The best Phillip Salvador’s movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Phillip Salvador’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Phillip Salvador.
Manila Kingpin
6.5/10
Mobster Asiong Salonga (ER Ejercito) rules the mean streets of Manila with an iron fist—until he is betrayed by a trusted friend. Manila Kingpin is based on the story of the notorious Tondo, Manila, gang leader Nicasio “Asiong” Salonga, whose true-to-life accounts had been portrayed in several movie versions since 1961 (starring Joseph Estrada). It is also the first Filipino major film produced in black-and-white in the 21st century as well as the returning action genre movie. Before the film was shown, Tikoy Aguiluz requested the producers, through his lawyers, that his directorial credits in the film and promotional tools be removed because the final version of the film can no longer be described as his after the producers made a reedit, re-shoot and music mixing without his involvement. He also demanded that he be allowed to make a director's cut of the film.
Rosario
7.6/10
Based on a true story and set in one of the most colorful periods in Philippine history, ROSARIO is destined to be a modern masterpiece in Philippine filmmaking. It is a monumental yet intimate portrait of a woman's emancipation and the sometimes painful consequencesof following one's desires.
Hitman
5.9/10
“Hitman“ tells the story of Ben (played by Cesar), a man seeking revenge for the brutal death of his family committed by the very people who hired him to kill people. Along the way, he meets Gina (Sam Pinto) which compounds the situation and brings Ben to a crossroad. The story happens in just 48 hours with one scene vital to the next that viewers can’t afford to miss out on any one.
Baler
6.9/10
In 1898, a band of Spanish soldiers heroically defended Baler against Filipino forces for 337 long and grueling days. The battle, now referred to as the Siege of Baler, is the setting of a forbidden love between a Mestizo soldier and a Filipina lass who lived at the end of the 19th century.
Bona
7.9/10
A scorned teenager gets revenge on the aging gigolo who took advantage of her while pursuing other women.
Felix Manalo
4.1/10
Felix Yzagun Manalo is a sprawling historical epic that traces the origin of Iglesia Ni Cristo (The Church of Christ) which is established in the Philippines from its humble beginnings in 1914 through the present day.
Dark Is the Night
6.1/10
Filipino director Adolfo Alix Jr. returns to the Festival with this timely story of a couple caught up in Rodrigo Duterte’s violent war on drugs when their son goes missing.
Cain & Abel
7.2/10
In this modern-day version of the biblical legend on Cain and Abel, strong-willed matriarch Señora Pina favors her younger son Ellis over the older Loren whom she blames for the death of her husband. Ellis grows up cowardly and spoiled while Loren becomes a responsible family man despite his increasing resentment towards his mother. What began as a sibling rivalry develops into a deep feud that would later escalate into a large-scale war - with all the mayhem and bloodshed.
Ang Panday
4/10
Long ago, the evil wizard Lizardo sent an army of monsters to subjugate the land and its people. Lizardo succeeded, but a prophecy tells of a comet that will fall to Earth, and a man who will wield a weapon that will free the people from Lizardo's tyranny. Flavio is a blacksmith content with living a quiet, uneventful life in a town mostly untouched by Lizardo's evil. But when the comet of prophecy lands on the outskirts of town, Flavio's destiny is immediately made clear. Around the peace-loving but brave Flavio. His arch-enemy Lizardo attempts to ruin the peace and harmony of their dwelling place, affecting the inhabitants. Moreover, the evil warlord challenges Flavio by capturing his beautiful lady love Maria. A series of events take place, bringing the blacksmith (panday) at the forefront of a full-blown war against Lizardo's troops.
Of the Flesh
7.2/10
A groom takes his city bride to his hometown to settle in his father's house. Struck by her uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, the patriarch is driven to lust after his daughter-in-law. When things come to a head, a violent family quarrel ensues and leads to tragedy. A middle-aged spinster recounts the tale to reveal her identity and trace the downfall of the landowning clan trapped in the past.
My Father, My Mother
7/10
Coring, a gay beautician, is left with a baby by his former ward, Dennis. The baby grows up thinking that Coring is his real father. Everything seems to be smooth until the kid's mother suddenly shows up to claim her son.
