LITERATURE SUPER senior Guelan Luarca co-wrote the screenplay of Boy Golden: Shoot to Kill, an entry in the 2013 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF).
The movie is based on the story of Arturo Porcuno, a real-life gangster in Manila from the 1960s, who took on the alias “Boy Golden.”
According to Luarca, he was directing a play for his thesis when he got the job.
Luarca explained that one of the actresses in the said play was a friend of the son of Cathy Camarillo, who was to co-write the film.
“Cathy asked his son Kyle and her friend Jenny Villar if they knew a writer from Ateneo, and so he gave her my name,” Luarca said in a mix of English and Filipino.
After a meeting with Camarillo, Luarca was commissioned to write the screenplay.
First screenplay
Luarca explained that the story concept and preliminary research for Boy Golden came from Laguna Governor ER Ejercito , who plays the protagonist in the film.
“I got hold of the research so in a sense there was already a story,” Luarca said.
However, the original screenplay that he wrote was deemed too close to the real-life story and he was asked to change it.
“I had to re-shift the whole thing and it ended up being super fictional. The film Boy Golden is totally unreliable in terms of historicity,” Luarca said.
He further explained that the film was initially being billed as the “Arturo Porcuno Story,” prompting him to call co-writer Camarillo to help change the title.
“If I’m going to justify [the film], it’s more of a mythologizing of the famous gangster in Manila,” he said.
He said that as far as the film goes, only the protagonists were real people.
“If I’m going to base it on historical data alone, it’s going to be boring. Historicity wasn’t a goal,” he said.
“I didn’t want the audience to take the film too seriously,” he added.
Luarca said that due to the nature of the film, he was “just having fun” when writing the screenplay.
“This is my first screenplay. I’m not used to writing screenplays; I’m used to writing for [the] stage. It’s campy and a bit self-indulgent. I think that was the style we were looking for,” he said.
He also said he often turned to Camarillo during the writing process, considering her his guide.
“She was my mom during the process because it was my first time and I didn’t know anything about the industry,” he said.
Luarca added that he was not on the film set often and many of the re-writes that occurred on set were made by Camarillo.
Reviews
Emil Hofileña, a sophomore creative writing major, praised Boy Golden’s director, Chito S. Roño, for being able to give audiences “over-the-top” action sequences and focusing on brutal scenes.
Hofileña added that the best part of Boy Golden was its writing.
“It’s incredibly difficult to pull off a story so seemingly detached from reality or historical accuracy, but this screenplay understands that being over-the-top isn’t about excess, but control,” he said.
However, Communication Department Lecturer Ayo Supangco said that, in the process of creating a product that was different, the “idea got lost.”
He said that the storytelling technique was built on a deep and interesting mythos from Philippine history. However, he said the film was “a bit all over the place.”
Meanwhile, Hofileña said that what sets Boy Golden apart from other films is the “brave filmmaking” behind it.
“Whereas other gangster films work so hard to painstakingly recreate a world of darkness and an atmosphere of grit, Boy Golden succeeds by going the opposite direction,” he said.
“The version of Manila depicted in the film is one that is drenched in bright colors and filled to the brim with kalesas, night clubs and unbridled violence at every corner. The attention to detail displayed here is insane,” he explained.
Supangco shared the same sentiments, saying the cinematography and lighting design were striking.
“The locations that were used did not only provide an impressive backdrop, but also helped create the gritty character of the movie,” he said.
Intent of the film
According to Supangco, the film strayed from the usual MMFF entries.
“The gangland oddity of Boy Golden: Shoot to Kill gave fans a hefty dose of ‘I have no idea what’s going on but it’s good,’” he said.
He explained that the MMFF has been a disappointment ever since the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) took over.
“The repetitive plots and franchises more concerned with turning a profit than creating a legitimate film has been a yearly woe for filmgoers,” he said.
“It has become an annual flagellation for many whom religiously attend, possibly hoping for a miracle or glimmer of hope in stagnant Philippine cinema,” he added.
Supangco likened Boy Golden to old Hong Kong gangland films, with the costume coordination in the film Kung Fu Hustle and classic Filipino slapstick—a “strange mix,” which made him question the intent of the film.
“Was it just an eclectic exercise gone out of control? Maybe it really is just a political vehicle for Laguna Governor ER Ejercito? Could it be a new approach? Or is it just trying to be different?” he asked.
Nevertheless, Supangco said that even if it was a political move for Ejercito, the film will give the critics something to think about with regard to future film festival entries.
“It [has the] potential to bring about an upheaval and rethinking of the crop that the MMFF, MMDA, [and] the entire media industry have sown,” he said.
“While it isn’t likely to be called a classic by anyone, it does make me optimistic for the future of local mainstream cinema,” Hofileña also said.
