Canary Brothers of Tondo

Like celebrated American outlaws Al Capone and John Dillinger, iconic gangster Asiong Salonga and infamous prisoner Marcial "Baby" Ama are immortalized in several local films, further cementing the legend of these notorious historical figures in the collective psyche of Filipinos. People cannot get enough of their shadowy exploits on the silver screen, hence a spin off is made, featuring the successors of Asiong as the new tough guys of the mythical Tondo.

We've all seen the much hyped movie by Tikoy Aguiluz which he later disowned after big egomaniac George Estregan Jr., helped alter and modify the film through reshoots and other tweaking jobs. Thankfully, Canary Brothers is not that type of film but a credible and true to spirit dramatization of the lives of classic Filipino mafiosos. There's no trendy rap song here to pander to the jejemon idiots in the audience, no embarrassing fight scene between tired middle aged men, one of whom is pitifully trying to pass for a young man in his early to mid 20s. This is a non bs portrayal of the old Tondo and an admirable effort by the visionary imagination of not very well known director Leonardo "Ding" Pascual.

For those familiar with Tondo gangster lore, brothers Roming, Boy and Jaime emerge as the new contenders for the power vacuum left by the murdered Salonga. But their newfound notoriety is dealt a challenge by Salonga's old rival Totoy Golem for the control of Gagalangin, Bangkusay, Isla Puting Bato, Pritil and other coveted territories. Out of all the movies about the hard men of Tondo and nearby towns, Pascual's film seems to be the closest or "true to life"; let's first examine the technical aspects of the movie. The cinematography of the film is superb with a perfect blending of colors and textures while the music by Dionesio Buencamino perfectly captures the vibe of each sequence. His music clones the style of Jimmy Fabregas and upon hearing the music score, one could mistake it as written by Fabregas. The script, written by the director himself is remarkable for its crisp dialogue and delicate balancing of action and dramatic elements. Of course, the most obvious problem to deal with when it comes to these period pieces is how to depict the scenes in a more historically accurate manner. A generic and boring movie like the Dante Varona flick, Grease Gun Brothers may feel like it's on track with the suspenders, outdated hats and tommy guns but it is hard to take seriously when it comes to the depiction of the era's buildings, vehicles and civilian clothing. Without the benefit of a generous production budget, the usual trick employed by a filmmaker to show audiences the movie is set in the early to mid 1950s, is by playing an old song such as in Willy Milan's Ulo Ng Gang-Ho where Matt Monroe's Love Is A Many Splendored Thing plays during a bed scene. This method is commonly abused by directors of lesser skill but under the guidance of Pascual's adept supervision, the use of golden oldies serve as an apt counterpoint to the violence depicted on celluloid, particularly in the interior scene in the jukebox bar (which is a big highlight in the film). If anything, the moral of the film's story is that mid 1950s Filipino gangsters dig Elvis Presley.

By far, the most fully realized character in the film is Ricky Davao's Jaime. The script devotes the movie's first and second acts to chronicle his rise from a street brawler to a common hoodlum and finally, to become a ruthless hitman working for a provincial politician; Rey PJ Abellana's Boy on the other hand is the less violence prone sibling who is more into gambling while Jestoni Alarcon's Roming (pronounced "raw" not "row") is the mysterious one because he is the most underdeveloped of the three main characters and unfortunately is the least interesting. There isn't much to know about Roming's motivations to better empathize with his character other than that he is also a family man (not shown in the film but merely implied through expository dialogue) and that he is trying to avenge his brother's death against his mother's wishes.

While the movie does succeed in telling its narrative within an hour of the film's running time, it falls short in the third act, with the use of a formulaic shootout inside an abandoned factory to serve as its climactic set piece. This sequence could've worked if they went all out with the blood effects to at least compensate for the scene's predictability and lack of tension or suspense. In addition, the lachrymal ending of the film does not actually achieve the dramatic effect desired by the filmmakers. Roming is the wrong choice for this finale because as we have said earlier, his character is not fully fleshed out for the audience to properly relate to him and his issues. But despite these minor nitpicks, the movie still manages to be an above average work worthy of the attention of action drama devotees.

To conclude, Pascual's film stands out as among the few movies about Tondo's fabled gangsters that got its subject right (relatively), so to speak. It is a close second to the late Eddie Rodriguez's monumental film Grease Gun Gang.