Cinex Films and Conrado "Boy" Puzon interview

CINEX FILMS and F. PUZON FILM ENTERPRISES: An interview with producer and distributor Conrado "Boy" Puzon by Andrew Leavold

Cinex Films was the film production and distribution company run by Conrad “Boy” Puzon and Pio C. Lee, who also fronted the production company F. Puzon Film Enterprises. Between 1980 and 1983 Cinex produced a string of critically acclaimed dramas for the local market, before testing international waters with their Catholic gore film starring an anting-anting wearing Ramon Revilla Sr battling the Horned One himself in Lumaban Ka Satanas (retitled The Killing Of Satan; 1983) along with a number of genre flicks purchased from other producers, all redubbed and repackaged. Cinex became regulars at Cannes and the American Film Market, where their eclectic roster made an unpretentious splash with his cheap imitations of Mad Max, Clash Of The Titans (1981) and First Blood. "I bought a couple of Rey Malonzo films - Search For Vengeance (Limbas Ng Cavite; 1981), Force Of The Shaolin Boxer (Pedrong Palaka/"Pedro The Frog"; 1980), Classified Operation (Kumander 45; 1982). Raging Vendetta (Bagong Boy Condenado; 1982) with Rudy Fernandez. Many of the territories we sold to also bought Weng Weng. Greece, Trinidad – Tony Maharaj, he came to me. At the time I had a big poster, competing with Cannon Group. I was in the middle selling Search For Vengeance, Stone Boy (Rocco Ang Batang Bato/”Rocco The Stone Boy”, aka Boy God; 1982), W (1983)… I would always slip them my card, 'Give me a call.' You just leave your card, no deal, no nothing. Every now and then I’d offer them a Dom Perignon. Just because I’m at a loss and I need help." 

To Filipino distributors like Boy Puzon, the Caballes were pioneers in a film market soon to be saturated with Filipino B product. "I don’t mind sharing a booth with them, because I don’t know anything about the Market, I don’t know anyone, and in fact the only people I know are the Caballes, who happen to be on the same plane. Kimmy Lim was already there, but Kimmy, you couldn’t get anything from him or the wife. We were the Filipinos there at the time, and no-one else." The second half of the Eighties would see other aggressive direct-to-VHS distributors hawking repackaged Tagalog action films in addition to their own productions at every Film Market around the globe; in 1984, the Filipino competition were almost solely Cinex, Kinavesa and Liliw, all staggering their way intuitively through the international film jungle. "To be honest," said Boy, "I was just playing around, inviting myself to parties. There were a lot of Filipinos buying movies – Alex Chu, Movierama, Solar Films, and GMA, Jimmy Pascual. But we are the only guys who are brazen to sell our kind of movies." 

Conrado "Boy" Puzon interview with Andrew Leavold 2014

Andrew: Your father was a theatrical distributor?

Conrad: My name is Conrado Puzon and I’m a Filipino, and this is my story. Before I started in entertainment, my father was already in the business – he was representing theatres in Visayas and Mindanao. What I mean by “representing” is that he was a booker. He booked Filipino movies weekly for exhibition. I think that’s where he concentrated most, and that’s where he managed to bring his children to school, and raise seven in the family.

Andrew: Which years were these?

Conrad: Since I was born, I guess. Sixty years ago. My father passed away unfortunately when he was in his early forties. And by that time as the eldest of the children – I was seven – I needed to learn the ins and outs of the small business that my father left us, and that was representing theatres from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao. 

Andrew: What films were you booking into those theatres?

Conrad: Local films, of course. Then we have the American films. You distribute them, book them, that’s how it was.

Andrew: Like a film exchange?

Conrad: Something like that. 

Andrew: What local companies were you representing?

Conrad: From the local producers at the time, you had LVN, Sampaguita Pictures, Tagalog Ilang-Ilang, FPJ – these are the local production houses in the Sixties, going into the Seventies. And I think up til now, there are still theatres that are surviving, but I don’t think in the provinces, here in Manila you can see them around, SM theatres and Robinson theatres are the ones that still exist, but I think in the provinces, even in the cities, not that many any more because of piracy and technology. 

