“BuyBust” Theatrical Poster
Director: Erik Matti
Cast: Anne Curtis, Brandon Vera, Victor Neri, Arjo Atayde, Levi Ignacio, Nonie Buencamino, Lao Rodriguez, Joross Gamboa, Sheenly Gener, Mara Lopez, AJ Muhlach, Tarek El Tayech, Maddie Martinez, Ricky Pascua
Running Time: 126 min.
By Samson Kwok
Even though the year is only half way over, I already know that there is a very good chance that Filipino director Erik Matti’s BuyBust will be my favorite action film of 2018. Watching this film, I got the same sense of excitement as when I first saw Thailand’s Ong Bak, Indonesia’s The Raid and more recently, Cambodia’s Jailbreak. It features the same kind of crazy, real and dangerous action that is hard to find in Hollywood productions, where CGI can make anything seem possible but everything feels fake.
The story is simple: an anti-drug squad carries out a raid with the intention of capturing a notorious drug lord. If you think it sounds just like The Raid, you are right. However, while the basic premise of the story is very similar to the 2011 Indonesian hit, there are quite a lot of differences in the details; and instead of a rundown apartment, the drug boss here is ruling over a heavily populated slum. The battlefield is therefore larger, more chaotic and much more dangerous.
The lead character is drug enforcement agent Nina Manigan, played by actress Anne Curtis. She is part of the squad headed by Bernie Lacson (Victor Neri). There are a number of fellow team members and one of them is Rico, played by mixed martial artist Brandon Vera. The police have captured a lower level drug dealer Teban (Alex Calleja) and with his help, the squad set out to capture drug lord Biggie Chen (Arjo Atayde). Of course, things do not go as planned and soon the team is trapped inside the slum that resembles a maze and the members come under attack by hundreds of criminals headed by Chen’s right-hand man Boss Chongki (Levi Ignacio, The Hunted Hunter) and a group of angry civilians led by Solomon (Ricky Pascua), who has decided enough is enough. Soon the slum becomes a place of anarchy and the goal for the squad shifts from catching the bad guys to getting out of the place alive.
The action scenes in BuyBust are jaw-breaking for the cast and jaw-dropping for the audience. There are some inventive sequences that prove that when the situation is desperate, really anything could be used as a weapon. Reportedly, there were over 300 people in the stunt team and judging by the scale of some of the scenes, that does not come as a surprise at all. The main action sequences include the fights against Chongki’s gang, Biggie’s guards and Cocky’s crew, the tree ambush, the lightning fight, the war on Widow’s Alley and the rooftop battle. They are all superbly choreographed (by action director Sonny Sison), lensed (by cinematographer Neil Derrick Bion), edited (by editor Jay Halili) and scored (by composers Erwin Romilo and Malek Lopez). Stars Curtis and Vera both shine in the complex action scenes. I think the Widow’s Alley and rooftop mob fights will become classic fight scenes that generations of action fans will be talking about for years to come.
As usual, director Matti has a lot to say about corrupt cops and the government’s war on drugs and is not afraid to express his opinions here. All the anti-drug campaigns seem futile because at the end of the day, it is still the drug dealers who are running the country. It is the poor civilians who have to suffer at the hands of both the criminals and the police, and the film suggests that it is common for innocent people to lose their loved ones and their own lives. One particularly memorable scene shows a good man who wants to help but decides to hide behind closed doors when the law enforcement officials cannot guarantee his and his family’s safety.
BuyBust, which recently screened as the Closing Night Film at the popular and influential New York Asian Film Festival, will without a doubt turn Erik Matti into the best known Filipino filmmaker in the world. It is a mesmerizing piece of cinema that features brilliant action, crazy stunts and top-notch production values. This is action cinema at its very best and a must-see for every fan of the genre.
Samson Kwok’s Rating: 9.5/10
I’m glad Sonny Sisson liked this review. I can’t wait for this to get a wide release.
I believe this is coming to the US on Blu-ray from Well Go USA don’t remember the date though but it sounds like i will be blind buying this bad boy when it’s out.
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I just rented Buy Bust and liked it a lot. It was good to get to know the characters before everything devolves into chaos, and while The Raid might have been an influence, Buy Bust still stands as it’s own film.
While I disagree with Sonny Sison’s criticisms of The Raid films for looking like HK action, I respected that he wanted to create fight scenes that look different from the rest of Asia’s output, and he succeeded.
