The Original and 300!

I found a video I have been looking for which I have been so wanting to share with everyone for a long time. It’s the original video of Handog Ng Pilipino Sa Mundo which multi awarded director Mike de Leon made. A brief background:

This is the definitive video that captured the mood of EDSA1 or the People Power Revolution of 1986. When this was shown on TV a few months after the revolution, people were quite touched and moved.

However, it’s stint on TV abruptly ended after Mike De Leon pulled it out because Manoling Morato of the MTRCB had decided to censor the part where the pictures of the dictator and his wife were being slapped by the people.

A lot of EDSA veterans saw the censoring as a sign that the new dispensation was ‘watering down’ its commitment to the ideals that people fought for and was already succumbing to the call of ‘reconciliation’ by the Marcos loyalists.

We may all have our disappointments regarding EDSA. Nevertheless, here is the video which to me captures the purity and the idealism of the time , at least before the politicians started to fail us. Notice that Mike De Leon linked the EDSA1 revolution to the overall struggle for our independence which began even before the American occupation.’

Maaann!!

I just saw the ultimate guy, gay, chick flick and it is none other than 300, the movie!! It’s a testosterone, blood and guts, massacre and mayhem, and yes, an orgy of dismemberment and death, with of course valor, courage, principles and uncompromising machismo practiced in its most savage glory and gore!

When I came out of the movie house, I was bouncing off the walls with my adrenaline kicking in and having this uncontrollable urge to scream ‘THIIIISSSS ISSSS SPARTAHHHH!, and kick anyone. But somehow my more benign nature took over, thank God. But when I passed by a Barrio Fiesta restaurant, I suddenly imagined this crazy cook with a butcher’s knife attacking a pig carcass in the kitchen!!!

Bwahahahahahahaha! I loved the movie. See it!!!

25 thoughts on “The Original and 300!”

  1. I will definitely see this movie and probably buy the DVD when it’s out (I buy originals, sir.).

    I understand what you’re saying, I had the same reaction when I first saw braveheart and the last installment of lord of the rings.

  2. I haven’t enjoyed a movie that much in such a loooong time. My cousins and I even saw another movie yesterday but was still chatting about 300 afterwards though we’ve seen it weeks ago.

    BTW, I do remember parts of the video…though I was barely 4 years old when EDSA1 happened.

  3. great video, sobrang nakakaantig ng damdamin. for a lot of reasons (lyrics and melody of the song, old footages of our history, seeing ninoy and jose rizal’s pictures overlapping, the feeling of hopelessness for this country, etc) i found myself misty eyed. and ang babagets pa ninyong mga singers! thanks for sharing..

  4. I think I found your blog a year ago while searching for Handog Ng Pilipino Sa Mundo. I consider it one of the most important songs of my childhood. Thanks.

  5. i dont know who wrote this

    Di kinaya ng powers ko ang kahotness ng movieness na itetch! It’s raining men! (haleluya)! like go go go mga
    anik anik at ang mga mudra mega taray ang haba ng hair production number clothing designer eklavu powerness!
    kaboom!

    It’s like go papa spartans! go delisyus fighting karne! i get so weak on the knees i can’t hardly breath go go go!
    spapartans make bugbog the evil persia! make warla the queen xerxes.

    At antaray naman ng lolaaaaaa xerxes mooooooo! nagmamaasim ang fingerlets ng hinawakan si spapartan head papa! ang entrance pang vilma with matching solid gold dancers itetch! with diamente ala maricel! wiiinnneeeeeer! ang eye brows ha! mega shoot to the stratosphere sa katarayan!

    Ang warlahan ditetch daig pa ang rineregla sa dami ng vlood! at ang nacut neck na cutie spartan…nag cryola aketch! di kinaya ng emoticons ko ang death by tamponess ng cutie spartan. huhuhu. I’m sure proud si mother ricky dahil ang ganduuuuuuuuh talaga ng movieng itetch. like super mega walang halong chorva!

    PERO LYER SILA! binilang ko ang mga papa…di umabot ng 300. 127 lang ang mga spapartans! etchos!

