"Ang sabi sa text [Raymond, we'd like to offer you a movie. Please come to the office at Kinetek Productions sa Makati.] I finished taping then at six o'clock in the morning for Pusong Ligaw and I had to be at the office at 9am. So, one and a half hour lang yung tulog ko tas one and a half hour yung biyahe so talagang pinag-iisipan ko kung pupunta ba ako," he recounted how he first heard of the film. However, it turned out that he had to audition for the role and though he was hesitant at first, he pushed through with it and eventually got to the second round, where at first he had a 90% chance of getting it should he go through the audition again but eventually they decided to give it to him since the director Matthew Rosen himself saw for himself that aside from Bagatsing's acting process, there is something in his stance which resembles Quezon.
Manuel Quezon was known to those born in the early nineties and older generation for being considered the second president of the Philippines. This was during the American occupation and the onset of World War II, where the impending Japanese occupation of the Philippines led to his exile t the U.S., where he died of tuberculosis. To the younger millennials and the Gen Z, it's either they just know he's a former president or they know him from Reddit, as someone with a swag even as he utters curse words, thanks to historian Ambeth Ocampo's writing as a source.
Bagatsing, on the other hand is not a stranger to playing historical figures. Though he's known to the younger generation for playing Jaime Laurel in Pusong Ligaw, he was able to play Teodoro Luna, a revolutionary leader who's related to THE Heneral Luna, as well as novelist-journalist and National Artist for Literature, Nick Joaquin. "They're very different and they're both very difficult, beause they're both bigger than life," he answered when asked by this writer whether Quezon or Joaquin was more challenging to play.
He described Joaquin as very intelligent and "wasn't totally male." He didn't want to be too effeminate or crass but still dignified. For Quezon, he knows the latter is a larger than life figure and it was "make or break for an actor." He does admit that he just knows the basics about Quezon, his presidency, Quezon Avenue having been named after him, and his love for poker. "He had a lot of dimensions to him than most people think."
He is confident that "Quezon's Game is gonna go around the world." In fact, the film, which finished shooting in 2018, received 12 citations at 2018 Cinema World Fest (Autumn Selection), a Canadian film festival, including the coveted Award of Merit. It also won top awards at the WorldFest-Houston festival last month.
The film, which opens on May 29 in cinemas nationwide, also stars Rachel Alejandro as Aurora Quezon, Billy Ray Gallion, James Paoleli, and David Bianco. Manuel Quezon III already reviewed the film and one of the striking three scenes for him included the portrayal of the vice president then, Sergio Osmeña, by another supporting cast member Audie Gemora.
The film centers on what Quezon did for the Jews which we don't know about, how helped about more than a thousand of them escape the Holocaust by convincing the Americans that they should be welcomed in the country.
"I would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than a country run like heaven by Americans, because however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it," goes a favorite Quezon quoto. Why should you watch the film aside from the nuanced performances and to learn history? So you can check if our country is run like hell.
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