The Phlippine Movies and Eskrima

If the screenplay is bad, then likely we will have a bad movie. So far, there is no good movie on eskrima or arnis, that is comparable to what the Hong Kong movie industry is producing with their kung fu theme.

The first problem are the writers, most of them are not eskrimadores themselves. They prefer to write corny stories of two young parents fighting over their child's custody and the like.

The next problem are the movie directors, they simply don't understand what a martial art scene should be, so they allow the actor with sticks to somersault, to do aerial kicks . . . things one cannot expect from any eskrimador. So for these ignorant movie directors, eskrima is no different from other martial arts. Furthermore, they don't appreciate their talent's physical capability.

The next problem are the actors. Most of them are good only on flirting scenes. Most (there are few exceptions though) don't have arnis or eskrima backgrounds. That is why, even they are comparatively better looking than those bald and slit-eyed monks, they simply cannot compete in popularity. They can act, okay, but they cannot move.

There were full of talents in the old movie "Enter Garote," martial experts like Johnny Chiuten, Anciong Bacon, Momoy Cañete, Cacoy Cañete were there. But were they given enough exposures? What made the producer and director decide to showcase eskrima or arnis in this comical manner in the first place? Obviously they were ignorants. That was a rare opportunity to show the world what eskrima is like but they undermined it.

If these actors know eskrima or arnis, they are also paired with supporting actors with no working knowledge of martial arts. Regardless how good the leading actor maybe, if not paired with good supporting actors . . . nothing will happen. So instead showcasing a good eskrima stuff, they are forced to include gunfighting.

The Philippine movie industry can never produce somebody like half-baked Bruce Lee copycat, not even like Chen Xing or Meng Fei.

The next problem is the budget of course, it seems that the local movie producers could not even afford wires to prop their actors to tha air.

Then perhaps because arnis or eskrima is not really good for the cameras. I beg to disagree. Just look at the Youtube and you can see good arnis in there. The movie "The Hunted" showcasing the FMA method of knifefighting (familiar to many eskrima or arnis styles), was very good.

But why can't the Filipino movie industry produce the same? Why can't the local movie industry help promote our very own FMA of eskrima or arnis?