By Caesar Vallejos, EBC Correspondent
Like basketball, boxing can freeze time in Filipinos’ lives. It is very close to every Pinoy’s heart that it unifies the country as a nation.
“Eto rin ang sport na literal na babagsak ka at kailangan mong bumangon,” Carlo Ortega Cuevas, director of GUERRERO said.
GUERRERO of EBC Films is a movie about failures and triumphs.
Watch the trailer that is going viral on the Internet here.
What viewers will see in the movie is GUERRERO’s journey outside the boxing ring.
Three Ps weave the film’s elements: punches, planets and poems. And these are surprise elements that moviegoers will look forward to in this masterpiece.
GUERRERO is not just a random name made for the movie, it means “fighter, warrior”, Cuevas explained.
Meet Ramon GUERRERO
Tall with a chiseled face, he possesses, by all standards, the star qualities of an actor that can catapult him as the next important personality in the acting industry.
“Sobrang nakaka-pressure”, he said. He appeared in the movies “Felix Manalo” and “Walang Take 2”. “Kapag naglalakad ako, tinatawag akong ‘Don-don’ (his TV name in NET25’s sitcom “Hapi ang Buhay”). But now, even if it was only the trailer that was released, people who had seen him already call him Guerrero or Bro. Guerrero.
That was his biggest challenge in the preparation for this movie. Dondon’s character in the EBC sitcom is the exact opposite of Ramon Guerrero. Since he was very identified in the sitcom, the director instructed that it is crucial that audiences must not identify a single trace of his sitcom character.
Learn more about the EBC’s sitcom Hapi ang Buhay and Walang Take 2 here.
“It’s hard to tap a raw talent. It is challenging but it is very fulfilling,” Cuevas said.
Rather than focus on bankability, the cast selection was a process based on trust. “Kapag raw talent ka, mas madali na ipagawa sa iyo yung karakter na medyo malapit na sa karakter mo sa totoong buhay,” the humble director said.
In GUERRERO’s main casting, what is seemingly the weakness of the movie is the film’s major strength. Cuevas, in his award-winning works, is known for his creation of real, sincere and innocent characters that people can easily relate to like Hapi, and this time, Ramon Guerrero.
Learn of Carlo Cuevas’ awards in this link here.
Meet Abby
More than a hundred auditionees were considered for the main characters. Joyselle Cabanlong was the last person to audition in the lead role of Abby.
She never dreamed to be an actress. Her training as a Mass Communications student at the New Era University was leaned more towards hosting.
Her freshness is packaged in her bubbly petite frame. In spite of the glasses that she wore during the interview, her young exuberance glowed in full bloom.
Joy never had any acting experience except for a stage play as a school requirement. “Gusto ni Direk yung natural, yung hindi na kailangang i-cue yung tao, yung role ko po ay hindi nalalayo sa totoong personality ko,” she explained.
“Mga simpleng tao lang ang kinuha ni Direk.” Joy said. She trusts that developing unknown talents rather than banking on popular actors reveals the creative side of Cuevas as director. “Napatunayan na po ni Direk na hindi dahil sa mga sikat na tao kundi nasa istorya ang ganda ng pelikula,” Joy innocently beamed.
Joy is a typical millennial who is out to prove herself but she exudes maturity in her thoughts. “Emotional downfalls are harder than physical ones,” she wittingly said.
The director’s inspiration
During the writing of the script, director-writer Cuevas recalled that consecutive lectures in his community, at that time, were about hardships in life and how to respond to and survive them.
There were a lot of lines in the movie that were inspired by homilies and he fully developed the script around them.
“May mga pagkakataon na gusto mo na lang sumuko, gusto mo nang umurong, pero mararamdaman mo na lang talaga na kailangan mong bumangon,” he recalled.
After finishing high school, he was not able to enter college immediately due to financial difficulties and was forced to work for a year. And when he finally did, he shifted into four courses.
“Hindi ko alam kung ano ba ang direksiyon ng buhay ko noon, kung saan ba ako? From IT to Education, I was lost. Kaya ako napasok sa Education dahil yun ang pinakamaikling pila sa enrollment,” he narrated.
He took up Communication Arts because that was closest to music, which he passionately enjoys and was his first love. After watching a school filmfest, he was inspired by a filmmaker named Milo Tolentino. “Hindi niya ako kilala personally”, Cuevas said. It was Tolentino’s film entited “Andong” that made Cuevas pursue his passion for film-making.
“Nag-absent ako ng one week sa school, pagbalik ko may dala na akong short film,” Cuevas remembered. It won three student film festivals. And the rest was history.
Humbly, Cuevas said, “I am doing films not to showcase talent, I was just eager to tell a story.”
“Sa Iyong Tabi”
One of the four theme songs of the movie entitled, “Sa Iyong Tabi” provides inspirational lyrics that tug one’s heartstrings. Cuevas blurted out these excerpts from his composition:
Nahihirapan ngunit hindi nawawalan ng pag-asa.
Nasasaktan ngunit hindi nagdaramdam.
Di na magtatagal, matatapos din ang iyong pakikipaglaban.
Digmaan sa pagitan ng puso at isipan.
Wag kang magpapatalo sa damdaming mapanlinlang,
Dahil ang puso ay natuturuan.
NANDYAN, another song composed by Cuevas and performed by Cabanlong for the movie, is in the link here.
Be it in his music or his films, Cuevas ensures that there are several layers in his works – a layer for the general audiences, a layer for critics.
The most important element of a movie, according to Cuevas, is in its underlying message.
“Magpapakilig ang GUERRERO.”
But if it will make people laugh and cry, it will also inspire Filipinos here and around the world to face life with greater vigor and fight for their faith with stronger zeal.
Punch after punch after punch. May GUERRERO sa bawat Pilipino.
GUERRERO will have its movie premiere on October 31, 2017.
– CRV