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“Mallari” attempts for a certain kind of innovation with a narrative structure freshly lifted off anime-like, parallel-world, time-travel story telling. Leveraging in the fantastic, three generations of stories overlap one another convincingly to tell a ghost story that haunts the titular family for decades. But all of these attempts at novelty to reimagine the lore of a historically documented serial killer from the colonial Philippines? The film seems to be capturing through its creativity an attitude as old as its narrative itself.

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The marvel of Mallari’s technical achievements cannot be ignored. Derrick Cabrido’s years of handling horror films is matched by Enrico Santos‘ veteran penmanship and Pao Orendain‘s textured images that shape the scenes with enough darkness to fill the scares. Santos’ script in particular exhibits a really good pulse in pacing sequences. Their attempt to...

“Moro,” a tale of fractious fraternal relations that debuted last year in the Jiseok section of the Busan International Film Festival, has begun airing on Netflix in Southeast Asia, including director Brillante Mendoza’s native Philippines.

In other territories, the film’s rights are being represented by Manila-based finance, production and sales firm Fire and Ice.

With a screenplay by Honeylyn Joy Alipio, and production by Mendoza’s Center Stage Productions, “Moro” tells a story about a widowed mother (played by Laurice Guillen) who tries to reconcile two brothers who are feuding over a piece of disputed land in Mindanao. The older brother is diligent and responsible, the younger one has squandered his savings on gambling. After the semblance of agreement is reached, government intervention throws the region into turbulence and reveals that even those closest to us may become the most destructive enemies.

In addition to the veteran Guillen,...

Directed by Roderick Cabrido, the Filipino horror film Mallari stars Piolo Pascual as the three main characters living in different time periods: Juan Severino Mallari, Johnrey, and Jonathan. The film is centered around the Mallari family from Magalang, Pampanga. In 2023, Jonathan, a doctor, returned to his ancestral property in Magalang to find the cure for his wife’s illness, and that was when the supernatural phenomena began. The film is inspired by the real-life story of Father Juan Severino Mallari of Magalang, Pampanga, infamous for killing 57 people. Mallari adds a supernatural element to the story and takes it up a notch. From astral projection to time travel, the film offers an elaborate explanation to connect the three timelines.

Spoiler Alert

Why did Father Severino turn into a killer?

In 1812, during the Spanish colonial era, Father Juan Severino Mallari moved to Magalang to spread the word of Christ. Soon his mother,...

Chef Ella works as a sous chef at Hain, a restaurant that’s not doing so well. When her boss, Chef Chico, the head chef, as well as the guy she’s interested in, falls into a coma, the survival of the restaurant falls on her shoulders. With the help of her fellow chefs, patrons, and a mystery man named Raymond in the mix, will Ella be able to save Hain from an inevitable disaster? Replacing Chef Chico is set in the fine dining restaurant Hain, which combines Filipino dishes with a special Hain experience that is like no other. Chico and Ella are actually poles apart, especially at work, but somehow, after work, everything is forgotten. This is the first time I’ve watched anything Filipino, and my initial reaction was surprise at the predominantly English dialogue of the show.

Replacing Chef Chico begins in a strange way; it...

Sometimes summer nights call out for a deep dive into nostalgic cinematographic homages. “Manila”, a 2009 movie directed by Adolf Alix Jr. and Raya Martin, might be just the perfect choice, accompanying us with an ode to Filipino cinema. The film was screened as part of unique, out-of-competition screenings at the 31st Moscow International Film Festival and the 62nd Cannes Film Festival.

By independent directors Raya Martin and Adolfo Alix Jr., the movie pays their homage to masterpieces of Filipino neorealism “City After Dark“, also known as “Manila by Night” (1980) by Ishmael Bernal and “Jaguar” (1979) by Lino Brocka. The project perfectly succeeds in its goal to open the door for a new audience to learn about the wonderful works of the old masters.

The social environment that Manila provided for those topics hasn't changed all that much in the last three decades, after all. A disconnected, dialogue-free montage separates the two short films,...

Stars Piolo Pascual and Lovi Poe head the cast of the Philippines adaptation of Korean Series “Flower of Evil.” It begins airing across East Asia and parts of the Middle East.

The romance-thriller series involves a female detective who suspects that her husband is a serial killer.