  6. orangebloom–Yes, nakakluha pa rin siya.

    kat o+–for a lot of people, this was a song of great defining memories.

    koala–vading sigurado!!!

    Paul, lucid, swipe–Really enjoyed it. ha ha. I’ll probably want a copy too.

    von–I guess it’s true that you can’t please everyone. It’s not really a “serious’ film so I wouldn’t sweat over it.

  7. speaking of “it’s raining men”, there’s this vid in youtube where they created a music vid using the 300 clips. kakaaliw.

    patahhh!

  8. You made me cry Jim! I loved that song. Unfortunately, IMHO, the promise died that same day the Marcoses left the country in 1986. It also paved way to greed and mediocre leadership. It created a mockery of Philippine politics and it extinguished the future of the martial law babies. The same citizens who are flooding the gates to get out of the country.

    I have never been big on blaming others for my misfortunes just like I do not blame Marcos for the graft and corruption. The Filipino people as a whole need to stop pointing fingers. We need to take the blame and find it in our hearts how to make our country great again, and maybe one day the exodus will be reversed. To start, we need to take elections seriously. It is the single most powerful civil liberty that we take for granted. We need to vote for people who have strong platform and a good vision on where we need to be and know how to get there. Businessmen, lawyers, economists and even teachers have the potential. I have a real problem with boxers and actors who never even finish college running for public office. I have a problem with known criminals and philanderers being on the ballot. If they do not know how to run their own lives, how can we expect them to run our country? If they cannot follow simple moral laws, how can we trust them to implement our constitution? How can we look up to leaders we cannot even respect? How can we respect a leader who is mocked by a gay impersonator on TV regularly? Marcos would never have tolerated such travesty; neither would the late Garcia, Macapagal nor Magsaysay.

    I remember thinking in 1986, it is unfortunate Marcos got old. He was the last of his kind. There is not one politician these days that can fill his shoes as far as commanding respect and can hold the same stature as a leader. There was a very good reason why were called the Tiger of Asia in the 70’s.

    But what do I know? It is just one opinion written on air. I believe the Tiger is only sleeping. I hope one day someone will rise in our midst and make us great again. We do not lack the potential. We lack focus and discipline.

  9. I participated in the ’86 revolution, but I still can’t bear seeing Marcos’ former men so happy. It was only years later that I discovered that they had been planning to remove Marcos and form a military government.

    I do not support Marcos, though: he did well initially but set back the economy by over 20 years. Except for the 1950s, RP did not become a “tiger economy”.

    About 300, I felt that it was not a movie but a video game. I think others see the same given their reactions to it and the way people react to exciting video games. Who knows? Maybe the merchandising from the movie will make even more money than the movie, and that soon they will sell video games and give the movie (with computer-generated characters) as an extra feature.

    Finally, perhaps there’s a connection between the two. That is, 300 and other U.S. creations becoming popular in the country while Philippine music, film, and even print media experiencing difficulty.

  10. the edsa video clip never cease to give me goosebumps and got teary eyed of course.

    its nice to reminisce “that feeling” again … katotohanan, kalayaan, katarungan..

    “ating kalayaan kay tagal na nating mithi… di na papayagang mabawing muli”

    kay sarap pala maging FILIPINO!

  11. I strongly agree with you Anne. I also do not blame Marcos for the failure of his government especially during his last term when he was pressured by Uncle Sam to hold that infamous snap election. Marcos was really the last of his kind and again I concur with your view that there is not one politician these days that can fill his shoes as far as his commanding respect and stature as a leader is concerned. Kaya tigilan na natin ang pagyurak sa kanyang pagkatao..let’s move on para makabangon na tayo sa putikang kinasasadlakan natin na dulot ng mga pulitikong mapagsamantala’t mapagkunwari. Let’s make our country great again.

  12. True or false:

    1) Marcos did not steal

    2) Marcos did not introduce wanton and massive violations of human rights in our history as a free nation

    3) Marcos was NOT a dictator.

    4) Marcos did not jail his legitimate opponents.