After that, I took my schooling in prestigious Samberta (??) College near Malacanang, and then I transferred from one school to another. With that knowledge and education that I had, and with the business that my father left me, which I cannot complain about because it fed me well, I got married, I had kids, and that business I cannot complain, it’s just that I realized that it’s not enough for me. This isn’t the kind of job that I need to be doing. So I said to myself I will start investing, since I had a little money at that time, I will start buying movies. During that time, early Seventies, Chinese films – karate, kung fu films – it was the start of Jackie Chan. During that time it was Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, and all those films those Chinese kung fu guys were in. And since my money was short, my kind of kung fu films that I purchased in Hong Kong were those kung fus that are cheap, and those with subtitles; here it would not matter so much because in the provinces, where I am expert in booking, they usually enjoy these action, karate, even if they don’t understand the dialogue.

Andrew: So your films were in Cantonese with Mandarin subtitles?

Conrad: Fair enough, after all I did not pay so much. But the thing is, that was what my money could afford. It worked for a while. You can get away with things for not that long. In fact when I got my first karate, kung fu movies, I did not know they were not dubbed, but I bought it, I paid for it, and since I was a key player also in distributing that I inherited from my father, although we didn’t own those theatres, I had the privilege to ask my exhibitors to please help me to play the pictures, and get paid. First of all, my exhibitors also used to play those kind of films. After a while I said to myself, how can I supply this kind of movie that me myself can’t understand? I need to change it. So I moved into another stage, I went into production.

Andrew: What was the name of the production company at that time?

Conrad: That was Cinex Films. And I had a partner. Let me tell you, that Chinese distribution that I did, later on I learned and I bought more Chinese pictures in English, but still I could not afford Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee.

Andrew: And what was the name of the distribution outfit in the Seventies?

Conrad: That was Puzon Films, I think. Then we went to Cinex Films, and went into production. 

Andrew: And you went into partnership with Pio Lee?

Conrad: Yes. We went to Cinex Films to produce. But this was a Tagalog outfit. I went into partnership with Pio Lee. Pio was with another outfit at the time, they were called Metropolitan. They had some good movies, I think big names like Tony Ferrer. The producer, as far as I remember, was Leonardo Uy [Leonardo Velasco Uy, whose Metropolitan Productions was active around the mid to late Seventies], who runs the big waste management company in Manila. The brother Victor Uy, and Pio Lee, there were three. They were doing big Tagalog action films [The Exit (1975), Emergency and Homicide (both 1977), all with Tony Ferrer], but unfortunately, I don’t know what happened to them. During those times and up to now we still believe in names. It’s very risky if you make a movie or anything without names, even if the story’s good. In fact was had one movie during those times we produced, Init O Lamig (1981), it was Gina Alajar in the lead. We made that movie for competition [Metro Manila Film Festival] and it was the late actor Eddie Rodriguez who directed that film. It was a good one – we only came up to third place, and that broke our hearts. The movie that we made was really tailored for all the criteria of the Film Academy during that time. In fact we were granted some financing during that time. This kind of movie, if you make it, you cannot recoup your money, and during that time, even though how popular Gina Alajar was, it was not enough to compete with Vilma Santos… We almost closed down because we did not get back our money. 

Andrew: So you’re seeing here first-hand the limitations of the local industry…

Conrad: After that we made a couple of hits like Ex-Wife (1981) with Vilma Santos – my God that picture made my hair white! Imagine we’re on our first or second week of filming, and I was told Vilma Santos was pregnant. “How come we did not know about this?” She was pregnant with Lucky at that time. We would not have any problems because cinematically we can rearrange. But nobody knows, we used doubles during the filming of that movie… But when you do that, you spend more, and there’s a limitation of the shots. We managed to finish the movie, and it was a hit, ticket windows were selling. And because of the typeprint, as I was saying, during production we spent more money. After that, Hiwalay (1981, also with Vilma)… The people who get in our movies are bankable people. During those times we casted Vilma with Dindo Fernando, Eddie Rodriguez, and those are names, and you could not lose. And I know, because we were bookers. But those kinds of movies, dramas, are not exactly bankable, because it the Philippines it was always action, action, action. But drama, with that kind of casting… and besides, we were not “action” people. Those were the days. Hiwalay was another hit. After that we did Init O’Lamig followed by The Killing Of Satan (1983). I tell you, that movie brought us to Russia! When we were doing all of these Tagalog films with Cinex, in the Philippines the bank won’t lend you the money to produce, you need to have your own money to do movies. It’s tough to be a producer here. You need to have cash – you can’t sign any deals without any money. 

Andrew: You need, literally, a box of cash?