The original show was produced by Cj Enm’s Studio Dragon and aired on tvN in 2020. It has been refashioned in 16 one-hour episodes by Dreamscape Entertainment with Abs-cbn as co-producer and multi-territory streaming platform Viu presenting it as an ‘original.’

The Philippine adaptation is to first premiere internationally through Viu in 16 different territories across Asia, the Middle East, and South Africa from Thursday. It will then be broadcasted in prime time on Abs-cbn’s linear channels A2Z channel, Kapamilya channel and Jeepney TV from Saturday.

A supplied synopsis describes the narrative as” “a crime-suspense drama series that tells the story of unconditional love.

Erik Matti’s new original six-part Philippines series “On The Job” will premiere on HBO Go in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan in September and will also air later on the region’s HBO channel.

Select episodes from the series will screen in competition at the Venice Film Festival in September, the only Asian title in contention out of the 21 in the lineup.

HBO Go has also released a trailer.

The first two episodes of the series were shown as a film at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, where was nominated for an Sacd Prize at Directors’ Fortnight. It went on to win several awards globally, including two at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Inspired by true events, “On The Job” centers around crime syndicates that temporarily release prison inmates to carry out political assassinations for those in power. However, the crime syndicates themselves are run by politicians. The...

The Filipino auteur’s latest opus lampoons a Duterte-esque president struggling with a rebel enclave while a deadly flu epidemic rages

At four and three-quarter hours, the latest butt-numbing opus by Filipino auteur Lav Diaz is a veritable TikTok video by his standards. A needling and occasionally deranged assault on the Philippines’ most recent turn into authoritarianism, this monochrome sci-fi dystopia takes place in 2034 after a series of volcanic explosions has permanently darkened the skies, and the “Dark Killer” flu epidemic is tearing through the population (it was shot pre-Covid). President Nirvano Navarra (Joel Lamangan) – whose stocky physique and wild pronouncements make a fairly obvious match for real-life incumbent Rodrigo Duterte – decides to use the crisis to put a heavy lid on a simmering crockpot of dissidents.

Meted out mostly in long and often patience-stretching static takes, and in humdrum locations despite sci-fi inflections such as omnipresent flying drones, Diaz...

Eight young stars accepted the “Asian Stars: Up Next” award on Tuesday intended to recognize and promote Asian on-screen talent who have established themselves in their home market but have the potential to cross borders onto the global stage. The awards are issued by the International Film Festival & Awards Macao and Variety, and were presented on-stage at the festival’s closing ceremony.

This year’s honorees included Korea’s Lim Yoona, the singer-actress aka Yoona who shot to stardom in the K-pop group Girls’ Generation; Japan’s Ryota Katayose, singer-actor from J-pop boy band Generations from Exile Tribe; Indian actress Bhumi Pednekar; actress Bea Alonzo of the Philippines; Indonesian actress Asmara Abigail; Thailand’s Praewa Suthampong and Jennis Oprasert, both members of the Thai girl group BNK48, a sister group of the Japanese group AKB48; and Vietnamese actor Lien Binh Phat.

Last year, honorees included Xana Tang (New Zealand), Ann...

The Asian Stars: Up Next, showcased by the International Film Festival & Awards Macao and Variety, recognize and promote Asian on-screen talent – not necessarily young, but youngish – who we believe have the skills to become something much bigger in the entertainment industry.

Some of the talents selected are already established, well-known, and at the top of their game in their home territories. But that’s not the point. What these awards seek is to help Asia’s talent cross borders onto an international or global stage. That’s a question of ambition, and hard work to come.

In 2017 the talent selection included Celina Jade, Ludi Lin, Rajkummar Rao, Shioli Kutsuna, Piolo Pascual, And Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, better known as the star of “Bad Genius,” while Xana Tang (New Zealand), Ann Curtis (The Philippines), Zheng Kai (China), Zaira Wasim (India) and Iqbaal Ramadhan (Indonesia) represented the 2018 crop.

Known for his epic–and epically long–films that examine the woeful past and troubled present of the Philippines, Lav Diaz has established an unmistakable name for himself and become a staple at A-list film festivals worldwide over the last decade.

He was awarded the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize at the Berlinale for his 8-hour opus A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, the Golden Leopard at Locarno for the 5.5-hour From What Is Before, and won over Sam Mendes’ jury to take home the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2016 for The Woman Who Left.

