We have been big fans of Filipino director Erik Matti around these parts for a very, very long time now. Rising up through the Pinoy studio system before charting his own path as an independent, Matti has long been a restless, genre defying talent as much at home with goofy material made for local audiences as he is with darker and more serious work that has found audiences around the globe with his high water mark to date most likely being Director's Fortnight selected hitman thriller On The Job. And for fans of the darker, grittier Matti, well ... The upcoming Buy Bust is very much going to be for you.
An action picture incorporating elements of local martial arts, Buy Bust stars Anne Curtis opposite current ONE FC heavyweight champ Brandon Vera in a story of a narcotics squad entering into hostile territory to take down a drug lord. And while, yes, this basic approach has been taken to a fight movie more than once it's worth just going ahead and laying out there right now that none of those films have been made by a politically aware and engaged director like Matti against the backdrop of government sanctioned extra-judicial killings such as those currently engaged in by the Duterte government. So trust me when I say this: Buy Bust is something a little bit different.
And now we get our first taste. With the Metro Manila Film Festival currrently underway across the Philippines, Matti has released the first trailer for his latest. This particular trailer was cut specifically to be screened at the festival - which requires trailers shown to be appropriate for all audiences - so the action and violence is currently being held back for later teasers but this is plenty to give a look at the world of the film plus Curtis and Vera done up in character. Curtis? She looks a world different from her usual rom-com queen self and Vera's a bloody tank of a man. Yes, please, bring this on.