Is Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno's Opening at Number One in Philippine Box Office Proof of the Decline of Philippine Cinema?

I guess those butthurt ultranationalists must be hiding under their beds now!

Okay I may be biased here considering I am a Rurouni Kenshiner that I'm not so surprised at the fact it is number one in the box office in the Philippines.  So I wasn't at the premiere nor the press conference due to my schedules but I still feel happy for the cast.  The movie had an impressive PHP 7,300,000.00 opening day earnings (which is USD 166,591.00) which was triple the last time.  For one the movie houses had some Philippine-made movies which were more Failipino than Filipino. With a promising sequel, who doesn't want to watch Kyoto Inferno over all the garbage that contemporary Philippine-made media has to offer?  The premiere of "Somebody to Love" was nothing compared to the crowds that flocked to see Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto's Inferno".

So I'd like to share some reviewer's view from Rappler by Zig Marasigan (read more there).  The writer states some positive sides about the movie which I will paraphrase.  The writer views the movie has great camera work, great action, quality acting and never losing sight of its main character.  Those traits are lacking or even missing in contemporary Filipino movies (better yet called Failipino movies because they fail the Filipino people).  In the past, there are legends like the great late FPJ or "Da King".  There was quality acting like Christopher de Leon and Vilma Santos (comparable to Taiwan's tandem of Qin Han and Brigitte Lin in movie performance).  Vilma Santos showed a never half-baked performance, Christopher de Leon was always great in every role he played whether he was a protagonist or an antagonist... they both have what most Failipino artists lack in their performances and the directors back then were passionate with their work.  Madrasta (meaning stepmother) reached international audience for great script, great acting and it was a really touching film!


One can even see how LOOOOONG the lines are.  I would probably say this is already probably just as long or almost as long as the One Direction ticket line.  To be honest, I wouldn't go there immediately since I don't like huge crowds unless I'm serving them and I'm getting paid for it.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure those Failipino movie producers will NEVER get this kind of line.  I just thought what if the One Directioners were also here to line up their support?  If they did, I will still give them my thanks even if I'm not a fan of One Direction!

Besides with the Failipino industry with lackluster acting, bad camera jobs, poor special effects and plain bad writing, any enlightened Filipino would choose quality over locality.  He may be wearing a Filipino brand but never a Failipino brand.  He may be wearing Philippine-made shoes while wearing imported pants.  The same will go for movies. Why would any enlightened Filipino patronize his bad countrymen the Failipinos?  Absolutely not.  Instead, what the Philippine entertainment industry can do is try to see what Japanese cinema does.  And please, bury away the grudges... Imperial Japan is dead, Japan today is modernized and that old empire that occupied the Philippines during World War II has long BEEN DEAD!