The Archives of Your Mind
For the generation that grew up in the Seventies and early Eighties, the primary source for movies was not video shops but a television program called Sine Siete. It aired every afternoon after the lunchtime variety shows, when good children were supposed to be having their siesta. Summer vacations were a daily retrospective of Fifties melodramas and war action flicks, Sixties musicals and romantic comedies, and Seventies parodies and teenybopper romances. While we were “sleepingâ€, we were taking courses in cultural anthropology. The sleep we lost may have ruined our chances of growing to be six feet tall, but we learned the right way to profess undying love: in an earnest stream of metaphors delivered with a straight face while standing under a mango tree in the middle of an open field, followed by a duet with the beloved. No wonder romance is dead: try finding a mango tree in the middle of Edsa.
The Archives of Your Mind in Emotional Weather Report, today in the Star.
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February 13th, 2009 at 06:16
i thought it was sine sa nueve… with a big number 9 on the logo… i remember watching old dolphy, gloria romero flicks…. i love nympha (yung nagiging tubig na babae), cofradia (nagiging negra pag namatay ang kandila), then there’s the flying bilao… i miss them!
February 13th, 2009 at 13:05
In the late Eighties, while we were “napping” we watched “Afternoon Shocker” most probably on RPN (or was it GMA?). It featured Hollywood horror movies every afternoon.
February 13th, 2009 at 13:39
I remember having to sleep on the banig during these times. My father would command my brother and I to sleep while the TV was on. I don’t remember any good sleeping done though because I was so into these post noontime shows. The most that i can reacall is Weng Weng and Chinese Kung Fu theater ha ha.
February 13th, 2009 at 13:53
Also Piling Piling Pelikula on channel 13.
February 13th, 2009 at 17:31
yes,yes..I kept thinking it was great exposure to the old movies of the 50’s -60’s with their archaic version of language – nobody talks like that anymore…kinamumuhian kita…
also to revel in the evil charcters played by rita gomez, bella flores, eddie garcia, dolphy and panchito seemed funnier then (or maybe because I was a kid)….ahhh, pity, they have not been preserved…
February 13th, 2009 at 21:39
Re the complete article in the Star:
I suspect some copies of these “tagalog classics” maybe found with production departments of ad/promo outfits; my archive shows flickers of “an old neigbourhood in Sta Ana district” transformed into a huge drive-in-movie showing ’50s classics, during the May fiestas. These events were sponsored by corporates such as San Miguel, Coca Cola or P&G, as vehicles for promoting their products.
And who needs mango trees in Edsa?
February 13th, 2009 at 21:46
anyone knows where I can get a copy of the old tagalog film “Pepe En Pilar”? I’ve been around all the video shops in leading malls, but to my dismay none of which carry this title.
February 14th, 2009 at 15:01
I think I could count as one of my best childhood memories those afternoons spent in front of the TV watching old black&white films from the 50s and 60s. In spite of the low technology used in film making then, movies in that age were all about telling good stories, not making two-hour music videos with advertisements in between. Pinoy movies were fine from the 50s to 80s, and then everything went downhill. It’s great that we now have the indie films to make up for the mass market romantic drivel and pito-pito horror stories that basically have the same plots.
The Rogelio Dela Rosa/Gloria Romero, Nestor de Villa/Nida Blanca love teams of old trump today’s screen pairings hands down, and I hope that film studios will publish DVDs of their old films.
February 16th, 2009 at 15:45
I remember cine-siete and channel 9’s sampaguita movies…
you can purchased sampaguita movies at sampaguita pictures. the last time i checked it is still on VHS format; ayaw nilang mag dvd kase daw madaling ma- pirate. Hoewer, I saw some DVD format ng Confradia at Hokong Holiday of Gloria Romero sa Quiapo two months ago…. DVD format galing Malaysia ata
February 19th, 2009 at 22:24
#9 nipped it in the bud. Unconventional preservation (digitize, release, and let the pirates make gazillion copies) vs. Copyright. Nanalo na si Erap at natanggal sa pwesto, wala pa ring malaking suportang pinansiyal na nakuha ang Philippine movie industry para ma-preserve ang mga classic films.
O baka meron na ngang namirata, wala lang bumibili?
February 20th, 2009 at 08:12
During those days, I’d rather dive into deep slumber than endure an afternoon of “Coney Reyes on Camera” on a Saturday and “Lovingly Yours Helen” on a Sunday. It was the afternoon routine in our house after Eat Bulaga (which we are still avid fans till now, hail to T, V and J!) I am actually hearing the piano accompaniment of Coney Reyes while she’s delivering her saga of dramatic lines right now… It does remind me of my Lola though…