while...

here's a sampling:

celia rodriguez and alma moreno's confrontation scene

celia: lapastangan kang anak! bawal kang mag-artista (or something to that effect)

alma: bakit inay? kung lapastangan ang pagiging artista, lapastangan po ba si amalia fuentes, susan roces at... snooky? hahaha!


marissa delgado to ricky belmonte and eddie gutierrez when she caught them both shirtless and sprawled on the floor (a surprise revelation in the end is a perfect complement to the weird finale!)

marissa: how very touching!


eddie gutierrez to marissa delgado in one of their confrontation scenes (eddie is marissa's boytoy)

eddie: anong akala mo sa akin, isang laruan na iyong lalaro-laruin? at pag sinumpong ka ng hangin ay iyong pipisain? (hahaha!)

as i previously stated the movie ends in a most bizzare fashion! do you want to see a youthful inday badiday crushed to death? go find a copy of this movie! it'll give you more than an hour of fun.

next time we do this, joey's other cult hit "temptation island" will be our main movie.