Photos from Outrider Pictures Sam (Randy
Becker) and Marissa (Dina Bonnevie) get
down and dirty in "American Adobo," which opens in theaters
everywhere on Friday.
By Howard Ho
Daily Bruin Reporter
In the tradition of “Eat Drink Man Woman,”
“Like Water for Chocolate” and “Tortilla
Soup,” “American Adobo” uses ethnic foods as a
centerpiece for various characters to come together socially.
Though they’re the second-largest group of Asian descent in
America, Filipinos have yet to make as large a dent as the
first-ranked Chinese Americans on the film world.
“Adobo” hopes to be the milestone that will create a
Filipino cinema.
“Is there such a thing as Filipino cinema? Not yet.
That’s why we’re pushing for this, so it enters the
mainstream or at least art-house consciousness. That way
distributors Sony Classics, Miramax and Fine Line, where I used to
work, will pay attention when someone says, “˜I have a
Filipino film for you to watch,'” said Vincent Nebrida,
writer and producer of “Adobo,” which opens on Friday
in Los Angeles.
Adobo itself is a signature Filipino dish that combines pork,
garlic, and lots of sauces. In the film, Tere (Cherry Pie Picache)
habitually makes this dish for a tight-knit group of college
friends, which includes a newspaper editor (Christopher De Leon), a
woman (Dina Bonnevie) who puts up with her cheating partner, a
compulsive womanizer (Paolo Montalban), and a gay art director
(Ricky Davao). Together, their stories show how Filipino Americans
are living and assimilating.
“They have stories that are rarely told here or anywhere.
This is one of the only films that deals the lives of Filipinos and
Filipino Americans. Prior to this, there haven’t been any
films. They have to be heard, their stories have to be told,”
Nebrida said.
Perhaps this is especially true of this group of people, who
have suffered much under imperialist Spain and its Catholicism.
Today, the Philippines remains plagued with corruption and
political unrest. Searching for stability and identity, many
Filipinos immigrate to America in search of financial security and
freedom.
“The economy between Catholicism and people’s carnal
passions is an ongoing conflict right there. That’s why
there’s a character who always mentions that it’s 300
years of all this religious crap that we got from the Spaniards. It
really impinges on our guilt and on our relationships because
we’re unable to liberate ourselves,” Nebrida said.
The issue of religious repression particularly arises with the
gay character, who must reveal his sexual orientation to his
mother. The mother is eagerly awaiting the birth of her grandchild,
a situation inspired by Ang Lee’s “The Wedding
Banquet.”
 Outrider Pictures Cherry Pie Picache,
Ricky Davao, Christopher De Leon,
and Dina Bonnevie are a group of college friends
who meet for adobo.
“Ang Lee is an inspiration to a lot of Asian American
filmmakers. The Ang Lee that was inspirational was the Ang Lee who
wrote very real characters. I just tried to be as authentic as I
could to the characters and to the culture that I was in. Having
lived here in a Filipino neighborhood for a long time, obviously I
was privileged to have eavesdropped on a lot of conversations in
restaurants. Basically all I had to do was bring these characters
to life,” Nebrida said.
The film also shows the result of raising Filipino children in
America who are unable to communicate with their traditionalist
parents. Montalban himself felt those tensions, having moved to
America as an infant and growing up mostly in New York and New
Jersey.
“Filipino people, because of the way they were raised,
you’re not just talking about one, but two or three
generation gaps. They were raised in the old country. Of course,
you have to be respectful to your parents, but as an adolescent in
the U.S., where you’ve got TV and movies, you could turn out
to be a bit of a rebel and be a pain in the butt,” Montalban
said.
Within the Filipino community, Montalban is that rare successful
star in the entertainment industry, having played the prince
opposite Brandy and Whitney Houston in the television musical
“Cinderella.”
The other actors, however, carry more weight than their
unfamiliar names might suggest. In the Philippines, De Leon,
Bonnevie and Davao are the equivalents of Robert De Niro, Oprah and
Al Pacino. In fact, De Leon has won every Filipino acting award at
least twice, and Bonnevie once hosted a popular daytime TV talk
show.
The question, however, remains whether Americans will accept
“Adobo” both critically and at the box office. The
first film about Filipino Americans actually only arrived with last
year’s “The Debut,” which was about young
Filipino Americans desiring independence from their parents.
“Adobo” hopes to further make a case for Filipino
cinema with its story of adult characters trying to make lasting
relationships.
“I just hope it’s not one of those lame,
stereotypical Filipino movies like “˜The Debut,’ where
there’s all this culture, where we have debuts and eat adobo.
I just want to see a different way of representing Filipino
Americans,” said Melissa Sabella, a member of UCLA’s
Samahang Pilipino.
 Outrider Pictures Gerry (Ricky Davao),
Raul (Paolo Montalban) and Tere (Cherry
Pie Picache) dine in a scene from "American Adobo."
Indeed, the use of ethnic foods and rituals may be a popular way
of representing minorities, but Nebrida and company are convinced
that they should be left in the background. The differences in
cultures only remain to flavor the struggles common to all
people.
“I just wanted a fresh approach about Filipinos who were
able to assimilate in society, but nonetheless still have very real
problems, such as loneliness, inability to cope with a cheating
partner, unhappily married people, which happens all the time but
are taken for granted,” Nebrida said. “I wanted to tell
stories that were commonplace but authentic, something that was
very personal but at the same time very universal.”