The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
by Boy Villasanta
When a highly esteemed entertainment personality passed on, expect an outpouring of elegies and eulogies from the many sectors of the industry–actors, writers, directors, producers, techniciand and other creatives.
With the sudden demise of veteran film director Francis “Jun” Posadas on Monday morning due to heart attack right in his household, various reactions arise.
Death, that comes like a thief in the night, breeds grief.
And not only Jun’s family laments his passing but the entire show people as well feel sad and bereaved.
Francis, who was known as the box-office hitmaker of movies like “Magnum 357,” “Itlog,” “Masarap na Pugad,” “Molata,” among other memorable titles, is still held with high esteem by his peers.
Jun’s remains lie at the La Funeraria Sapinosa Chapels, Imus, Cavite.
He was 76.
Here are some of the remembrances of showbiz denizens on Direk (Director) Jun:
Jeffrey Santos, actor: “RIP sa isa sa aking mga tatay (to one of my surrogate dads). Direk Francis Jun Posadas! Salamat sa mga proyektong ating pinagsamahan, sa mga aral na iyong iniwan at sa mga kontribusyon mo sa industriyang bong puso mong minahal. Maligayang paglalakbay po! (Thank you for all the projects that we were together, the lessons you instilled in us and the contributions you shared to the industry you most loved. Bon Voyage!) Condolences po sa mga naiwan (to the people you left behind).”
Dennis Evangelista, Producer: “I’ve worked with Direk Francis Jun Posadas as his scriptwriter in ‘Tampisaw,’ ‘Masarap Na Pugad’ (na sınama pa niya ako mag ocular sa–he even tagged me along to do an ocular in–Palawan), ‘Balat-Sibuyas’ at ‘Sex Scandal’.”
Allen Dizon, Actor:
“Paalam (Farewell), Direk.”
Manny Doria, Character Actor: “Paalan, Direk! Mami-miss ka ng Team FPJ (We will miss you).”
Leo Lazaro, Actor: “Mahusay na direktör at mabuting kaibigan. Rest in Peace Direk. Pakikiramay sa kanyang pamilyang naiwan (An excellent director and a good friend. Sympathies to the family he left behind!!!).”
Marife Necesito, Actress: “Paalam po Direk Jun. Marami pong salamat sa inyong mga obra at mga proyektong ako’y naging bahagi. Pahinga na po Direk (Farewell, Director. Thanks a lot for all your works and other projects which I became part of it. Rest well).”
Joel David, Critic: “I owe an explanation and apology to friends who were expecting that the comprehensive canon book I was working on would be out by mid-year. I thought that the recently uncovered material in the Singapore Film Archives would be the last cause of delay, but I was convinced by well-meaning friends that it would not be enough to just dismiss a lot of the critics’ favorites in the past. I owe it to the people they neglected to go over whatever material might still be around.
“Francis Jun Posadas’s death occasioned this reflection. I covered some of his work as National Midweek’s resident critic in the late 1980s but when I tried looking for the better ones, they could no longer be found. Fortunately there was this genuinely left-field delight that confirms that genre patronage is worth the trouble, mentioned during an exchange I had with the exceptional left-field specialist Epoy Deyto.
“Amanos: Patas ang Laban” (link below) commences by unravelling its moderately convoluted premise, then goes whole-hog in piling on as many twists and revelations as it can prop up while maintaining, as befits its title, a balance among suspense, comedy, and melodrama. What it gradually reveals, however, is key to its effectiveness as a mass-audience product: the social horror visited on our most vulnerable citizens by grand-scale political corruption.
“Posadas may have been an old hand in commercial production, even developing a parallel specialization in skin flicks, but sustained a personal survival strategy by insistently jettisoning old-school ‘significance’—perhaps wisely realizing that the subjects his films tackle carry their own weight to begin with. ‘Amanos’ affirms his wisdom of leaning into genre tropes and strategies as a way of enhancing, rather than evading, social commentary…”
(Text partly derived from Canon Decampment, forthcoming as a free downloadable file from Amauteurish Publishing)