‘Buybust’ makes Philippine debut in Cebu
After Erik Matti’s highly anticipated “BuyBust” made international rounds – with screenings at the New York Asian Film Festival and similar fests in South Korea and Canada, as well as a trailer release at the San Diego Comic Con – the actioner finally premiered in the Philippines in Cebu Sunday night at Cinema 3 of Robinson’s Galleria.
Starring Anne Curtis, Victor Neri and mixed martial artist Brandon Vera, “BuyBust” is about an anti-narcotics elite squad embarking on a buy-bust operation. The team enters the slums of a Tondo barangay, marked by its winding paths, teetering stilts, shady inhabitants and absolute lawlessness. The agents who have come to hunt become the hunted as they find themselves in an operation that quickly swirls into a nightmare. Finding their way out of a maze that doesn’t want them out, the trapped agents desperately fight to escape this suicide mission.
This is a film of firsts. With its P80 million budget, “BuyBust” is Matti’s first full-on action film and his most ambitious project yet. This is Anne’s first action role as well, while this is Brandon’s first acting stint.
In a press conference Sunday afternoon at Parklane Cebu International Hotel, Anne, Brandon and Arjo talked about their experience in making the film.
“The training was very gruesome,” Anne begins. “I’ve never had to run at least five kilometers with 20 pounds of sand in my backpack, holding a gun and singing with them [scouts]. They do this every morning. That’s how they train. So it was really inspiring, it set the mood of the film for me.”
The 33-year-old actress and “It’s Showtime” host, mostly known for doing love stories and rom-coms, had to learn Filipino combat style Pekiti-Tirsia Kali. She also trained in knife fighting in close quarters and basic weapon handling at the Scout Ranger Training School.
“We were filming this for two years. I had my first hit in the face by a stuntman. I had never been hit or punched before. I knew he didn’t mean it. I didn’t want to cry because everyone on set was a guy. Parang kinokontrol ko. But after two years, even if you fall, you get bruises, you get used to it. End of the shoot, they say I’m such a boy already. Painful, but fun,” Anne recalls.
Brandon, a professional MMA fighter who started training at six years old, is already used to fighting. Naturally, he was more concerned with his acting.
“Kinakabahan ako talaga. I had to do workshops with different coaches, a lot of Tagalog classes, practice again and again. I didn’t want to show up on set being so far behind that I’m holding the team back, whether in action or being on time or being prepared to do my part. On set, I was asking questions constantly,” Brandon shares.
Anne and Brandon, fresh from the New York Asian Film Festival where “BuyBust” had its international premiere, shared how they got emotional while representing the movie abroad. The actress hopes to get the same reception from the Filipino press and audience.
“Can I also add that I wasn’t the only one crying?” Anne, who explained that two years’ worth of hard work caused her and Brandon to cry at the New York press conference.
Brandon says, “My normal job is very different from being an actor. To watch two years of your life being chopped, edited and you finally get to see everything—it was super emotional. Akala ko kaya ko. And I looked over and saw Anne crying, it started coming inside and then Miss Anne, please stop crying but wala eh, she didn’t stop tapos tumulo na ang luha.”
“Five fights,” he adds. “I had to put off defending my title five times so I could finish this film. It’s huge for me. Never in my life have I turned down a fight.”
Anne says “BuyBust” would have to be the highlight of her more than twodecade career. She reveals that after her 2016 film, “Bakit Lahat ng Gwapo May Boyfriend?,” projects offered to her were material she didn’t connect with. In came “BuyBust.”
“I’ve never shot a film for two years. This is the first time I got into the New York Asian Film Festival, and I went to South Korea, and I love South Korea,” she says.
Her favorite scene in “BuyBust”? A continuous take that took six days to rehearse and three days with a total of 57 takes to film.
“We all didn’t expect to be doing this for two years. I knew it would be heavy on the action and being someone who does a lot of physical activity, I was all, ‘Kaya ko ito.’ But when you do it for two years, hindi biro,” offers Anne.
“There was not one moment that I wanted to give up. Maybe one moment that I doubted that I could do the scenes. On day one, nasuka ako sa hirap ng eksena. It was going up, climbing up a roof, running, doing a fight, jump down, fight, come up again, fight, and then being shot. When you’re halfway and one mistake happens, you shoot again from the top. But you become so determined to do it.”
The cast also talked about working with Matti. “He’s a happy, smiling, very approachable person,” Arjo says of their director. “In terms of work, he’s very professional. I think brilliant is an understatement. He knows what he wants. He would tell you want he wants, what he wants to see. It’s very specific. It’s not a general idea that he gives, but of course with the freedom of the actor to express their feelings towards the characters.”
Brandon described Matti as “literally your favorite Tito that you would want at your house all the time.”
“On a work level, I would say I look at him as a coach, one of the most technically gifted, fundamentally sound, and is able to express his ideas so fluidly that everyone on set can understand.”
For Anne, working with Matti for “BuyBust” was like “coming full circle.” Her first movie, 1997’s “Magic Kingdom,” had Matti as assistant director. It was Matti who also gave Anne her first acting workshop. She says the “makwento” and “jolly” director is a totally different person at work, and that his brilliance allows him to translate what he sees in his mind onto the screen.
Viewers would surely tag “BuyBust” as a statement on the current administration’s war on drugs. But Anne clarifies that “BuyBust” was already on the drawing board before President Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-drug campaign was implemented.
“Nagkataon lang talaga na it actually happened. I think that’s when Direk tweaked the script a little bit para maging mas relevant,” Anne says.
“There are good cops, there are bad cops. Just like any action film. It’s pretty neutral in terms of the different characters. And it’s not based on any Twitter or Facebok rant,” she says.
As for Brandon, he thinks that “BuyBust,” in cinemas nationwide on August 1, is multi-dimensional.
“Stories always have three sides. In this movie, we give you all three: the left, the right, and then you have the truth. When you watch it, ikaw na bahala, kayo na mag decide. There’s no one or two ways,” he says.
Produced by Reality Entertainment and Viva Films, “BuyBust” also features Nonie Buencamino, Alex Calleja, Joross Gamboa, Mara Lopez and AJ Muhlach.