The fights are very ugly and do not follow a rhythm, but they’re intense and look realistic. When the cops are shown training in Kali Escrima earlier, it doesn’t prepare them for the descending mobs, and they end up fighting out of desperation and without textbook technique.
I was worried that the movie would play to president Duterte’s fantasies, but it’s thankfully critical of his regime with subtleties. While it’s true that many people living in the slums hate cops and will join the criminals, the movie shows they’re not all like that.
I hope the team reunites for another action picture that’s just as good as Buy Bust.
I’m glad you like the film too, Andrew. While the action scenes aren’t as good looking as those in ‘The Raid’, I think ‘BuyBust’ is a superior film in a number of ways. Of course, the two films are really quite different, and those who watch it expecting it to be a Filipino version of ‘The Raid’ will be very disappointed.
By the way, how did you know Sonny Sisson liked my review?
Sonny gave a shout-out and shared the link on his Facebook page.
I imagine there will be people who are expecting a “Filipino Raid,” and that’s a shame. Just because the fights don’t look “fancy” doesn’t mean they’re not enjoyable.
The lack of fancy-ness added to the intensity since it looked like what would really happen if a team of cops were caught off guard and were scared.
Anne Curtis really knew how to take a ton of punishment and still stand!
Wow, it’s awesome that Sonny gave a shout-out about the review! And totally agree, Andrew. When I saw ‘BuyBust’, I very much appreciated the realistic portrayal of what the team of cops would have experienced if they were really caught up in that situation in real life. It was literally hell on earth for them, and there was no guarantee that anyone would get out of there alive. I could feel the desperation, which I didn’t when I watched ‘The Raid’.
I watched ‘BuyBust’ via On Demand last night after looking forward to it for what feels like a year. Sadly, I came away disappointed. As a story, I thought it was terrific; I actually appreciated the slow build-up of the early scenes, and I like that Erik Matti seems invested in making films and not just another ‘action movie.’ There’s a great sense of grimy verisimilitude to the setting – I really felt the claustrophobic squalor of the Manila slums as our drug enforcement team navigated its wet and winding corridors.
That said, for a movie that gives over most of its runtime to fight sequences, I thought the action was a major letdown. Most of the performers do a poor job of selling any sense of impact when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, and the sound design was frankly terrible. Full-on punches more often sounded like slaps, and even the gunfire sounded like we were just hearing the blanks of a prop gun being fired. I wish more time and effort had been devoted to the audio, and to instructing the actors on how to sell their hits.
For a 127 minute movie that’s mostly fighting after the 40 minute mark, ‘BuyBust’ really needed to up its game to stand out amongst the like of ‘Jailbreak’ or ‘The Raid.’ But I will check out whatever Erik Matti does next; perhaps with more time, experience, and a bigger budget, he will accomplish something great.
“But I will check out whatever Erik Matti does next; perhaps with more time, experience, and a bigger budget, he will accomplish something great.”
I’d actually suggest that, rather than waiting for what he does next, it’s worth delving into his 2013 crime thriller ‘On the Job’…it’s a superlative slice of Filipino cinema, and hit the mark more than ‘BuyBust’ for me.
I’ve been cautious of commenting on the movie out of respect for the interview that I conducted with action director Sonny Sison (while he was in the midst of filming it), however I agree with everything you said Zack. It’s a long movie (and it feels like it), with a huge chunk of it dedicated to the action, but none of it stands out. It needed more punctuation, that movies like ‘The Raid’ (which its structure is obviously influenced by) had in spades, but flat lined early on and never really escalated the way it should.
I feel like Matti and Sison did the best with what was at their disposal, but it’s a strong indicator that in the Philippines, when it comes to action cinema in 2018, it’s not a whole lot. Here’s hoping it acts as a springboard to bigger and better things.
Wow, I can see the reaction is very divided with this flick, which is understandable.
I admit that at first, I wanted to see the same kind of crisp, violent dance like choreography that I’m used to. Kali Escrima is a very fluid martial art that lends itself to cinema. But, just because Buy Bust’s fight scenes don’t look like that, it doesn’t make them “bad.” Likewise, I felt like the gunshots sounded realistic as well without the “Blam!” sound.
I guess part of the issue is that not everybody watches movies to experience realism, and one of the reasons why we like movie fight scenes is because they look like a “violent ballet,” and Buy Bust was the antithesis to that.