His latest feature, The Halt (4 hours and 36 minutes in case anyone is keeping score), premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in Cannes earlier this year and screened recently at Filmfest Hamburg. It’s set in 2034, when volcanic eruptions have plunged Southeast Asia into darkness and the Philippines is ruled by a ruthless...

Viewers about to journey into the latest feature of Filipino auteur Lav Diaz should get “hold of some acid” because it “would serve you really well”. Among other pieces of advice and explanation about his latest film, a text written by Diaz was read to the waiting audience at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival where the film was screened later this year. Whether or not this was an ironic way to gain the audience’s attention remains to be seen, but given the film’s rather serious nature, it also foreshadows the darkness of the visions represented in “The Halt”.

“The Halt” is screening at Filmfest Hamburg 2019

In 2034, after catastrophic volcanic eruptions, large parts of South-East Asia live in constant darkness since the sun is blocked. Additionally, many people have died due to a flu pandemic called “the Dark Killer” which the government has attempted to contain.

Lav Diaz's Season of the Devil, which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from July 30 – August 28, 2019 in Mubi's Luminaries series.A supremely powerful 4-hour lament for human suffering, Lav Diaz's Season of the Devil was clearly the token “hardcore” art-house movie in the competition section of the Berlin International Film Festival, where it premiered. But the Filipino director's reputation for difficulty—very long movies, long scenes done in long takes—is a misnomer: the challenge of Lav’s films aren’t their length, which can be relaxed into, or their languor, which allows for both inattention and contemplation. The challenge they raise are for a Philippine history unrecorded and perhaps even unwritten in the official records. It is a challenge to the once-seen but now-unsaid—and a challenge to those in power. Season of the Devil states: “This happened, look at it, experience it...

“These are my friends. And this is a tribute and a memoriam to them.”

The cinema of Filipino director Lav Diaz has always been about time, its essence as well as its way to define people and their surroundings. Considering the average length of one of his films varying between four to ten hours, Diaz has repeatedly abandoned what is commonly known as mainstream cinema and popular conceptions of what cinema is. For authors such as Sascha Westphal, for example, Diaz is a director in the same tradition as Andrei Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr, but then again, even the attempt of categorizing films like “Norte – The End of History” (2013) or “The Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery” (2016) with the label “slow cinema” does not really fit with the kind of work Diaz has delivered throughout his career.

“Season of the Devil ” is screening at the 27th Art Film Fest Kosice

In a nutshell,...

The International Film Festival and Awards Macao and Variety combined forces for the second year running to put a spotlight on Asia’s acting talent.

A well-attended meet-the-stars press event on Friday afternoon in Macau was addressed by leading local official, Maria Helena Senna de Fernandes. She turned the microphone over the five actors from different corners of the region, who dazzled with poise and wisdom beyond their years.

In 2017 the talent selection included Celina Jade, Ludi Lin, Rajkummar Rao, Shioli Kutsuna, Piolo Pascual, And Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying, better known as the star of “Bad Genius.”

The five in this year’s crop — Xana Tang (New Zealand), Ann Curtis (The Philippines), Zheng Kai (China), Zaira Wasim (India) and Iqbaal Ramadhan (Indonesia) – will be presented with trophies on stage this evening at the closing ceremony of the Iffam.

Xana Tang (New Zealand)

Best known in the role of an offbeat office assistant...

“These are my friends. And this is a tribute and a memoriam to them.”

The cinema of Filipino director Lav Diaz has always been about time, its essence as well as its way to define people and their surroundings. Considering the average length of one of his films varying between four to ten hours, Diaz has repeatedly abandoned what is commonly known as mainstream cinema and popular conceptions of what cinema is. For authors such as Sascha Westphal, for example, Diaz is a director in the same tradition as Andrei Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr, but then again, even the attempt of categorizing films like “Norte – The End of History” (2013) or “The Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery” (2016) with the label “slow cinema” does not really fit with the kind of work Diaz has delivered throughout his career.

In a nutshell, “slow cinema” is most likely associated with a film’s running time,...

The film is based on a series of actual events that shocked the public in the Philippines, where prison inmates were contracted by politicians to temporarily leave jail and conduct a number of assassinations before they returned to prison.

