Photo from Instagram/@sinegangdotph
MANILA — More than five decades after Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang introduced Christopher de Leon to movie audiences, the actor returned to the Lino Brocka classic at the Philippine premiere of its restored 4K version.
The Sept. 4 screening at Red Carpet Cinemas in Shangri-La Plaza opened Film Industry Month, which the Film Development Council of the Philippines is using to mark 50 years of what it describes as Philippine cinema’s Second Golden Age.
Released in 1974, Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang was de Leon’s first film. He was 17 when his movie career began. He played Junior, a privileged young man confronting prejudice, cruelty and hypocrisy in his community.
De Leon recalled auditioning for the role and taking acting, voice and script-analysis lessons while performing in the musical Godspell. His first scene, opposite Lolita Rodriguez and Mario O’Hara, required eight or nine takes. He said Brocka and his veteran co-stars helped guide him.
The film featured de Leon’s first onscreen kiss, opposite Laurice Guillen in a bowling-alley scene. The performance earned him his first FAMAS Best Actor award and began a film and television career that has continued for more than five decades.
The restored film had its world premiere in June at Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy. The 4K restoration was undertaken by the FDCP and Philippine Film Archive with Carlotta Films and Janus Films/The Criterion Collection at L’Immagine Ritrovata. Original picture and sound negatives were used except for reels 1 and 6, which relied on preservation elements held by the BFI National Archive.
De Leon said the Manila screening marked only the second time he had watched the film in full, the first being more than 50 years earlier. He remains active onscreen and is part of the cast of GMA Network’s forthcoming medical drama Code Grey.
