The Debut

Thank goodness for indie films! Are you are sick and tired of stupid formulaic, cookie-cutter hollywood movies? Then this is a film you want to watch. If you're Fil-Am or have friends who are, you'll going to enjoy this immensely. It captures so many little facets of the Fil-Am culture clash/identity crisis that so many of us go through. I've read & heard about the great amount of difficulty it took to make this film (my daughter attended a Union City, CA screening where the director was present) and I'm not at all surprised that Hollywood displayed no interest in producing or distributing a film about `minorities'-not enough white faces in the film to attract a mainstream audience, right?

Thank you, Gene Cajayon, for making this film, and I wish you the best in your career as a director. Robert Rodriguez and Spike Lee started out doing small films, so I really hope this catches the eye of the industry. Maybe a screening at the Sundance? Perhaps the best thing this film will do is kindle interest in young Fil-Ams about their heritage, culture and history.

Do did you know that:

• before the Vietnam War, there was the Philippine `insurrection' that claimed 100,000 Filipino lives

• the .45 was developed specifically to kill the Filipino `insurgent'

• the slang term `boonies' or `boondocks' used to describe a place located way out in the countryside originates from the Tagalog word `bundok', meaning `mountain'

Filipinos are bit more interwoven in the American social fabric than we realize, and with this film, we're a little bit less invisible.

The Good: This is the first step in hopefully many of Filipino-American movies. It showed the culture in a positive light, with the highs and lows of being a Filipino teen growing up in the states and trying to mesh the two cultures together. We get to see the son who is choosing to break tradition of doing exactly what is expected of a son and instead trying to find his own independent path.

The pacing of this movie was also very solid if not a little predictable. The jokes where also a lot of fun, but mostly if you are Filipino, otherwise they may need a little bit of explanation.

The Bad: I did see things as being a bit glossed over in this movie. I don't think I know of any Filipino family where going against the grain gets accepted as easily as this movie did. Every character except Ben Mercado is a very one-dimensional character. There is the (generic) cute pinay, who's friendly and timid, the (generic) hood-rat pinoy and his two lackeys, and the (generic) FOB, who's accent is way over done, I thought he was from Manila, but he sounded like more like an un-educated peasant. I also thought the ball game between Ben and his sister was getting a little too friendly for a sibling game. This movie is also limiting itself to a very hardcore Filipino crowd, rather than maybe trying to aim it towards a broader audience trying to make others understand the `whys' of the Filipino culture. This movie also adapted a little heavily from your standard American Teenie-Bopper flicks, primarily `Somekind of Wonderful' where you have Eric Stoltz deciding to go to art school against his father's wishes.

The Ugly: I understand that this is a small step in showing the culture, but I think a lot of things got denied in this movie, how many younger Filipino parties have we all gone too and ONLY three thugs showed up, they also made it seem like every teen got along with one another and ignored the cliques that are so common during any party. Why did the Auntie with the white husband also have to have the screwed up kid? Why was Ben, the only one with white friends also the only one who chose to go a different path then what his parents wanted? He's also the only one, it seems like, who didn't get the nice ride from the family, instead we see him getting rides from his friends (and if you say he wasn't the only one, take another look at the parking lot scene and give me a ratio count of cars to teens). Why, when the racer bragged about his Integra, did he just get the speech about how everyone is trying to keep down the pinoy, rather than, something more along the lines of just saying he's spoiled and should maybe try and earn his own?

And the Close: Even though my review may not seem like it, I did enjoy the movie, I just have high demands on any movie showing any culture, I believe movies like this should address issues rather than breeze past them just because they are complicated situations. I don't believe a movie should get high praises just because it shows `Pinoy Pride' any movie including this movie, needs depth too. 6/10

question? comments? complaints? villagemember@lycos.com

I went to see the Filipino-American "The Debut" because I make a point of seeing any ethnic coming-of-age movie, as I'm curious to see how they compare to the Jewish experience in movies, including last year's Asian Indian-American films "ABCD," and "American Chai," the Greek-American "Astoria," and one of my all time faves from a few years ago the Korean-Canadian "Double Happiness."

Like all movies in this genre (usually for semi-autobiographical reasons), the conflicted lead wants to be an artist rather than what his parents plan for him.