Conrad: Yes! Usually we put it in a shoebox, because when we get some extra recording, after the shot you need to pay them. After that I said to myself, how does this thing work when you do movies like this? We were supposed to make another film with FPJ. It was really impossible to do a movie with him because of his timeframe. You give him the money today, and you don’t know when to start! He has his own method of doing a movie. I think our last movie [as Cinex] was The Killing Of Satan. It was a Ramon Revilla movie, and Ramon Revilla was a big name. You must remember we are theatre bookers, and we know the kind of that will play in the provinces – at that time I had around fifty theatres, and that was enough to expect that some of your money would be returned. Not only that, during that time, we could advance money from other exhibitors. After The Killing Of Satan, it was a hit – when you say “hit”, if you can make 50% of your investment, that’s a lot already…but we cannot fill that. When we did The Killing Of Satan me and my partner were already a little dismayed that we owed many people money. Sometimes across the table we looked at each other and say, “What kind of business are we in? We don’t have any salaries” – we don’t get any salaries during the production! So what kind of business are we in? During this this time the name Monteverde (Regal), Viva were just coming in. We all have the same dream, we can make good movies with a top calibre cast, and at the end of the day we cannot pay our debts? Because everything is rented, we don’t owe anything, cameras and everything. So if you get delays and you don’t have any contingency plan… For us, thank God we were able to survive with all those delays and hardships. I said to Pio, “We’re not getting anywhere.” As far as I remember there were no bad words against us, because we always paid them on time, we always fulfilled our obligations. We always took care of the people who work with us, from the lowest, we paid them well. One thing that I’m proud of is that we don’t owe anybody. Of the six movies we made, which were all nominated, we found out that we still owe money to a lot. And we don’t know how that happened! For us, we made so many good movies and I cannot say we made money from the Tagalog films. After that, I turned to my partner and said, “I don’t like this. Just lay low for a while, and let’s think about what we’re going to do.” But we don’t know how to pay back the people. We had one million loan to the Film Academy – I think we made that Vilma Santos film for five million. Of course I owed money to my mother, who was supporting me the whole time. Pio owed money to his wife. So I said to Pio, “Let’s just think again”, and we were aiming for Fernando Poe, we had this project, and Mr Poe liked the title, but it did not materialize. So I told Pio, “Let’s lay low and see what happens.” That’s when I decided to go around the world, first to go to the States, and just bum around, I was thinking of doing some importation of foreign films.

Andrew: This is around ’83?

Conrad: Mid Eighties. So I went to the states, just relaxing, I went to my brother and sister who were living over there. I went to LA to see the Hollywood sign. I was imagining how these people worked there, how they made their movies. I even went to Universal, and you see how the stuntmen do their thing. In fact I remember at Universal I was fascinated by the black Camara…

Andrew: Knightrider!

Conrad: Then I went to New York, I checked the Yellow Pages and I went to meet the people where I could buy some movies. Almost fifty percent of the people I met – since I’m ignorant in how these things work – were visitors. Producers of XXX movies. And they were telling me these are the movies to do, blah blah blah. I stayed in New York three nights at the Plaza or the Waldorf-Astoria, and I’d been visited by all these people, and I said to my wife, “Alice, let’s go home. I don’t have any business here.” Disappointed, I went back to the Philippines. There I said what are we going to do for work? I don’t want to go back to production, and I can’t go back to my distribution. So I decided to go to Cannes. I already knew about some of those producers that were coming to the Philippines. If there was a Class C movie at the time, they were Class C movies. Roger Corman made tons of movies in the Philippines using Cirio Santiago, and it was successful. I saw them, and said, what movies are these? If they can make them and sell them, why can’t I make them? Some other independent companies came to make movies, and I’d see them at Cannes. Tony Maharaj of Trinidad, Just Betzer… I’d see them at the film markets, I’d see the structure of what kind of movies would work over there, and the money. 

I thought, “These movies were shot in the Philippines, and they are all in the market being bought by people from the Eastern part of Europe, everywhere…” I make good movies with Vilma Santos, and I can only sell them in the Philippines. I lost [money], despite the fact we had theatre windows selling tickets. Films had to be two hours long…

Andrew: That means a lot of padding!

