Chris Martinez: The Man Behind the Golden Septic Tank
Posted by Oggs Cruz on Thursday, August 11, 2011 in Astig, Features, Trailers
Chris Martinez is a playwright, screenwriter, director and all-around nice guy. He is also a miracle worker, finding box office and critical treasure in unlikely places. He discovered a leading lady in perennial sidekick Eugene Domingo, and with her help, has recently dug gold in a septic tank. Trace Chris Martinez’s film career after the jump.
If it’s from Seiko, it must be good. The tagline of the movie studio that has made for itself a reputation for churning out half-baked soft pornography with mouth-watering titles like Talong, Kangkong, and Itlog has turned into a joke. Then Bridal Shower came along. The film, written by newcomer Chris Martinez with mentor Armando Lao and directed by Jeffrey Jeturian, follows the exploits of three ad executives as they search for love in the big city. The film is ridiculously funny, but the humor, thankfully, is not grounded on slapstick or gimmick. Bridal Shower is funny because it exaggerates the realities of love and life in a metropolis that is getting more and more materialistic.
Martinez’s second film is Bikini Open, also directed by Jeffrey Jeturian and also from Seiko Films. A mock-umentary that goes right in the heart of the then-popular bikini contests, the film mocks not only the men and women who parade their bodies, their life stories, and their motherhood statements for the entertainment of the sex-starved but also mass media who is quick to point fingers to the obvious wrongs of society without acknowledging its own viciousness.
Martinez has never been contented with just working within the confines of the genre he writes for. His screenplays are rife with observations and truths about society. While these observations may be glossed over by the common viewer, they remain as reminders of intelligence in a commonly unintelligent mainstream. His comedies are not merely comedies. His melodramas are not merely melodramas. His horrors are not merely horrors.
For example, Sukob, that Chito Rono-directed horror film that is more famous for being Kris Aquino’s follow-up to the successful Feng Shui than its merits, is undoubtedly scary but is also a very potent statement on infidelity, and the horrors it causes to its victims.
Then there is Caregiver, also directed by Rono and also more famous for being Sharon Cuneta’s comeback film after the critically-acclaimed Crying Ladies, that features one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen in a mainstream feature, where Cuneta’s character, on the eve of her flight to London to work as caretakers of foreigners, quietly watches her sister and niece give her mother a bath.
Martinez makes his directorial debut in 100, about a woman dying of cancer who makes a list of one hundred things to do before she dies, for Cinemalaya. While the film did not receive the top prize in that year’s edition of Cinemalaya, the film still managed to grab a few awards, including Best Director for Martinez, and invitations from foreign film festivals, from which his experiences would lead to the inspiration for the screenplay to Babae sa Septic Tank.
Kimmy Dora, directed by Joyce Bernal, is a gamble because the film was written for two equally important roles for Eugene Domingo, who was then more of a supporting actress than a lead. It was an undeniable success, cementing the popularity of both Domingo and Martinez’s brand of comedy, which seems to appeal to viewers from all classes.
Here Comes the Bride, also featuring Domingo playing around with other performers like Angelica Panganiban, John Lapuz, Tuesday Vargas, and Jaime Fabregas in a story that involves eclipses, car crashes, and soul swaps, is a testament to the consistent quality of Martinez’s writing and directing skills.
Kimmy Dora and Here Comes the Bride made millions, making Martinez hot property for producers. Regal Films, wanting a portion of the succulent Martinez pie, had him write and direct the third portion of its 2011 Valentine offering which is lazily titled My Valentine Girls. The film’s a painful disaster, saved only by Martinez’s part, an enjoyable post-apocalyptic, zombie-filled and very Filipino take on cult classic The Last Man on Earth, only this time it’s a last woman, played by Domingo, who becomes the only possible love interest of matinee idol Richard Gutierrez.
From Bridal Shower to Here Comes the Bride, Martinez’s cinema displays a close affinity to Joey Gosiengfiao’s. It is therefore not surprising that for the remake of Temptation Island, the quintessential Gosiengfiao film, Martinez was tapped as writer and director. It is a production that is doomed to be compared to the original. However, Martinez wisely fashions his remake as a cinematic offering to Gosiengfiao’s artistry and contribution to Filipino pop culture than an empty update, making his Temptation Island a belated tribute to the important director.
Babae sa Septic Tank, the latest Cinemalaya winner that tackles the proliferation of poverty-themed films in local independent cinema, has Martinez reunite with Domingo and 100-producer Marlon Rivera, who directs. Martinez, notwithstanding the various critiques his films has received from various circles, represents the creative artist that would hopefully blur labels, hopefully render obsolete the terms “independent” and “mainstream,” as they are currently being used. If only for that, we should pay attention to the future of his very productive career.
If it’s from Chris Martinez, it must be good. Now that sounds better, right?
Editor’s Note: Oggs Cruz moonlights as a film critic when he isn’t upholding the Philippine constitution as a full time attorney at law. However, we sincerely believe that it’s really the other way around; most especially after you get schooled by his film blog, Lessons from the School of Inattention.
