by Irma Mutuc
MANILA – Jun Urbano is also known as the son of Manuel Conde –the producer, director and star of Genghis Khan, the first Filipino movie entered in an international film festival (1952’s Venice Film Festival). At a young age, he was exposed to his father’s world and work, and even before he graduated from Ateneo, he was writing scripts for his dad’s TV show Under the Guava Tree with Juan Tamad.
He could very well have rested on his father’s laurels, but he resisted. He got a break in the 70s directing a 15-second spot for Nescafé, by aiming the camera on a painting of the product and zooming out. This paved the way to his becoming one of the most respected television commercial directors of the 80s and 90s. Eschewing retirement at age 50, he decided to focus on being Mr. Shooli, the fictional character of his television show, Mongolian Barbecue, becoming a vehicle for social and political change through entertainment.
At 76, he could very well just take it easy but at the time of the adobo shoot, like a young boy with a new toy, he was telling us about a number of movie scripts he recently wrote and showed us the digital print of a hard-bound book he wrote on the history of the Philippines prior to the coming of the Spanish conquistadors.
The man is indefatigable. And if Juan Tamad—the embodiment of the indolent Filipino—mocks him for being so earnest, chances are, Direk Jun will climb up the tree and pelt him with guavas.
Photography by Ricardo Malit | Art direction by Victor Garcia | Make-up by Jaypee Peralta
This article was first published in the July-August 2015 issue of adobo magazine.