Conrad: So much… (laughs) So when I came back here, I told my partner, “Let’s do something. Let’s make one movie that’s like an American movie.” Like a Cirio Santiago film. My partner just smiled. “What the hell do you know about making an American film?” We were in the grip of bankruptcy. At that time The Killing Of Satan was not a bad movie and it did sell. The first movie we made [for the international market] was Firebird Conspiracy. Vitt Romero was just a newly graduated student from Mary Mount in Los Angeles. He came to me because they owned the Aurora theatre, Pagsinan. I am the booker. I am being paid by the family 150 pesos a month to book for that theatre. It was a small town, small theatre, and the father comes to the office. 

We’re developing how to do Firebird Conspiracy, we’ll be needing everything American, and it’s a Vietnam kind of movie, so I said, “You will not be hard on the casting.” We don’t have anybody in the movie! So we brought in some people from the States, but people that we just met from another company like during those Cirio times, we met them…

Andrew: Nick Nicholson for instance…

Conrad: They were overused by not only me, everybody used them! They stay here in the Philippines, so they can survive doing movies. They can have a major role. Because they’ve already learnt, they’ve had on the job training. So many of them I met on the set, you know they can be better than the people I met in Hollywood. Because during those years we were producing, I had been staying in LA for a long time. I realized during that time, I believed I was part of Hollywood. Because I did my development there, I talked with so many big names and big studios, I met Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Sylvester Stallone, so many big names in Hollywood. I met them in LA during parties, the Oscars. They are good people. Of course you cannot go inside the studios unless you’re one of the people. You know, I hired people from the studios as my vice-president, my development people, my PR… So I attended those big events. Imagine ME in one of those big kind of events! And my PR, vice-president would introduce me as an executive producer – and I MA an executive producer! I think I’d made twelve or thirteen movie by then. I always brought my flyers so I could give them to people. I attended so many parties, eventually I got tired of them. I then became a member of the American Film Market. During that time I was the only one from Asia, because I was an aggressive salesman. I bought a couple…in fact there was this movie W (1983)…

Andrew: Anthony Alonzo?

Conrad: The materials were junk. The negative itself was made of plaster. Scotch tape. It was junk. I bought it for 50,000 pesos – and my partner wouldn’t touch it also! I bought several Rey Malonzo pictures…Stone Boy… those movies I have one Rudy Fernandez that I bought from Seiko. I bought them for 50,000 pesos each. But the most popular one that I sold was W. The leading lady was a beauty queen. I made that out of crap. I brought that first to Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong people would not accept it. It was so dirty. We rejuvenated the materials and I made one copy.

Andrew: How do you rejuvenate a print?

Conrad: You clean it. Just put it in a washing machine. The negative is now with Pine Studio. It was moved to Rank and then another one. You know, the films that we do here cannot be exported. 

Andrew: You then have to make them “exportable”?

Conrad: I have to make it Hollywood style!

Andrew: But W was a film that was already a few years old, and made for the Tagalog market. How did you make it export quality?

Conrad: I made my own NMA track. To do that you need to spend again. But with W, I had a hit. With that , we got the money to finance everything. Because that movie sold. I brought it to HK, they rejected it in the UK, I brought it to Burbank… we did so much splicing that the film went short. Since it was already doctored material, I think we spent $50,000. Remember I’d already spent in Hong Kong. It was dubbed in the Philippines but not well. So we dubbed it into English again. At Burbank we made the negative. I always go to the big studios. The reason why they take my Taglish movies is because of my other one, Firebird Conspiracy. When you have those numbers in Hollywood…

With W, they did frame by frame – they did that in Hollywood, but very very expensive. So they made it as much as they can save it, and I was able to sell it to the American domestic and cable. And VHS. And my distributor is still there at the moment, Paragon. I think they bought it for $30 to $50,000 – they bought all my stuff. Before I got my money it went on paying my agent to sell the movie, and the technical lab was charged to me. When I got the money it was around $50,000, but they still bought it. Then I was able to sell it worldwide.

Andrew: How do you then go about selling a film like W to the world market?

Conrad: I attended the international markets, as I said I went to the American Film Market.

Andrew: You set up a booth?

