FPJ Movies

Lately I have been seeing a lot of Fernando Poe Jr.'s movies. I'm no big fan but I might reconsider.

The past two months, FPJ and Robin Padilla movies have been showing inside public buses. I never had the chance to watch the entire films though but then what I've seen is enough to note that these movies hold great importance especially these days.

Just today, while having lunch, my brother was complaining about how unrealistic Filipino action movies are. In real life, you wouldn't expect a single person to enter enemy's territory with many armed men, he comments. True that.

In my view though, of whatever I caught on TV, these old movies are relevant because of the themes they explore. Most deal with issues on indigenous peoples' ancestral domains, building peace with our Muslim brothers, exploitation of the environment, and corrupt politicians. And then I got into thinking, how come nowadays we don't have these kind of socially relevant films and instead focus on those stupid rom-coms. Lately, too, we see a lot of movies on extramarital affairs, a reflection perhaps of what an urban Filipino family is like today.

Or maybe infidelity has always been the unspoken norm. As my other brother correctly observes when I complained about not having decent local movies to watch with all those infidelity-themed flicks, Filipinos are way too emotional and give in to feelings far too easily. @.@ [I wonder if that is based on his own experiences...]

I just hope, and I would like to shout out to the local movie industry not to waste money on tried and tested formulaic romance movies and instead, create movies on social justice. The media giants must make it their responsibility to instill awareness on the people about very complex and very real issues the Philippines and the world still face today: environmental degradation, abuse of power, human rights violation, food shortage, overconsumerism, etc.

We have seen Heneral Luna. We have spread memes on "Bayan o sarili?" But all those are just paying lip service, a mindless participation in a trending bandwagon. How many of us have voiced out our opposition to landgrabbing activities? How many of us have stopped to listen to what the IP's are saying? How many of us are doing our part, even just a small part, to build peace? How many of us are at least in the know about the latest killings in relation to landgrabbing attempts in several parts of the country?

We don't know. Because we've been dumbed down by the media. We all fall prey to the evils of the world because we don't actively pursue the truth. It's saddening, to have people live in absolute ignorance by means of cheap shallow entertainment which do not add value nor increase the quality of life of the general population. It's frustrating, to see those in power and those in position to do nothing but reap benefits for themselves, forgetting why such posts are created in the first place. It's debilitating, to know you could have done more but you can only do so much. :(