Everywhere you go in Manila you see them: colourful, hand-painted movie billboards advertising the latest fare from local film companies. Fare like Bilang Na Ang Araw Mo! (Your Days Are Numbered), which features the brooding Robin Padilla, the pouting Charlene Gonzales, a high number of killings, and has been passed for viewing by 13-year-olds (this in a country that tried to cut a brief scene of nudity from Schindler's List).
Bilang Na Ang Araw Mo!, advertised on a billboard painted with guns, bullets and effigies of its stars, is typical of the the high body count diet being fed to Filipino audiences. There was a day in Filipino cinema when boys were boys, girls cried and true love always won through. These days the nation's film makers have another message: with violence you get more excitement for your peso. Audiences seem to agree.
The increasing amount of bloodshed and brutality in Filipino films has not escaped the notice of President Fidel Ramos. This week, as the Philippine film world prepared for yesterday's opening of the 1996 Manila Film Festival, Mr Ramos summoned film company executives to Malacanang Palace and told them to cut the nastiness and get back to the business of promoting traditional family values. He asked them to 'put the brakes on the production of films based on crime and criminals, sex and scandals'.
The executives agreed with Mr Ramos. Whether or not they do anything about it remains to be seen.
The problem is that Filipinos have a voracious appetite for films whose subject matter comprises virile men, ravishing women, sex and violence. Fidelity and wholesomeness do not put bums on seats. Padilla himself was jailed last year on charges of gun possession, a fact which boosted audiences for his films considerably.
Audiences have also renewed their passion for what are called 'bold movies', in which 'bold actresses' like Rosanna Roces reveal their breasts.