Conrad: Yes, of course! We were beside Cannon. Then there was Never Say Never Again, and we were in the middle selling The Killing Of Satan. Golan-Globus had three stalls, and the other one had three. I had of course three! It’s stupid. And I didn’t know anything. When I arrived that day, I did not know you had to do the decorating. It was blank, no nothing. So I think it was already night, you had to take a taxi. I did not know I would have to spend more money to make a deal. When I arrived with my wife Alice, I said, “We’re dead. What are we going to do?” I only have one movie, Firebird Conspiracy, and W. W sold better than Firebird…, because W was like a hotcake! What I did was, if you remember Weng Weng? Husband and wife Cora and Peter Caballes were the first ones to go to the Market. Because of the Metro Manila Film Festival, they were sponsored.

I was with the Caballes, They’re in competition, but they didn’t have a booth. Booths were expensive. My first time in Cannes, the Caballes were on the same Air France flight, and I offered them a spot. They must have helped, because I was selling like hotcakes! 

In fact I bought a couple of Rey Malonzo films, Search For Vengeance, Force Of The Shaolin Boxer, Classified Operation. Raging Vendetta with Rudy Fernadez. Many of the territories we sold to also bought Weng Weng. Greece, Trinidad – Tony Maharaj, he came to me. I don’t mind sharing a booth with them, because I don’t know anything about the Market, I don’t know anyone, and in fact the only people I know are the Caballes, who happen to be on the same plane. Kimmy Lim was already there, but Kimmy, you couldn’t get anything from him or the wife. We were the Filipinos there at the time, and noone else. To be honest, I was just playing around, inviting myself to parties. There were a lot of Filipinos buying movies – Alex Chu, Movierama, Solar Films, and GMA, Jimmy Pascual. But we are the only guys who are brazen to sell our kind of movies. At the time I had a big poster, competing with Cannon Group. I was in the middle selling Search For Vengeance, Stone Boy, W… I would always slip them my card, “Give me a call.” You just leave your card, no deal, no nothing. Every now and then I’d offer them a Dom Perignon. Just because I’m at a loss and I need help. Because I am one of the top competitors. The Weng Weng movies were old during that time. It's a movie that's something different. So they guy comes, they're in the market - you won't believe this - people only know this movie, Weng Weng. Weng Weng is a different person. And Weng Weng walking in the aisle of the festival with Mrs Marcos, then he became created. Of course they broke into the market, they got a lot of money with that. They were lucky. Because of that film market, it went up. So people started buying this movie, and then I remember one time during the market I have also my booth there. That was my first time to rent a booth in the Cultural Centre. 

Going back to Cannes, I had a hard time. On my daily meetings with the buyers and the sellers, and instead I turned to my friends from France, I ask them how much do I sell these kinds of films? Two thousand, three thousand dollars. Then I remembered The Killing Of Satan. This guy came to me, twenty thousand dollars. The guy, he was smiling. For Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei. Then he got his card out, offered ten thousand dollars. I said ok, let me think it over. His name is Shaw, he was related to the Shaw brothers. Then I started to think about it - that's the son of Run Run Shaw. I was already holding a good calling card with ten thousand dollars. During the night I met him in the lobby, and I thought he was going to give me a deposit. I cannot ask him "what about my down-payment?" What fascinates me is that you can meet people in the market, sometimes you think they are bullshitters, but then they are Shaw brothers! In fact with these kinds of movies, even like them, the Shaw Brothers, the opposition, they also come to me. "What is your next movie?" Especially in Japan - you know all my clients there are all the big companies? Toho, they are all my buyers. During my time when I was playing there, doing my business, I felt that I became really part of the business, part of Hollywood. Glamour first, that's Hollywood. You go to Cannes, you go to MayFed. You heard about MayFed, that's the Milan Film Festival? Then they have the American Film Market which I'm a part of, so I really feel like I'm a part of American film, or Hollywood. And there's a lot of nice experiences going up the stairs at Cannes, attending parties with presidents and wives, a big chateau and a yacht. I got an invitation from Prince Albert of Monaco! I'm not registered as a Filipino, my company belongs to the American Film Market. 

