Could Have Been Milyonaryong Skwater

Mahal Kita, Final Answer (2002) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Movie Posters.

What I was thinking while watching Slumdog Millionaire–how come I haven’t seen anything this gorgeous from local producers when it’s our story? Our people live in the same slums that rival the notoriety of Slumdog’s Mumbai. We have the same call centers with better accents. We make our best guesses with the contestants of GAME K N B? everyday. We bawl at the most tragic and mushiest stories in Maalaala Mo Kaya every Friday. We have our sing and dance carnivals on TV every Sunday. How come we’re so good at imitations, but we scrimp on quality when making our own movies?

Much earlier than Slumdog, we already had Rufa Mae Quinto and Bong Revilla, Jr. in a movie inspired by Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? but people have forgotten it. We may have a different mode of filmmaking, but I don’t think that’s an oblivious style. Maybe we just have to do it better.

Maybe it’s time to give up our gorgeous love teams who can’t act. Maybe it’s time to prioritize production design over product placements. Maybe it’s time to realize that beautiful movies sell themselves. Hollywood has taken our stories; why can’t we tell them ourselves about our heedless MMDA officers confiscating the goods of our sidewalk vendors, our noon game shows being rigged right before our eyes, our call centers fucking up our sleeping habits. Why can’t we save our own slum bitches?