A particularly original angle is that the main character is younger than usual, a high school student way immersed in MTV culture, from comic books, heavy metal and hip hop language, and, of course, embarrassed by his family's cooking and other traditions. The titular event is his sister's coming-out party, which becomes an evening of ethnic discovery for him.

Unlike the older generation of immigrant vs young artist movies like "The Jazz Singer," the ethnic culture here is not all retrograde but is lovingly shown in class and generational diversity and warmth, while showing the conflicts the parents face as well. The political debate among the teens as to whether the lead is a "coconut" is a bit forced but interesting.

The variety of dance scenes leave the realism a bit as they are as choreographed as in the cheerleader satire "Bring It On" but they are fun. The naturalness of the actors in supporting roles makes up for some of the amateurishness in their performances, and the leads are charming.

I asked director Gene Cajayon, who was at my showing, how could it be that such a gathering would attract kids from across class lines. He explained that such Filipino family events bring together a large slice of the community as friends of the family, as here the dad works in the post office and the uncle is a doctor.

The closing credits are open-hearted-- amusingly and passionately thanking the myriad people with the explanations of what they did to help.

Gene Cajayon was a young Filipino-American college student when he came up with the idea for a Filipino-American film that would eventually become "The Debut." Raised in Orange County, California, and attending film school at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Gene wanted to produce a film that allowed Filipino-Americans, both young and old, to see themselves portrayed on the silver screen. Enlisting the help of film student John Manal Castro, the two began work on the screenplay.

The journey to bring The Debut to the screen took eight long years. Gene relied on the support of grants and donations from the National Asian American Telecommunications Association and others. His producer, Lisa Onodera (of "Picture Bride" fame), helped with fundraising and making the film look more expensive than what it actually cost to make.

When all the funding was in place, Gene began assembling his cast and crew. He recruited veteran actors from the Philippines (e.g. Tirso Cruz III and Eddie Garcia) to play the parts of the parents and grandparents in the film. Gene cast young local Filipino-American actors to play the Filipino teenagers. The role of "Ben Mercado", a high school senior who struggles with his Filipino identity and family, is played by Dante Basco.

The Debut centers around Ben, a creative Filipino-American, high school boy who decides that he wants to go to art school to study animation. This collides with Ben's father's expectation that Ben go to medical school to become a doctor. The father, Roland Mercado, himself a postal worker, cannot understand his son's preoccupation with the arts and disinterest in Filipino culture.

On the night of Ben's sister's "debut" (or her 18th birthday party celebration), Ben's eyes open up as he learns from the other Filipino teens about what it means to be Filipino-American. He learns to his surprise as well, that his father used to play in a band back in the Philippines. Lastly, Ben meets a young Filipino girl that catches his eye and things start to heat up.

The Debut may indeed be the first Filipino-American movie ever made. Unfortunately, the film has not been picked up by a film distributor as of yet, so the producers have been showcasing the film around the country. It was screened in late October of 2000 at the Seattle Asian American Film Festival where it played to a large, enthusiastic crowd. It will also be screened in Hawaii in November 2000. One way or the other, Gene Cajayon will make sure that The Debut get seen around the country, either through a Hollywood distributor or through self-distribution. This is an exceptional film that proudly tells what's it like to be Filipino-American, and hopefully will pave the way for Filipino stories to make their way to the big screen.

Positives - My brother is in this movie. He's the Filipino guy with the white shirt and cream vest, listening intently to the conspiracy theory of Ben's cousin out with the tricked out cars. Side note: He also owns the Black CRX with the Red "Rush Factor" sticker on the windshield. The other nice things is that they did an excellent job of capturing the "you know you're Filipino when . . ." attributes. The film is quite funny and quite accurate.

Negative - While I let this slide because its the first fil-am movie, I'd like to see less ethno-centric films. Films where nationality isn't the focal point. I have the same complaint about most African-american films. Like say they made "The Fast And the Furious" but all the main characters are Filipino. The story itself could happen to anyone, it just so happened to happen to a Filipino. The other part is that it is too general, but again, since its the first, I suppose it was necessary.

Overall - an 8. For all its flaws, they were necessary for this film because one of the main objectives was to show what the filipino culture was, both the good, the bad and the typical. And my brother was in it. hah