‘Jaguar’ was meant to launch Philip Salvador as an action star — Ricky Lee

For the first time since the restored version of the Lino Brocka masterpiece “Jaguar” first premiered at the 16th Lumiere Film Festival in Lyon, France last year, the movie meant to launch Phillip Salvador as an action star made its opening at the Sinag Maynila Film Festival.

The film festival, held annually in celebration of the Philippine Film Industry Month (PFIM), opens on Thursday at Gateway 2 in Quezon City where restored films of movie greats such as Brocka, Joel Lamangan, will be featured in various partner cinemas. The festival will run until September 30.

For its 7th -year offering, “Jaguar’s” restored version will be screened in the Philippines for the first time since its cinematic debut in August 1979. The movie was said to be the first fully Filipino-made film ever nominated for the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival the next year, also in France.

At the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Sinag Maynila filmfest, National Artist Ricky Lee, then the co-screenwriter of “Jaguar,” recalled that the movie was meant to launch Salvador as a full-fledged action superstar to rival the likes of Fernando Poe Jr., Rudy Fernandez and Ace Vergel.

Based on a story from Nick Joaquin’s non-fiction collection “Reportage on Crime,” “Jaguar” tells the story of Poldo Miranda (Salvador), the trusted security guard of a rich nepo baby Sonny Gaston (Menggie Cobarrubias). As Jaguar (a play on the Filipinized “guardiya” or guard), Poldo gets embroiled in Sonny’s shenanigans, but their confidence in one another gets tested when they both fell for an aspiring actress, Cristy (played by Amy Austria).

Originally, Brocka wanted the film’s storyline to be a full-on adaptation of “The Boy Who Wanted to Become Society,” the exact story from Joaquin’s non-fiction collection. Although the original report said alias Boy Nap — the basis of Salvador’s character — shot his rich friend dead.

“Ito rin ang magiging pang-launch kay Philip Salvador (This was meant to launch Philip Salvador),” Lee said. “So nag-brainstorm kami ni Pete [Lacaba] and noong natapos ang storyline, magco-comment si Lino, at magre-revise kami hanggang maging plantsado. After that, we did a sequence treatment, nag-revise hanggang maging plantsado based sa comments hanggang matapos, and then sinunod ang script,” he continued.

(Pete and I brainstormed about the story. When we finished the storyline, Lino would leave his comments, and we would revise it until it was okay. After that, we did a sequence treatment and would revise until things get ironed out based on the comments, until we’re done. The script would be next.)

According to Lee, Brocka always gave “minimal comments,” which put the pressure on him and Lacaba to ensure that the story would be fully ironed out. “Ang naalala kong bilin lang niya, gawing tough sa labas si Phillip pero very vulnerable sa loob (I remembered his only comment was to make Philip tough on the outside, but very vulnerable on the inside),” he said of their working relationship.

Scene Adjustments

Lee also revealed that the opening ceremony of the film festival was his and Lacaba’s first time to see “Jaguar.”

“Ngayon lang namin napanood. Natatandaan ko pa ‘yung kwento, base sa mga script ko sa bahay, pero otherwise, ngayon lang namin siya napanood (We just watched the film for the first time. I still remember the story based on the scripts I have at home. But other than that, we just watched it now),” he said.

Just like his past work, the National Artist said he had vivid memories of how “Jaguar” was brought to life. Such is the final scene where Poldo (Salvador) beats Sonny (Cobarrubias) to a pulp before he is dragged by policemen back behind bars. 

In the original scene, Salvador was meant to hurt Cobarrubias while he was in jail, then the policemen would rain punches on him, stopping the screen veteran from hitting the latter. 

“Noong shino-shoot na sa set, sinasabihan kami ng bawal ‘yan kasi hindi raw nambubugbog ang pulis (When we shot the scene on set, we were told that it’s not allowed since the police allegedly don’t punch other people),” Lee shared, noting that censorship of violence, weapons, and anything related to sex was strict back then.

However, this was contested by Brocka after encountering by chance a sidewalk vendor getting punched in the face by a policeman.

Another adjustment that was made to “Jaguar” was the revision of the film poster.

“Noong ginawa namin ang poster, ang original was si Philip Salvador as a security guard na may baril. Bawal ang may baril sa posters unless pumayag kang ipipinta ng puti. Ayaw pintahan ni Lino nang puti,” Lee recalled. “So nakatayo si Philip Salvador nang naka-uniporme pero tinanggal ang baril [pero cinontest siya], until sa maging nakatayo na lang si Philip na naka-denim jacket.”

(When we did the poster, the original idea was to make Philip Salvador a security guard with a gun. Having a gun on film posters was not allowed unless you had to paint it white. Lino didn’t want to do it. What happened was that we made Philip Salvador stand with his uniform, but with no gun. This was contested. Until it ended up showing Philip standing while wearing a simple denim jacket.)

According to the Film Development Council of the Philippines’ (FDCP) Philippine Film Archive, the restoration of the film was done in collaboration with the France-based Cite de Memoire, using the film’s original negatives. Additional touch-ups on the color grading, sound design, and other elements were done to ensure its quality. /edv