Gabi Na, Kumander
6/10
Gabi Na Kumander is the story of two brothers with opposite beliefs who suddenly find themselves in a fight for what each one believes is right. Ramil Macan had been assigned to fight the rebels in Sto. Nio and he discovers that the rebel leader is no other than his younger brother, whom he had given up for dead years ago. Ronald Macan, former law student and activist, took to the hills with the imposition of martial law. He is known as Kumander Kobra. Ramil had been assigned to put a stop to his activities and in the name of the law to take him dead or alive.
Jaguar
7.5/10
Poldo, a lowly security in a publishing firm, dreams to be rich. He becomes the personal bodyguard to his employer's son, Sonny, when he impresses the latter with his courage and skills during a quarrel where Poldo defended Sonny. Poldo gets a taste of his boss' carefree and extravagant lifestyle and thinks that he accepts him as a friend. In one of the nightclubs they frequent, Sonny is smitten by dancer Cristy and aggressively pursues her despite a warning from San Pedro, the movie director with whom Cristy has an affair. When they chance upon each other, Sonny and San Pedro fight. Poldo comes to his boss' rescue and guns down San Pedro. In subsequent circumstances, Poldo would soon arrive at a bitter realization. As he could not see in Sonny the benefactor that he pictured him to be, Poldo finds himself alone, abandoned and betrayed.
Pamilya Valderama
4.3/10
A 1995 Filipino action film starring Phillip Salvador, Nanette Medved, Paquito Diaz, and John Regala.
Mater Dolorosa
7.2/10
At the heart of every Filipino film is the family, according to Adolfo B. Alix Jr. In his cool yet charged Mater Dolorosa, the actress Gina Alajar, who is very well known in the Philippines, plays a woman who dominates illegal activities in an old district of Manila. Her family's welfare has to be weighed against the interests of the criminal business she runs with her children.
Fight for Us
6.9/10
The year before the Edsa revolt in a remote barrio, cult fanatics brutally kill a foreigner priest who administered the last rites to an alleged rebel summarily executed himself by the very group. In the city upon the toppling of the Marcos regime, an ex-priest leads a crew of political detainees in jubilation. After his release, he marries his human rights activist-girlfriend and decides to join a fact-finding mission that will bring him to the scene of the heinous crime a year ago. There the cultists continue to slaughter suspected communist rebels and terrorize the villagers. A native of the village is the ex-priest's old flame who turns out to have a seven-year-old son by him.
Delima Gang
This is a true-to-life story of Turoy Delima, the fugitive leader of Cebu City's dreaded sea pirate gang that carries his name.
Tinik sa Dibdib
7.3/10
Lando is married to Lorna. He took on the huge responsibility of taking care of his widowed aunt Trixia and her two children, the youngest being a moron. Because of his obligations to his aunt's family, his relationship with his wife Lorna has not been as happy and ideal as they would have liked. Aside from being needy and dependent on Lando, Trixia has been very close to Lando, a fact that is very much seen by Lorna. A deep dark secret will be eventually revealed to Lorna: that Lando and Trixia is involved romantically and that Trixia's youngest child is Lando's. In the end, Lorna will be slowly relieved of the thorns that has been weighing down on her chest.
Alias: Baby Tsina
8.5/10
Baby Tsina a famous underworld figure during the 50's who acquired the nickname because of her ivory skin and slanting eyes. She led the police in a frenetic chase before she was convicted for murder. Ironically it was a crime she did not commit. While in jail though she underwent a transformation and led the other inmates in seeking for reforms in the local penal system. An engrossing film with superior performances from the entire cast.
Wake Up, Maruja
7/10
At the turn of the century, Maruja Isable Sevilla y Mira poisons herself when forced to marry a man she does not love. Several decades later, she is reincarnated as a young producer-actress, Nina Concepcion. Nina is hell-bent on filming the legend involving the couple of ill-starred lovers. However, wandering ghosts and possessions by entities in a haunted ancestral home keep Nina's cast busy. Events come to a height when the past collides with the present.
