Firecracker
Action! If there’s one word associated with cinema, the tension of movie sets, and the focus of attention, it’s this one. Action is very often at the heart of popular cinema: Harold Lloyd hanging from the clock hands in Safety Last! (1923), Cary Grant threatened and strafed by a plane in North by Northwest (1959), Franka Potente gasping for air in Run Lola Run (1998)... Westerns, swashbuckler films, martial arts or adventure flicks, thrillers, all these genres rely on action—sometimes frenetic, sometimes meticulously measured.
From movies by Sergei Eisenstein to Gilles Carle, from John Ford to John Boorman and Werner Herzog, via Paul Verhoeven, Kathryn Bigelow, Park Chan-wook, Érik Canuel, and Nicolas Winding Refn, this series will take you through the full range of emotions, from laughter to thrills, from fear to satisfaction.
A young American woman travels to the Philippines in search of her sister. She quickly attracts the attention of local thugs. But they don’t know who they’re dealing with: a martial arts expert. The poster proclaimed: “She'll send you to heaven, and then to hell”. That says it all! An exploitation film in the vein of what are known as “So Bad It’s Good”, featuring two unique elements: a Filipino director of international renown and a Western martial arts heroine. To be enjoyed in the best possible way: by watching a worn 35mm print in the French version.
Cirio H. Santiago
Cirio H. Santiago was a Filipino film producer, director and screenwriter. He started out as a movie trailer editor and a producer of local films in Tagalog for his father's studio in the 1950s and 1960s, and made his directorial work in 1955. Very early on, he recognized the potential of producing films for the international market, cast with international actors. His breakthrough came with his collaboration with prolific B-movie producer Roger Corman. Santiago initially served as production supervisor on hits like Big Doll House (1971) with Pam Grier. Followed including Blaxploitation classics such as TNT Jackson (1975), The Muthers (1976) and Death Force (1978). By the 1980s, Santiago was almost working exclusively on international productions of various genres. A particularly fruitful period was his three-picture collaboration with West Indian film distributor Anthony Maharaj, which include the First Blood rip-off Final Mission (1984) and Naked Vengeance (1985) that both enjoyed a worldwide theatrical release. In the late 1990s, his output dwindled with the decline of the video store era. Over time, Santiago has had the opportunity to work with numerous American directors, notably Jonathan Demme, Joe Dante, and Todd Field. He also helped kickstarting the career of many international actors. Quentin Tarantino counts Santiago among his influences and based some of the characters in Kill Bill on Santiago's Death Force.
