Black Sheep Productions, the
independent movie production division of Star Cinema, has already given
moviegoers some quality films to watch since it started out in 2018. So far
they have captivated audiences with some love story fare, for example romantic
drama like “Alone/Together” starring Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil. They have
also ventured into laugh-out-loud comedy such as “The Panti Sisters” with
Christian Bables, Martin del Rosario and Paolo Ballesteros as gay siblings
forced to marry women for a chance to inherit big money. They have also
exhibited overseas, such as a period film premiering in this year’s Berlin
International Film Festival: “Death of Nintendo.”
The Hollywood Reporter has it that Black Sheep Productions is
seeing one of its movies this year, “Death of Nintendo,” being exhibited at the
70th Berlin International Film Fest or Berlinale, in Germany
starting Thusday, February 20. This Philippine-US collaboration is directed by
Raya Martin and produced by Valerie Castillo-Martinez, who is basing the story
on her own childhood experiences growing up in the Philippines during the early
1990s before moving to the United States. Martin for his part is pretty honest
in describing the plot of “Death of Nintendo” as a Filipinized take on “Stand
by Me” (1986), a cult classic coming-of-age film from Columbia Pictures
starring Wil Wheaton and directed by Rob Reiner.
Set in Manila during the early
nineties before the eruption of Mount Pinatubo, “Death of Nintendo” focuses on
the lives of three friends growing into puberty, at a time when they are still
hooked on classic Nintendo videogame consoles, but are starting to develop a
curiosity for more “mature” topics like sex. That however entails undergoing
the Filipino tradition of “tuli” (old-school circumcision) just as the calendar
goes into Holy Week and the Easter weekend.
The growing-up struggles of the
central boy characters, played by a relatively fresh cast backed by veteran
talent such as Agot Isidro and Nikki Valdez, are all based on the youthful recollections
of producer Valerie Martinez, who first developed the story as part of her
Master of Fine Arts education at Columbia University. She also made mention of
how “Death of Nintendo” took similar beats to “Stand by Me,” but replaced the
arc about a murder with the overpowering fear of circumcision and its aftermath
with regards to what a child feels when he is growing up into young adulthood.
“Death of Nintendo” is being
exhibited in Berlinale 2020 as part of the Generation Kplus category. While it
is assured screening in the Philippines courtesy of Black Sheep’s parent studio
Star Cinema, it has also been picked up for US distribution. Berlinale will run
from February 20 to March 1.
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