This early nineties gangster classic is obviously superior to that other film about Asiong Salonga, the Tikoy Agiluz directed Manila Kingpin. While the latter movie relied heavily on flashy gimmicks like Chow Yun Fat style gunplay and the use of a black and white screen, the former had a more organic feel. Also, for a production obviously short on funds, "Hari Ng Tondo" brings more bang for the buck than Agiluz's big budget turkey.
Jorge Estregan is a stylish badass in this film, unlike in Manila Kingpin where he looked like a tired, middle aged clerk roleplaying as a street toughie. Also, in the film by Agiluz, Asiong seems almost superhuman in his abilities but in this fictionalized biopic, he is a more well rounded and realistic fellow, subject to the laws of physics such as when he suffers a bullet wound and has to recuperate. Estregan fits the role so well that it seems he was born to portray this character. Like Robert De Niro, he is in his natural element essaying the characters of various hoodlums or the so-called "noble criminal".
Still, the movie has a few flaws which hinders one's full enjoyment of it. In particular, the ending of the film is kind of ruined when the cops suddenly show up making the scene very anticlimactic.
Overall though, the movie is surprisingly good and one of the few movies about Tondo's legendary mafioso that actually get it right.