“On the Job” is screening at the 17th New York Asian Film Festival

The story revolves around two axes, which collide at times, based on the aforementioned story. The first one concerns two inmates-assassins, veteran Tatang and his trainee, Daniel. The first one actually has a family, and uses the money he receives to support them and to pay for his daughter’s intuition, who is studying law. Daniel, on the other hand, is a cocky, naive, and a bit too eager young man who lies to his mother about what he is actually doing. When the two of them murder a drug lord, veteran Sergeant Acosta is tasked with the investigation,...

“These are my friends. And this is a tribute and a memoriam to them.”

The cinema of Filipino director Lav Diaz has always been about time, its essence as well as its way to define people and their surroundings. Considering the average length of one of his films varying between four to ten hours, Diaz has repeatedly abandoned what is commonly known as mainstream cinema and popular conceptions of what cinema is. For authors such as Sascha Westphal, for example, Diaz is a director in the same tradition as Andrei Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr, but then again, even the attempt of categorizing films like “Norte – The End of History” (2013) or “The Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery” (2016) with the label “slow cinema” does not really fit with the kind of work Diaz has delivered throughout his career.

In a nutshell, “slow cinema” is most likely associated with a film’s running time,...

Season of the DevilCan a completely grueling experience be worth the effort, the investment of time and self? In the case of An Elephant Sitting Still, the first film by the young Chinese novelist Hu Bo, we’re talking about a four-hour story of such constant despair that not a single moment of joy or literal ray of sunlight pierces its desperate drama. But it is most definitely worth the ordeal. This bleak opus is not only the first but also the last film by Hu Bo, who killed himself at the age of 29 after its completion. This desire of some for release from life's onslaught of sorrow, ill-luck, bad decisions and a lack of compassion or even superficial pleasure can be felt in every single brutal minute of this sprawling film.Initially, the despair is repulsive, not a glimpse but a full on plunge into the void. A gangster...

Following up his Golden Lion-winning drama The Woman Who Left, Lav Diaz is returning to Berlinale 2018 with his latest film, Ang Panahon ng Halimaw aka Season of the Devil. Described as an “anti-musical musical, a rock opera, that delves into mythology,” the first trailer has now arrived ahead of the premiere in competition later this month.

According to The National, the film features 33 songs composed by the Filipino director himself and the story, which takes place during former president Ferdinand Marcos’s military dictatorship, follows “a man whose wife has been abducted in their remote village.”

Starring Piolo Pascual, Shaina Magdayao, Pinky Amador, Bituin Escalante, Hazel Orencio, Joel Saracho, Bart Guingona, Angel Aquino, Lilit Reyes, and Don Melvin Boongaling, see the trailer below via CineMaldito.

Season of the Devil will premiere at Berlinale 2018.

Rupert Everett’s The Happy Prince and Pernille Fischer Christensen’s Unga Astrid picked for Berlinale Special.

Source: Wiki Commons

Steven Soderbergh, José Padilha

Five more films have joined the main lieups of the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 15 - 25). A further six films have been selected for the programme of the Berlinale Special.

Steven Soderbergh’s Unsane will get an out of competition world premiere. It stars Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah and Juno Temple and was reportedly shot on iPhone.

Also premiering out of competition is José Padilha’s true story thriller 7 Days In Entebbe, starring Rosamund Pike, Daniel Brühl and Eddie Marsan.

New films from Lav Diaz and Alonso Ruizpalacios will play in competition.

Rupert Everett’s Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince and Becoming Astrid by Pernille Fischer Christensen have been added to the Berlinale Special Gala section.

Read more: Robert Pattinson, Christian Petzold movies join Berlin Film Festival Competition

23 of the 24 titles...

Conventional limitations on cinematic runtimes, often driven by basic practical and commercial concerns, are at once arbitrary and enduring. Under 90 minutes is short; over 150 minutes is long. Short films lie on one end of the spectrum and Andy Warhol on the other. But even limiting discussion to non-experimental feature films reveals a wide variation in the use of massive duration, discussions of which tend to be obscured by the hyperbole (in both directions) that such films often elicit. (This hyperbolic tendency also extends to trilogies, multi-part films, or even novels and literature in general. Just ask anyone who’s seen Sátántangó or read Infinite Jest.) Nonetheless, such films tend to be fascinating opportunities for exploration, both in their justification for and use of such length. And on the occasion of Mubi’s retrospective of Lav Diaz’s filmography (the body of work that most consistently makes use of duration), three vastly different 2016 films,...

This year’s Tokyo International Film Festival (Tiff) will feature five unique Filipino dramas. The Philippine Entertainment Portal reports that Die Beautiful, I America, Birdshot, Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis and Shiniuma will be part of the festival’s 29th year.

