“Maria” Theatrical Poster
Director: Pedring Lopez
Cast: Cristine Reyes, Germaine De Leon, KC Montero, Guji Lorenzana, Freddie Webb, Jennifer Lee, Cindy Miranda, L.A. Santos, Ronald Moreno, Ronnie Lazaro, Andrea Del Rosario, Johnny Revilla, Sonny Sison
Running Time: 90 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Say what you want about Atomic Blonde, but one thing we do have the 2017 Charlize Theron actioner to thank for, is the resurgence of the female lead action flick. While Hollywood has been looking to recreate the success of David Leitch’s tour de force ever since (Red Sparrow, Peppermint etc.), in the first half of 2019 South East Asia has already served up a double helping of femme fatale action. After displaying her martial arts talents as co-lead in The Rebel and Clash, Vietnam gave us the Veronica Ngo vehicle Furie, and in the Philippines director Pedring Lopez is back with the Cristine Reyes headlining Maria.
Lopez is gradually becoming one of the most distinctive voices for genre cinema in the Philippines. After his 2015 movie Nilalang gained international exposure, thanks largely to its killer combination of a face slicing ancient demon facing off against Japanese AV actress Maria Ozawa, Lopez had lined up his next production to be the Mark Dacascos action vehicle Breach. Scheduling conflicts have meant that Breach has, at the time of writing, yet to get off the ground (which could be a blessing in disguise, since Dacascos hasn’t made a decent action movie in almost 20 years. Here’s hoping John Wick 3 changes that!). In its place, Lopez has directed the found footage horror flick Darkroom, and is now back with his most ambitious production to date, Maria.
In some regards the Philippines has already been ahead of the curve with its female driven action movies, thanks to turns from Anne Curtis in BuyBust and Erich Gonzales in We Will Not Die Tonight, both from 2018. Maria shares both Nilalang and BuyBust’s action director in the form of Sonny Sison, who has been tirelessly working towards his own personal mission of putting Filipino action cinema back on the map, since it’s been decidedly MIA for the last 30 years. While the general opinion on Nilalang was that the action was fun considering what resources the crew was working with, BuyBust proved to be massively polarising with its approach to a more realistic action aesthetic. In that regard, for many fans of action cinema, Maria could well be considered a make or break moment for the appeal of the countries output overseas.
Like Erich Gonzales and Anne Curtis, lead Cristine Reyes is not an action actress by trade, mainly due to the fact that in the Philippines there’s no such thing. A model and actress, Reye’s filmography is entirely dedicated to the types of production that make commercial Filipino filmmaking so safe – saccharine romantic comedies, toothless horrors, and dramas that wouldn’t be out of place on a Sunday afternoon HBO slot. I’d like to comment on a few of them, but I’ve attempted commercial Filipino cinema before, and rarely get past 30 minutes. So as much as Maria will likely be an introduction for international audiences to Reyes, for local audiences it also marks a clear departure from the type of roles she usually plays.
The plot is nothing new – an assassin, the spin here being that it’s a female one, has long since given up her life of killing, and is living under a new name with a husband and child, who know nothing of her past. The husband is involved with a shady politician, and when the assassin’s former crew are hired to kidnap the daughter, they get quite the surprise when it leads them to crossing paths with their old colleague, long assumed dead. Despite the plot, the scenes of Reyes together with her husband and daughter (played by Guji Lorenzana and Johanna Rish Tongcua respectively) at home are everything I’ve come to dread from Filipino cinema. Like a 50’s slice of white-picket Americana, the family playfully bicker about breakfast in a sun kissed kitchen, and a brief spat is resolved by Reyes offering to cook a “special dinner” later on that evening. It’s torturous to watch.
These scenes are like the movie equivalent of the template happy couple you see in photo frames, before you put in your own, and markedly at odds with the surprising amount of graphic violence that’s on show involving scenes with the bad guys. Snitches are given the steel baseball bat treatment, soldering irons are put where the sun don’t shine, and fingernails are subjected to some nastiness via a pair of pliers. So it almost comes as a relief when the bad guys raid the home of our happy family, and things get flipped on their head in a matter of seconds, when Reyes’s domestic bliss is obliterated in front of her eyes. So sets the titular Maria off on a path of bloody vengeance against the ‘family’ that she used to be a part of, and any thoughts that Lopez’s latest was going to take the safe route are quickly abolished.
