Not going to the Philippines. I love movies from the series "How scary to live in / on [put the name of the country]"". “Civilized” humanity continues to destroy itself even in the twenty-first century, and the end and edge of ethno-confessional and ethno-political conflicts, coups d’etats, civil wars are not in sight. The hysterical screams about how bad and disgusting it is to live in Russia are always surprising, while many countries have been drowning in blood for decades from internal internecine strife. It was like a drowned man in the Philippines. A poor country in Southeast Asia has endured much. After the harsh Japanese occupation in World War II, one would live and enjoy independence, but no – the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos, the constant attempts at a military coup, the problems with Islamist insurgents and communist insurgents, which have been going on since 69, since the dense Philippine jungle allows you to successfully hide and rogue for years.
Prolific Filipino filmmakers set up films about the rebels very, very decently, the problem is that almost all the films are made for the domestic market - in Tagalog and abroad were not shown with rare exceptions. In our case, we are talking about a joint project of Hong Kong and the Philippines – “Dangerous Vacations”, directed by Eric Tsang, known to many as the funny plump short from films with Sammo Hung. He also played the main role of a guide to a group of Chinese tourists captured by the rebels. Screenwriter Nam Yin (brother of the famous director Ringo Lam) always pleased the audience with tough, uncompromising and dark stories. Full Contact, School in Fire, Prison Fire – these names are well known to connoisseurs of Hong Kong cinema. And this time the talented author pleased with cheerful frostbite and cynicism.
The film begins almost as an American comedy about travel. A group of Hong Kong tourists in the Philippines have fun on a bus tour. The company picked up a motley - a kind grandfather and grandmother with a granddaughter; two large twins from the mainland, who do not speak Cantonese, because of which no one understands them except a guide; a couple of policemen; several triads; several girls of varying degrees of stupidity and glamour, and so on. The guide-glavger clumsily glues himself to the guide-girl, tourists buy from Filipino soldiers patrolling the streets, military uniforms - they happily strip to their underpants (and what, for state property, the grandmothers pay!), the bandit asserts himself, poking everyone in the face with his gold watch, everyone jokes, everyone has fun, everyone rests. The fact that the Filipino Communists are “pranking” somewhere nearby is of little concern to anyone. It turned out to be in vain. Staying in a nightclub, the tourists witnessed a shootout of rebels, who made purchases of weapons in the same club and suddenly came to the police. As reinforcements arrive, the guerrillas take tourists hostage and push them onto a bus to their camp in the jungle. They want to exchange them for one of their own captured by the government.
This is where the most interesting part of the film begins. The leader of the rebels in round glasses, begins simply to "burn with napalm" almost immediately - despite the Catholic faith and the appearance of a biology teacher in the lower classes, the uncle is extremely cruel and severe. The first of the tourists who dared to enter into negotiations, he “rewards for courage” with a bullet in the forehead. And then, throughout the film, the hostages continue to be cold-bloodedly spent on occasion and not so much. And unlike Hollywood films of this kind, where you always know who will stay alive for the final credits, Hong Kong cinema is full of surprises, because the formula “everyone can die” appeared long before the adaptation of the beloved work of the cheerful grandfather George R. R. Martin. Scenes of murders, rapes and beatings in the film are frightening not by sophistication and bloodliness (who in our time will be surprised by the violence on the screen?), but by some mundaneness, everyday life, as well as a very emotional reaction of the characters to what is happening - the actors tried, although some typically Asian replays still take place. Excellent scene with the game of “Russian roulette”, reminiscent of the movie “Bullet in the head” and just as impressive in its intensity. Who would say that the movie doesn’t happen in reality? That's what scares me.
The film's problems begin when the hostages decide to fight for their lives and, having escaped from security, get to the arsenal of the rebels. By the way, the Philippine guerrilla is armed just fine, any private military company would envy — what only they do not have in the warehouse, I even began to look — is there a nuclear warhead in the bins? Having burst to the “barrels”, the lively Chinese women show the rebels such rambo-first blood that it remains only perplexed to shrug their shoulders, because some hours ago, tourists looked rounded with horror at the muzzles of assault rifles aimed at them, except that their mother was not called, and now they are already packing those who easily crumbled the police into the vinaigrette and clearly had repeated clashes with the regular army. If I were the Filipinos, I'd be offended - why do they have the army and the police - they suck? Or are the Chinese so cool? Well, there is a policeman and a triadman in the team of tourists who clearly dealt with weapons, but a plump short guide handling the barrels of a kind of grated special forces officer is strong, of course. If the Chinese guide is so tough, how tough is the Chinese army? The last quarter of the movie is almost non-stop action, which is a good thing in itself, but contrasts strongly with the realistic and tough beginning and middle. This is actually the main drawback of the film. People who like to think “this doesn’t happen” when watching shootings in movies won’t like the movie. The rest, in particular, devoted Asian connoisseurs like me, as well as tired of smearing pink snot on the screen and endless happy endings - mast heavy. I would also like to note the excellent song "Anak", which sounds twice in the film - performed by Alan Tam and actually in the Philippine original of Freddie Aguilar - in the credits. This is a lyrical song that fits perfectly.
And yes, I'm not going to the Philippines.