Die Beautiful stars Paolo Ballesteros as a transwoman and beauty pageant veteran whose dying wish is to be dressed as Lady Gaga for her funeral. The film is directed by Jun Lana. It is the only Filipino film included in the main competition. This marks Lana’s second run at Tiff. His 2013 freshman entry Barber’s Tales won the Tiff Best Actress award for its star Eugene Domingo.

Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis or “A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery” is Lav Diaz’s eight-hour epic for Tiff’s World Focus Section. Anchored by Philippine superstars John Lloyd Cruz and Piolo Pascual, Hele Sa Hiwagang Hapis is a fantastical meditation on Philippine literature,...

Starting with the Spanish conquest of the Philippines in the mid-16th century, the country was under the colonial rule of four different foreign powers for nearly 400 years. Independence gave way to two decades of vicious dictatorship and a democracy severely compromised by corruption and extensive external influence. As a nation that encompasses a staggering number of ethnicities and languages, the Philippines’ centuries-long experience of oppression has engendered an enduring identity crisis. It’s this crisis that has brought forth the films of Lav Diaz. They are dedicated to an excavation of his country’s turbulent past in search of its identity; the simultaneously chimeric and vital nature of this endeavor constitutes the emancipatory dialectic that drives his cinema. Having addressed Ferdinand Marcos’ dictatorship from a variety of angles in several earlier features, Diaz turns his attention to the Philippine Revolution of 1896-97 with A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery,...

Somewhere around the 300th minute of Lav Diaz’ immaculately chiseled glacier, the two most prominent characters have a discussion about art. Isagani (John Lloyd Cruz) believes that it is too romantic a notion to think that art can save the world, but Simoun (Piolo Pascual) encourages him not to give up writing poetry and singing lullabies because only through art can true emancipation be achieved. In the context of “A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery,” this emancipation is directly linked to Pilipino liberation from an oppressive Spanish rule of over 300 years. In a 480-minute sea of conversations, it is one of the more jolting discourses because of its meta nature. The core of Lav Diaz’ intention with his most personal film to date is unmistakably shackled to the idea of emancipating the spirit of his homeland through art. To get even more poetic about it, you could take it even...

It doesn’t rank up there with his longest feature, but Filipino director Lav Diaz‘s latest film, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, is likely the most epic experience one can have at the 2016 Berlin Film Festival this year. Clocking in at 485 minutes (just over 8 hours), if all goes according to plan, we’ll have a review later next week, and today brings our first look.

For his latest feature, which is competing for the Golden Bear at the festival, Diaz examines the history of his native land through the story of the father of the Philippine Revolution, Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro. Starring Piolo Pascual, John Lloyd Cruz, Hazel Orencio, Alessandra De Rossi, and Joel Saracho, check out the synopsis, poser, stills, and poster below, and check back for our review.

Andrés Bonifacio y de Castro is considered to be one of the most influential proponents in the...

As if new films from the Coens and Jeff Nichols weren’t enough, the 2016 Berlin Film Festival has further expanded their line-up, adding some of our most-anticipated films of the year. Mia Hansen-Løve, following up her incredible, sadly overlooked drama Eden, will premiere the Isabelle Huppert-led Things to Come, while Thomas Vinterberg, Lav Diaz, André Téchiné, and many more will stop by with their new features. Check out the new additions below, followed by some previously announced films, notably John Michael McDonagh‘s War on Everyone.

Competition

Cartas da guerra (Letters from War)

Portugal

By Ivo M. Ferreira (Na Escama do Dragão)

With Miguel Nunes, Margarida Vila-Nova

World premiere

Ejhdeha Vared Mishavad! (A Dragon Arrives!)

Iran

By Mani Haghighi (Modest Reception, Men at Work)

With Amir Jadidi, Homayoun Ghanizadeh, Ehsan Goudarzi, Kiana Tajammol

International premiere

Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) – documentary

Italy / France

By Gianfranco Rosi (Sacro Gra, El Sicario...

New titles from Thomas Vinterberg, Mia Hansen-Løve, Danis Tanovic, Lav Diaz and Gianfranco Rosi among line-up.Scroll down for full list

Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 11-21) has added nine titles to its Competition line-up, bringing the current total to 14 (the full Competition programme will be announced soon, according to the fest).