    5) Marcos did not declare Martial Law based on the communist threat of anarchy with the presence of only 100 strong NPA’s in the Philippines at that time. His declaration increased their numbers to tens of thousands.

    6) Marcos did not cheat in the elections.

    7) Imelda did not amass great fortunes illegally

    8) The military did not become powerful under Marcos and did not violate human rights and cause people to disappear, be tortured and be murdered

    9) Marcos stopped the military from doing any of the above..

    10) The Marcos economic agenda did not leave us with foreign debt of 30 Billion based on dubious projects like the Bataan Nuclear plant which we are paying for to this day, kurakot at a scale never seen before, and cause the devaluation of the peso from 4 to 1 in 1965 to more than 30 to 1 by the time he had gone.

    There is no doubt he was charismatic and had leadership. I will grant him that. But his gifts were used for personal ambition and greed since he did not have the moral fiber to liberate his country.

    He was an evil genius, and sadly has become the model of many of our politicians to this day.

    He started the whole country on the road to perdition with deception after deception which the succeeding administrations learned from him.

    Like Mugabe, Park Chung Hee, Papa doc, Idi Amin, every two bit dictator will always have his loyalists inspite of everything.

    EDSA was not a mistake. It threw out the Marcoses who wanted to rule forever. The people spoke and it was clear. They wanted freedom and a functional society that would propel us to progress.

    The mistake was, the people who ruled over us after EDSA did not take the lessons of EDSA seriously.

    End of story.

  13. jim!!!

    chiqui here. email me when you get this, k?

    hoping to see your show here in toronto.

    yay!

  14. i love that song! and the video as well..thanks for posting!
    im gonna look for that in youtube and download it right away. i have a collection of different music videos and will definitely add it.
    take care!

  15. Egay, ho hum.. sige. Manakot ka pa.

    Anonymous, By the way, McDonalds and KFC were not yet in the Philippines during EDSA. And the americans were late-comers who believed they could still keep Marcos till the last minute. Onlty the Marcoses spin the story that EDSA was a US production.

    I believe some things in our history were actually done by us.

    I’m afraid this will have to be the last word. Any other comments that are political will be erased from here on. This will NOT be a political forum. This is a blog, my blog, about things I want to discuss.. If you are not pleased by what you read, then don’t visit anymore.

    If you wanna talk politics, go somewhere else. And I will once again impose my rules about deleting anonymous comments.

    End of discussion.

  16. We can all agree to disagree. Jim is right this is his blog. It is a privilege to hear what he has to say not the other way around. I apologize if my opinion caused a ruckus. Not like it matters to anyone in the real world. After all it is just an opinion. 🙂 See you May 6!

  17. No doubt we are a politically divided nation and it will take at least 3 or 4 generations for a genuine reconciliation to work. and by the way, McDonalds and KFC were already in the Phils before EDSA..and I can still remember the 1st Mcdonalds in Makati near Quad.

  18. Jim,
    It is very easy to create a ruckus once you start to talk about politics, religion, etc. But I think instead of for everyone bicker about the matter, we should all think the roots and evil of corruption. I know Jim that you didn’t want your blog to be a forum but sometimes there’s a thin line between that and having a dialogue with your readers.

    To all–just my two cents that corruption happens EVERYWHERE even here in America. It’s just a matter of degree or extremeties. And there are many ingredients of corruption, three of them which I think is on the top of the list are culture, poverty, and illiteracy. Think of it, you may have also participated or guilty of corruption even in small gestures like paying off somebody to get your driver’s license, your passport, or just be ahead of a line, bribing your teacher to get good grades, paying off a traffic cop, etc. Believe me, I am guilty myself. So I think to reverse all of this, we have to start from scratch. Give our children a BETTER EDUCATION, parents (PARENTING) should lead as GOOD EXAMPLES–no bribing of policemen, no “lagays” everywhere,
    no cheating and short cuts, no greediness, etc, while the government at the same time should create more jobs, and distribute lands and housing. It’s also true that we need a CHARISMATIC leader that can FUSE this idea. Again, before anyone else points his finger, where you in some way part of this?

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