Direk Matti not scared even if ‘OTJ2’ would ruffle feathers

Scenes from “On the Job: The Missing 8,” starring (from left photo): Andrea Brillantes; John Arcilla and Christopher de Leon; and Dennis Trillo

The action film “On the Job: The Missing 8,” which took four long years to finish, “tries to tell a story of a cross-section of Filipinos regarding their stance on making a better government,” according to its director Erik Matti.

“We know that there are people who, especially with the prevalence of fake news, would go out of their way to make their voices heard. There are also those who are so aware of all the irregularities happening that they no longer want to make a stand. There are also those who are quietly and bravely fighting for what’s right. We’re representing all of them in this film,” Matti told Inquirer Entertainment in a recent one-on-one interview.

OTJ2, which Matti cowrote with Mitchiko Yamamoto, is the country’s representative to the 2021 Venice Film Festival in Italy in September. Only recently, it also inked a distribution deal with the American pay-TV network HBO.

It is a sequel to “On the Job,” which was released in 2013, and stars Piolo Pascual, Gerald Anderson, Joel Torre and Joey Marquez. OTJ2 starts with the ending scene in Part 1 that features the character of Rayver Cruz.

“What we’re really proud with the first OTJ was that we tried to sort of analyze and make a story that represents what we are as a country, good or bad. However, it didn’t cover all. The second one really hits the nail, not just because the story is thick but because it tackles a lot of things from different social classes, demographics and ages,” he pointed out.

Asked whether he was prepared for various audience reactions since the story is expected to ruffle feathers once it is finally shown, the director said: “At the end of it, even though we based this on a lot of true events, it really is a just a fictional film. This is why I’m not so scared that it would offend people. You know how Filipinos are, they will only get mad if you expose their actual identities.”

Moral struggle

OTJ2 tells the moral struggle of Sisoy Salas (John Arcilla), a journalist who is on the take. He comes to work one day to discover that his colleagues have all disappeared. This then forces him to be the investigative journalist he is expected to be, and tries to find out who is behind the disappearance.

In a parallel story, Dennis Trillo portrays Roman Rubio, a man whose goal is to get out of prison. “He only wants to go home. Whatever he does in the course of the film is never born out of his love for country or the pursuit of truth. It all boils down to his need for freedom,” explained Matti. “Dennis is partnered with Vandolph Quizon, who has a breakout performance here.”

Teen star Andrea Brillantes is also part of the cast, Matti announced. “She was still a young child when we got her. She was just about to start ‘Kadenang Ginto,’ the teleserye that made her famous. She represents the insights of the young—that they don’t know any better yet. She’s the type who goes into all sorts of Facebook groups and Twitter threads. She doesn’t know that they’re all fake and she believes everything they say. Eventually, her character becomes crucial, as well as that of Isabelle de Leon’s, who plays John’s daughter here.”

Matti said the film took four years to make because of several reasons. One of these is difficulty in scheduling a big cast. “We didn’t realize this earlier. We’ve presented various sectors here. There’s the prisoner, then there’s the journalist, there’s also the politician, and then the police. All the scenes with the mayor (Dante Rivero), for example, require a lot of cast members, even though not all of them have dialogue. The mayor has to have his chief of staff, secretary, driver and 10 other people around him. The problem is that everyone was working in teleseryes at that time.

Challenging

“Andrea was doing ‘Kadenang Ginto,’ John was involved—and still is—with ‘FPJ’s Ang Probinsyano.’ It’s really challenging to make all of them present in one place at a specific point in time,” Matti added. “I never had any problem with Dennis, though. He has already blocked off several days in a week for us. I never heard him say he’s not available.”

The movie runs for three hours and 28 minutes, while the episodic version, which will air on HBO Go, is divided into six parts, Matti said. It is a joint production of Reality Entertainment and Globe Studios.