The new additions include The Commune, marking the first time Danish director Thomas Vinterberg (The Hunt, Far From The Madding Crowd) has been in Competition at Berlin since Submarino in 2010. The film centres on a Danish commune in the 1970s and will be released in Denmark this weekend (Jan 14).

French director Mia Hansen-Løve (Eden) has been selected with her drama Things to Come, starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman embarking on a new life after her husband leaves her for another woman. The film will world premiere at Berlin.

Another world premiere will be documentary Fire at Sea, capturing life on...

Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis

Director: Lav Diaz // Writer: Lav Diaz

The most notable auteur out of the Philippines in the last decade is Lav Diaz, whose beautiful films often test audience stamina (his 2008 film Melancholia is seven and a half hours, while 2011’s Century of Birthing is six). Recently, he’s enjoyed a higher profile thanks to 2013’s Norte, or the End of History premiering in Un Certain Regard at Cannes (and snagging Us distribution), and then winning Locarno’s Golden Leopard a year later with From What is Before. He’s recently completed his latest, Hele sa Hiwagang Hapis, a film simply described as concerning the search for the body of Andres Bonifacio (a man known as the Father of the Philippine Revoluton).

Cast: John Lloyd Cruz, Piolo Pascual, Hazel Orencio, Alessandra de Rossi

Production Co./Producers: Bianca Balbuena, Epicmedia, TEN17P, Sine Olivia

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available.

Malaysian actress, TV host and VJ Nur Fazura has had several high profile affairs and at least one public spat: ideal material for a docudrama. on the 31-year-old. Matchbox Asia has been commissioned to produce a 5 x 30. series on the pop culture figure for E! networks in Asia. Facing up to Fazura is Matchbox Asia.s fourth gig since its launch earlier this year. The Singapore-based unit is headed by executive producer Steven Gilfeather and overseen by Matchbox Pictures MD Chris Oliver-Taylor. It.s producing three bulletins per week for E! News Asia and for the same broadcaster has made a half-hour documentary on Filipino film and TV actor and musician Piolo Pascual and an upcoming E! News Asia Special: Yuna, which features Malaysian singer Yuna, who has been making waves in Asia and the Us Matchbox and E! are both owned by NBCUniversal International Television. Facing up to Fazura...

Matchbox Pictures has quietly launched a production offshoot in Asia and is already working on several projects.

The operation is being run by Steven Gilfeather, executive producer, Matchbox Pictures Asia, who is based in the Singapore office of Matchbox.s parent NBCUniversal.

.The aim is to grow the business strategically to create new IP for international export,. Matchbox MD Chris Oliver-Taylor told If.

.We are being careful, working on several commissions while we work out the broader future, taking advantage of NBCUniversal.s resources..

Gilfeather reports to Matchbox's Melbourne-based director of unscripted content Kylie Washington and overall to Oliver-Taylor.

The Singapore production team is working with Christine Fellowes, MD Asia Pacific for Universal Networks International and Scott MacKenzie, VP channels.

Its first commissions are producing three bulletins per week for E! News Asia and, for the same broadcaster, a half-hour documentary on Filipino film and TV actor and musician Piolo Pascual,...

Well Go USA has announced its plans to release Erik Matti‘s On the Job (2013) February 11, 2014. The crime thriller stars Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Joel Torre, Joey Marquez, Michael de Mesa, Leo Martinez, Angel Aquino, and Vivian Velez. Marquez and Pascual play a police sergeant and a federal agent investigating the assassination [...]

Continue reading: Home Entertainment News: December 16, 2013: On The Job, Ender’S Game...

Plot: Two inmates (Gerald Anderson & Joel Torre) are hired out by their prison as assassins. Released on day-passes, the two men eliminate political targets with ties to corrupt government officials, and as a reward are able to send money to their families, as well as spend the occasional night back home. Unbeknownst to them, a police inspector (Piolo Pascual) with close ties to the government is hot on their trail. Review: On The Job reminds me a lot of a South Korean film called...

Part Time Inmates: Generic Baddies Work Manila’s Streets

At this point in the history of cinema crime dramas have become a commodity for mere financial motivations and occasionally to throw in a big Hollywood star into the mix. Furthermore, the cops v. thief’s scenario has been so overdone it is hard to believe there could be any new twists, or a spin on the generic corrupt higher-ups, or a anything that would revitalize the genre. Erik Matti’s On the Job doesn’t achieve any of those feats; in fact, it actually makes use of several go-to clichés that cement it as a very Hollywoodesque tale that could easily be remade with a Mark Wahlberg or a Bruce Willis, which would make it even more run-of-the-mill.