The bad guys are a lot of fun to watch. The influence of The Raid 2 is apparent, with the setup of a crime boss and his hereditary successor waiting in the wings. However here the scenario is expanded to include a pair of sons, one played by Ivan Padilla, who is the favoured next in line, but not particularly capable, and the other played by KC Montero, who has a ruthless ambitious streak that puts him at odds with his father. The tension between the pair adds a welcome layer of depth to an otherwise straightforward revenge plot, as do the other supporting characters. The usual head henchman trope is turned on its head to be a pair of henchwomen, played by Jennifer Lee and Cindy Miranda, and the addition of Ronnie Lazaro is a welcome one, playing the retired assassin trainer now running a bar (what is it with assassin trainers running bars when they retire!?), who gets pulled back into the world he left behind.
Really though, Maria sells itself on the promise of action, and to that end, it delivers. Before the credits have even rolled we witness Reyes sneak into a mansion, taking out numerous bodyguards with a karambit blade, and it’s a solid sign of what can be expected. The training Reyes has put in is visibly on show, as is the work by Sonny Sison and the Red Line Action Team. This is probably the best flow and edititing I’ve seen in a Filipino action movie, with each movement and impact executed with purpose, and none of the pulled punches or hesitancy that plagued other recent productions on display. The editing may rely on quick cuts, but it doesn’t hinder the rhythm of the action on display, and it also isn’t afraid to get bloody either.
Action director Sonny Sison had expressed his admiration for the action on display in Korean movies like Oldboy and The Man from Nowhere when I interviewed him in 2017, and the influences of both can be felt in a couple of Maria’s key action beats. One has her take on a stream of attackers in a warehouse that takes place in a makeshift corridor, echoing Choi Man-sik’s infamous hammer hallway fight in Oldboy, and the other takes The Man from Nowhere’s bathroom fight as its template. Pitting Reyes against Jennifer Lee for a knockdown dragout brawl, and dressed to impress, their faceoff ends on a suitably wince worthy note. In an action movie landscape which is dominated with male bathroom fight scenes, it’s taken until 2019 to give us a worthwhile female centred throwdown. The moral of the story? You don’t need urinals to create a great bathroom fight scene.
Sison himself gets in on the action for a rare onscreen appearance in recent years, cameoing as Padilla’s MMA trainer in a sparring match that quickly escalates (look out for the patented Sammo Hung back-kick!). Outside of the bladed action and open handed fights, Maria also crams in a worthy amount of gunplay, featuring pistols to semi-automatic weapons to sniper rifles, who ever thought John Wick would have a rival in the Philippines!? The gun fights are efficiently executed, and I particularly liked how they still played a part in the action even when the bullets ran out, whether it be to club someone in the face or strangle with the strap, small touches like this indicate the amount of thought that’s gone into the action design.
Sure Maria isn’t perfect, the script veers from being incredibly cool (there’s a great line involving Cain and Abel) to incredibly cheesy with reckless abandon, and one fight scene features one of my pet hates – a song plays over it, which serves as a distraction rather than a compliment. But these are minor gripes in what is essentially an 85 minute lean and mean action movie that wastes no time getting down to business, and pulls no punches. I ended my review of Nilalang by saying it showed “plenty of potential for the future of Filipino action cinema.” With Maria, that potential has been realised.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 7.5/10
I’ll be looking forward to watching Maria! I’m guessing the movie doesn’t solely feature kali escrima, and utilizes several other martial arts with joint lock manipulation and the like.
Based on the Atomic Blonde article among other things, I wouldn’t say that Leitch and Theron’s movie was a “return” to the genre since there were still many women action stars headlining their flicks as recent as the mid 2010s. But as you’ve said before, it does seem like there’s a “renaissance” in light of today’s climate and Me Too movement.
Luc Besson’s Anna seems to be coming just in time, (and might be an apology for Valerian.)
Also considering that Red Sparrow was a drama with very little action (never meant to be an action film) and Peppermint was an abortion, it’s fair to say that they weren’t trying to replicate Atomic Blonde’s aesthetic.
