FILM REVIEW AND MUSINGS: HITBOY (CINEFILIPINO 2018)

SCORE: 3/5

dir. Bor Ocampo

In 2017, a 17-year old teenager nicknamed "Little Bean" was arrested in Colombia for carrying out more than 30 murders. TBA Studios gave us Neomanila in 2017, which premiered in that year's edition of QCinema festival. One of the protagonists there was also a young hitman, or a Hitboy. But, this film is much more than the moral dilemma that comes with having to kill people at a very young age.

The first few shots establish that not only the protagonist Alex (Adrian Cabido) is a cross between a jejemon and a Hypebeast, he also has a penchant for breaking in during broad daylight to steal stuff, such as bikes. He lives with his girlfriend Nicky (Rea Molina), Jay-Jay (Juan Miguel Salvado), and his father (Mario Leonor), currently confined at the hospital because of an accident at work. 

Wanting to help out his family but lacking the means to do so, Alex resorts to accepting an assignment from Ricky (Soliman Cruz) and Rep (Paolo O'hara) to make quick money. However, his task to put a scare to a Farmer (Tony Leyba) goes awry when a struggle between them ensues and he has no choice but to kill him and his son, which leads to him accepting a "hit" put out for Confiado (Mon Confiado's alter-ego in an alternate dimension of the film canon) by Madam Sexy/Mrs. David (Rosanna Roces) and Ismail, the Israeli financier. That's when the film starts to look like it had Quentin Tarantino and Park-Chan Wook as creative consultants.

Similar to his first film Dayang Asu, Hitboy also has a noir-ish quality to it and also involves a father and a son caught in an underworld squabble. However, the first film had a serious tone through and through, will this one was half domestic drama and half absurdity, thanks a lot first of all to the scene where Ricky pits his bumbling lackeys Eduardo and Noriega against each other the way Julianne Moore pitted two underling applicants in Kingsman 2. Second, all the scenes with Mon Confiado are just gold, especially when he sits in the director chair or he just enters and that genius of a musical scoring by Louie Talan blasts away. You wouldn't want to miss a signature nuance of Mon Confiado involving his nose in a scene while he's facing his own movie posters on the wall here.

If the goal of Hitboy was to strike at our senses so that we don't take a noir film too seriously just because it's dark and all, then it has achieved it.

Quotes:

"Ricky: Sabihin mo, nandito na ang dalawang tanga.
Rep: Nandito na ang dalawang tanga.
Ricky: Ngayon, sunduin mo na ang dalawang tanga."

"Akala n'yo ganun lang si Confiado, artista. Isa lang yan sa mga gusto niyang gawin." - Ricky

"Sometimes, we just cut fingers, break legs. Sometimes, we suck out eyeballs." - Rep

"Sometimes, kill her at 3AM exactly and shave her head afterwards." - Rep

"If anyone gets in the way, we either deal with them monetarily or violently." - Rep

"Tinraydor nila 'ko. Mamatay sila sa katraydoran din." - Confiado


Musings: 

1. Fake na fake yung paghampas ng bato sa farmer. Ni wala man lang bloodstain after sa bato mismo.

2. Halatang dubbed yung crying sounds ni Nicky sa reunion niya with Alex sa old playhouse nila kasi hindi match yung buka ng bibig sa audio.

3. Nice detail ng NLEX FOREVER scribbled doon sa yerong pader sa likod. See #2.

4. Parehong may thick gold chain sina Confiado at Ricky.