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MANILA – December 4, 2013 – adobo magazine hosted the country’s first ever screening of the international cut of Erik Matti’s On The Job at the Power Plant Cinema last night.
Attended by around 200 people, the event featured a panel discussion with the film’s director Erik Matti, producer Dondon Monteverde, musical director Erwin Romulo, and production designer Richard Somes.
At the discussion, director Erik Matti pointed out the differences between the international cut, and the local cut which was shown in theaters nationwide earlier this year.
While the main story is still the same, the international cut is more fast-paced and doesn’t include the scenes that reveal the troubled family life of Joey Marquez’s character, Sgt. Joaquin Acosta. The international cut also ends a scene sooner than the local cut.
"We showed the film to [programmers], and the main comment that came in, ‘we love the Acosta role, but we don’t think you need the family story of Acosta. It just slows down the whole film, move on to the plot.’ Unlike the plot of Joel’s family, Tatang, wherein it’s integral to the development of the plot, the character of Acosta with his family is really an aside to the film. So when we went back, we cut out those two scenes," Matti said during the discussion.
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"Also, one scene that was in the local cut was the phone being discovered by Rayver Cruz at the end. Even on script, the ending of the script is as described here. The script ends with a shot of Manila which we took out and just the face of Joel in the blur of the wiper. That’s as written in the script because it begs to ask the question, is that me? Have I become so blurry? He’s so gray a character, he’s so complex, he has become this lovable animal, that kind of guy, and that whole image kind of pictures it for all of us as filmmakers. That’s the Cannes cut," Matti explained. "In the Philippines, we brought back the phone cut. It was a long discussion with producers."
Matti also announced that the film will be released on DVD in the Philippines on December 19 by Star Cinema, and on Blu-Ray in the United States on February 14 next year.
The event was brought to you by Power Plant cinema, Bodog Nation, Emperador, Franco’s, and Manila Wine.