I don’t mean to come off as a hippy, but I don’t believe women should be continually referred to as “females,” and it seems like descriptions like “women-led films” aren’t catching on. (I know there’s no ill will with the use of the former word here.)
I do hope the continuing trend keeps it’s quality up, and maybe we can see a Julie Estelle, Anne Curtis, and Christine Reyes team-up film!
Controversial as always Mr. H! 😛 I’m not sure what the difference is between male/female & man/woman. For me it feels more natural to refer to the star as the male or female lead, rather than the man or woman lead.
I agree ‘Red Sparrow’ and ‘Peppermint’ weren’t trying to replicate the ‘Atomic Blonde’ aesthetic, but I also doubt either of them would have been made if it wasn’t for that movies success, and both of their marketing campaigns were very ‘Atomic Blonde’-esque, even if they didn’t necessarily reflect the final product.
I’d be all up for a South East Asia
femalewomen team-up flick, although personally I’m not sold on Anne Curtis as an action actress at all, so I’d swap her out for Jija Yanin.‘Maria’ will hit Netflix on the 17th, so look forward to hearing your thoughts once you’ve had a chance to check it out!
Hehe. There’s no intention of being controversial here. (At the risk of recreating a Brie Larson/Mike Leeder “feud”)
It’s ingrained in our vocabulary to say male and female, but the issue is that the words scientifically refer to the sex of a species, and when used as nouns, the human subject being referred to is erased.
When other people talk about women in films, the way they say things like “females are everywhere” makes it seem like they’re not taking about people. Unfortunately, some people use the word to intentionally dehumanize them.
I think Red Sparrow would still have been made since Jennifer Lawrence’s name alone gets anything made. (Although the marketing was very dishonest making look action packed. Maybe the studio wanted the same audience as Atomic.)
I’d like to see Anne Curtis do more action films to prove herself, and figured a team up with Julie and Christine would be the “non martial artists” vs the likes of Jeeja. Hope I can make it to the 17th!
Oh man, you’ve got me excited to see this one Paul! Excellent review as usual.
I wish it was coming out on Blu-ray instead on Netflix though. I like to watch a film, then be able to go back afterward and watch some of the action in slow-motion and such. Which is why I’m still bummed out that I don’t have REVENGER in the form of physical media on my shelf. But hey, at least I do have Netflix and can see this in a few weeks, so that’s good.
Oh yes, I understand that having exclusivity with Netflix is a huge deal as Mike Leeder pointed out before, but one has to wonder if Crouching Tiger 2, Manhunt and Jailbreak are on DVD and BluRay despite being “Netflix exclusive,” why not Maria and The Night Comes for Us?
Why do Netflix’s series have physical releases as well?
Worth bearing in mind that “Netflix exclusive” only applies to the territory they’ve purchased distribution for. So while yes, the likes of ‘Manhunt’ ‘Crouching Tiger 2’, and ‘Jailbreak’ have all hit DVD and Blu-ray, these releases are from countries where Netflix isn’t the distributor.
With Asian movies I’ve noticed the clincher of whether it’ll get a physical release or not tends to depend on if Netflix is distributing the movie domestically. A good example is ‘Revenger’, which they also distributed in Korea, so it seems unlikely to receive a physical release anywhere else. With a title like ‘Steel Rain’ though, they did the North American distribution, however the movie got both a DVD and a deluxe Blu-ray release in Korea.
Thanks for clearing it all up. I figured Night and Maria wouldn’t get US physical releases, but I thought they’d be available elsewhere. Netflix works in mysterious ways!
I just finished seeing Maria, and the film is pretty good. Christine Reyes was very convincing as an action hero, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her fighting and shooting.
Ivan Padilla is not a bad actor, and I can see him in a well written role, but his performance here was terrible. The character of Kaleb is an incompetent whiny little bitch, and listening him shout most of his lines was grating. I feel like the brotherly resentment with him and KC was because he wouldn’t shut up.
Reyes has a good showdown with him, but it was pretty stupid who he was trying to run away before changing his mind.
I was hoping Cindy Miranda would be just as good of an opponent as Jennifer Lee, but was pretty disappointed at her quick exit. I’m not happy about the sequel baiting ending, but if there’s going to be a part 2, it will be great to see what kind of opponents Christine Reyes has.