Set in the Philippines, the film follows a par of criminals who are among few that are given a job with preferential treatment.

It's a familiar problem for the criminal element: You need to rub your enemies out, but those pesky police always end up apprehending your shooters. The solution, as presented in Erik Matti's On the Job (and based on a frankly amazing real-life scandal in the Philippines), is to use prisoners—temporarily freed from incarceration with the blessing of corrupt prison officials—to perform political assassinations. The drama follows two of these prisoners, the world-weary "Tatang" (Joel Torre) and his up-and-coming hitman protégé, Daniel (Gerald Anderson). There's also a parallel story involving a golden-boy federal investigator (Piolo Pascual), himself the son of a former congressman, and a grizzled police sergeant (Joey Marquez) who may or not have told us...

Ahead of its world premiere in the Director's Fortnight at Cannes today, Well Go USA has acquired all North American rights to "On The Job." Directed by Erik Matti, the Filipino crime thriller was inspired by a real-life scandal in which prison inmates were temporarily released from prison to work as contract killers on behalf of corrupt politicians. The cast includes many of the country's most popular mainstream actors, including Piolo Pascual and Gerald Anderson. "'On The Job' reiterates that it is an exciting time for Filipino cinema," said Doris Pfardrescher, President, Well Go USA Entertainment. "We are thrilled we were able to acquire the movie before its premiere in Cannes and can’t wait to bring it to audiences in North America." Following its premiere on the Croisette, Well Go USA plan to theatrically release the film stateside in the fall. "All the hard work and patience has paid off,...

Just hours ahead of its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival as part of the Director's Fortnight, Erik Matti's long-awaited Filipino thriller On the Job has been picked up for distribution by Well Go USA Entertainment. Featuring a bevy of top Pinoy stars such as Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Joey Marquez, Joel Torre, Angel Aquino, Rayver Cruz and Leo Martinez, On the Job is based on a real case of top Filipino political brass issuing day passes to incarcerated criminals in order to carry out hits. It's been almost four years since Twitch first caught wind of the project and following early test footage and a pair of recent trailers highlighting the film's stellar technical specs, expectations are sky high as the thriller hits...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Well Go USA Entertainment acquired all North American rights to Erik Matti’s On The Job, a Filipino crime action-thriller, ahead of its world premiere in Directors’ Fortnight on Friday. The film is set for a fall 2013 theatrical release. Written by Matti and Michiko Yamamoto, On The Job was inspired by a real-life corruption scandal involving the temporary release of inmates so they could work as contract killers for crooked politicians. It stars many of the Philippines’ mainstream actors including Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Rayver Cruz, Shaina Magdayao, Empress Schuck, alongside vets such as Joel Torre, Angel Aquino, Vivian Velez, Joey Marquez, Leo Martinez, Michael de Mesa, Al Tantay and Niño Muhlach. “On The Job reiterates that it is an exciting time for Filipino cinema,” said Doris Pfardrescher, President of Well Go USA Entertainment. Said Matti: “All the hard work and patience has paid off. After almost four years, we...

A trailer for Erik Matti’s Filipino, thriller On The Job has now been released online. Based on true events, the film centers around crooked Filipino politicians who routinely employ convicts as hitmen. Starring Piolo Pascual and Gerald Anderson, On the Job is among the 21 films part of the festival’s prestigious Directors Fortnight section, which will be held from May 16 to 26.

Via Twitch...

One fateful Valentine's night, virginal Majoy (Angelica Panganiban), whose time-bound ovaries are severely in need of a suitable sperm donor lest they never be used again, meets Leo (Piolo Pascual), a bigshot real estate broker whose skill in wooing women can only be matched by his aversion to serious relationships, in the restaurant where she was supposed to meet her Valentine's date. Majoy's absentee date is Ji-soon (Ryan Bang), a hopelessly romantic Korean man whose long-awaited and probably well-deserved opportunity to prove his love to Majoy was foiled when on the night of their first date, his car crashes into another car, which just so happens to be driven by the eldest brother (Smokey Manoloto) of Leo's latest scorned sexual conquest (Wendy Valdez), who,...