Agreed on Ivan Padilla. That’s the name he’s been using since re-locating to the Philippines, but he’s actually an American born actor, and has appeared in a number of US arthouse films, as well as the TV series ‘Dexter’, under the name of Germaine De Leon.
I can see how Cindy Miranda’s exit would be disappointing. Personally I enjoyed it, mainly because it recalled a sequence in a comic book series I used to read called ‘Hitman’. It also contained a scene involving a rival hitman who was described as being the best at what he does, then was taken out by a bullet to the head in an ambush that’s over before it begins. The comedic beat wasn’t so obvious in ‘Maria’, but based on my own interpretation it hit the mark.
Fun fact: The only reason Sonny Sison is in ‘Maria’ is because the stuntman who was supposed to play Padilla’s MMA trainer double booked himself, and advised he’d need to leave the set by early afternoon to attend the other gig. Being the consummate professional that he is, Sison sent him packing, and stepped in to the role himself as a last minute replacement.
Ah, I’ll have to check out the former Germaine’s other work. (I don’t watch too many TV shows.)
Garth Ennis’ Hitman? I’ve wanted to check it out. I hope the stuntman who got replaced wasn’t chewed out. That must have been awkward for him to get ejected from the scene.
Yep that’s the one! I loved a lot of Ennis’ work from that era, from his seminal ‘Preacher’ to his early run on ‘The Punisher’, a lot of good stuff!
The stuntman was rightfully given short thrift and forfeited his rehearsal pay. If the Philippines action industry wants to be taken seriously, professional stuntmen are the essential foundation, and that starts off by not double booking yourself to try and work 2 gigs in 1 day to get more money. For me Sison’s decision sends the right message.
‘Maria’ has the extreme misfortune of arriving on Netflix in the United States the same day that ‘John Wick: Chapter 3′ opens nationwide in theaters! Obviously, this is a comparison that Pedring Lopez’s gritty little revenge thriller wasn’t meant to bear the brunt of. But I think this is a solid effort from the Philippines’ burgeoning martial arts scene, and Sonny Sison’s fight choreography displays a marked improvement over last year’s ‘BuyBust.’ I would recommend ‘Maria’ for action fans who can arrive to it with modest expectations.
That’s pretty much how I approached the movie. I do worry about the cynicism of audiences out there who might give up on these kinds of tactical, close quarter combat action films.
Luc Besson’s Anna does look cool, but will people accept it? Or the pending sequels to Maria, John Wick, and Atomic Blonde?
I’ve been waiting for a Black Widow solo film for a long time, and I feel like most of the recent Girls With Guns movies are what it’s supposed to be. (Minus the R rating.)
“Unfortunately, some people use the word to intentionally dehumanize them”
Let’s say that I’m not “friend” with all the females on Earth except my mother and my sister.
But I’ve always used man or woman, go figure… Female or male are for me reserved for animals (yeah, I know, we’re animals too but sorry I’ll always save a human rather than a dog…bad example, I hate dogs, let’s say a cat, wait, I love cats, whatever…).
So I saw this recently and honest to god, this is on the level of Buybust for me in terms of quality of action, which is to say…. it’s pretty wonky, weightless and at points boring as hell. Sonny Sison is a very talented fight choreographer (I fucking love Broken Path, it’s one of the most underrated/overlooked martial arts action movies ever), and his choreography ideas in this film are very good, combining a mix of gunplay, knife combat and hand to hand, MMA fighting, unfortunately MY GOD does it lack any sort of energy, pacing or impact, they are completely butchered by the camerawork and the editing. The Camerawork is clearly not handheld which drains the fight sequences of the much needed movement and camera motion to sell the fights and ESPECIALLY the hits (which at times barely connect and are visibly noticeable, making me cringe everytime that happens, and it happens a lot) and the editing, which isn’t terrible but it never accumulates rhythm and just sort of transitions from one poorly executed segment of the choreography to another. This in general killed fight sequences in the film, don’t even get me started on the mid-point club scene with atrocious song choices and atmosphere, I LOVE club scenes in movies: Collateral, John Wick, The Man from Nowhere, Avengement, you name it, I prolly love it ! Not this one, however, I love songs/music playing over the action (most recently I ADORED how well the synthesizer heavy score of Kensuke Sonomura’s “Hydra” only added and escalated the tension of the final showdown between Masanori Mimoto and Naohiro Kawamoto in that film), here the punk rock song that plays has lyrics that make me want to barf upon hearing it and the awful fight sequence in the bathroom, wastes potential of being the next awesome bathroom fight sequence in a martial arts action movie right beside The Raid 2, Jailbreak, The Man from Nowhere and so on. I’m sure everyone set out with good ambitions and excitement at making a Filipino actioner for the global action movie community, but just like Buybust, this just isn’t it.
In terms of the story and the acting, Christine Reyes is fine as Maria and most of the other actors do a decent enough job, I thought some of the graphic torture scenes were incredibly tonally jarring with how cheesy and fluffy the home/family scenes were and some of them went a bit too far, with Pedring having a fetish for sparky things being shoved up people’s butts for some reason (I dunno man, don’t ask) and the writing just like Paul says ranges from occasionally cool to dumb, moreso the latter for the most part than the former and it sets up an obligatory sequel that after this initial foray gives me no excitement or hope for better, bigger things to come (unlike again “Hydra” which ironically is much shorter, features far less fights and is set mostly in/around one location, and yet, DOES EVERYTHING SO MUCH BETTER ! and when that sets up a sequel that promises bigger, better action and world-building, I go: “FUCK YEAH !”).
It’s also a bit saddening to see Sonny Sison talk about how Silat wasn’t represented well in The Raid and how it was basically just Hong Kong action, MEANWHILE he’s doing nothing but a terrible job of representing Filipino Kali, Eskrima and other sub root Filipino martial art styles in most of his recent work, for whatever reason that may be. At least The Raid consistently entertains, delivering well-helmed action with superb editing, some truly ingenious camerawork and performers that more than excel at selling the hits and choreography. Whatever fighting styles and martial arts they utilize are (sorry Sonny Sison) secondary to the viewers’ appreciation of said fight scenes, as most regular moviegoers, action cinema lovers and martial arts movie fanatics know very little about actual martial arts and fighting systems, and thus enjoy whatever “looks cool” on-screen and that is fine. We don’t need a 90 minute how-to-basic on Silat, Filipino Kali, Kung Fu or Muay Thai, we just want to be entertained by quality action filmmaking, something that Sison, outside of Broken Path (and EVEN THERE he wasn’t a solo fight choreographer) has yet to give us, my best regards to the guy in the future, but maybe talking shit about others that receive critical acclaim, worldwide recognition (and multiple offers by Hollywood) just cause you yourself can’t deliver the same quality of action due to: time, budget, crew or maybe, just maybe, talent isn’t a good image bro.
4/10
Always entertaining and insightful to read your thoughts Andrew! I should clarify, and this is in no way a defense of my review, but I watched it from the perspective of the role ‘Maria’ played in the Pinoy film industry, where the action genre has been dead for decades now. From that perspective, I still consider it a solid effort, but compared to its contemporaries from neighboring countries, the Philippines remains light years behind (and likely always will be).
I believe the primary fight choreographers on ‘Broken Path’ were Koichi Sakamoto and his Alpha Stunts crew, so while I’m sure Sison had some input (along with Johnny Yong Bosch and Dan Southworth) from their shared ‘Power Rangers’ days, I wouldn’t say its representative of the ‘Sison style’ so to speak.
Now, stop finding more and more reasons to delay sharing your thoughts on ‘Dead Reckoning’. 🙂
All fair enough points Paul and I applaud you for looking at “Maria” from a perspective of the Filipino film industry and in that regard I can definitely agree that this is a solid “jumping-off” point for future action films from Philippines but yeah they have quite a way to go !
Also, DAMNIT PAUL ! DON’T MAKE ME DO IT ! *cries in Andrej Bartkowiak*
I see that you’ve read Paul’s interview with Sonny Sison where he critiques The Raid films. I was taken aback by his comments but I figured since he’s working in the film industry and I’m not, that I shouldn’t question him.
Buy Bust was meant to be the antithesis to The Raid films with realistic choreography and I thought it succeeded in that regard. But I understand that people who grew up with bombastic choreography were not going to take to it easily. Maria I thought was good as far as “smaller scale” action films go, and it’s a step in the right direction for Filipino action films to be “bigger.”
I look forward to what Sison does next.