There was a time when my moves like W, Classified Operation, Raging Vendetta - would you believe that during the Cold War between the US and Russia, there was an embargo. But my movies were sold to Russia! In one of those markets, then there was this guy in white, as if he was a sailor, watching - I had a TV in front of my door, and this guy was watching, and watching the people. I said, "What territory are you interested in?" Then I know right away he's bullshitting. Because there's an embargo, how can you sell? And secondly, Russian roubles are not acceptable. He was just staying, watching the trailers. So finally I said "Can you please move, you're disturbing my clients." First he asks, "How much is this in Russia?" I said "Do you have the money to pay me, sir?" Then I felt that he was insulted. SO I said, "OK, three thousand a piece." For video rights, bla. I think he said "OK, three thousand…" This guy did not bargain. OK, make a contract. The I know it's a bullshit deal. You'd be surprised, the following day he came back with the money. At three thousand a piece, that's in dollars! Cash! Just for Russia, video. But that was just for the rights, what about the materials? How much? You give me more money. Then I understand - he's a trader, he's from Turkey. So he buys whatever, he trades in maybe vodka or caviar. So I got my money, he got his stuff, and I reported to the American Film Market. A week later the Variety people are looking for me, the Hollywood Reporter, they wanted to interview me, because at the Market I was the only one who sold movies to Russia. When I went back to the Sates, they interviewed me - I still have the clippings - Hollywood invaded Russia! 

You know I got Jean-Claude Van Damme - you know he was here?

Andrew: I know he was in Mr Lim's office.

Conrad: Also with Wilson Tien.

Andrew: So he came to see you?

Conrad: Always! I hired him - he did not show up. The reason why, explained to me, "Conrad, look, he was hired… when it opened, he became famous right away. During that time I was making a film, Get The Terrorists, I was in the States. He said he would send Frank Dux, a good friend of mine. I tried to watch No Retreat No Surrender, it was treated by Frank Dux…I met the guy, I thought he was a tall guy with a beautiful girlfriend, came to my hotel, I said why not. Cheaper. Then when we tried to shoot him here, when he took off all of his clothes, I didn't even know if he could run, because he had a little bone structure. Disaster ensued. First day of shooting, we went to Antipolo. So we were on the set, the guy asked for fresh orange juice. Two eggs, sunny side up. In the morning, we didn't have any fresh orange juice! So first day of shooting, "We are very sorry…" So then there was a concern, first day of shooting. We decided to take him out. He was the lead character, he's supposed to be Van Damme… We killed him, we eliminated him. And he knows it! And we would find another one. First day of shooting.. So that was a big problem for us, on a limited budget, you need to help us. First fighting scene, and that guy will be blown up. "But I'm the lead character, I'll be blown up?" You have the suspicion you're going to killed…So we shot another scene without him, and he was sent to our Manila office. I gave him a good talk. The following day he took the death scene. The moment he was blown up, he was sent to Manila, the booking for the hotel was cancelled, everything was cancelled. Then the problem is to change the guy. You know where we ended up getting one? Those guys like Nick Nicholson, hanging around Mabini and Ermita, we have no choice, and I already have people from LA shooting the movie! It just so happened that Cirio Santiago was doing a movie, so we were able to get one of those guys.  

But that is the director's vision. I cannot argue with him because he is the director! How can I argue? If I fire the director, who will shoot the movie? He was cursing. But there are so many problems in doing in movies. We are not under the Guild of America, and at the same time our films are low budget films, you know that. I think we made them better. You know, I'm a salesman, the first movie I brought it even to Panama. 

Andrew: This is Firebird Conspiracy?

Conrad: Andy Winer, who produced Medicine Man, Arnold S, Sylvester Stallone, he was here and was watching the movie. OK, he said, after you finish the whole movie, I want to see the complete movie in LA. So I brought the movie to the biggest distributor because that's my frustration, think big. I dig big - too big! So I got it all over the world. At the end of the day you always say to yourself, you have done everything that anybody can do, but it's your product. Imagine, my Firebird Conspiracy, and the comment was, Conrad, you've made it too much gasoline,m too much fireworks… That was the movie of Vittorio Romero. 60 percent I already finished, when he came into the movie, he said Kuya Conrad, I don't think the movie will turn out good because the director's no good. 

Andrew: Who was the original director?

Conrad: He passed away already - he was the director of Kimmy Lim, who could finish a picture in less than fifteen days.

Jun Gallardo?

Conrad: Jun Gallardo is Jun Gallardo, he can finish a picture with one camera, one set. Then Vittorio came to me, there will be no continuity… because he does movies by the book, he graduated [from a US film school] so he's got a more clearer… Would you believe we'd already exposed around 70,000 feet in negative, we threw it all away? And we just got special exposure of those shots with good backing.

Andrew: So you kept explosions?

Conrad: I've seen the rushes, but when Vittorio took over, he was able to salvage what he could. We had a lot, 70,000 feet is a lot, but that is the problem, 60 percent [of the movie], you only get ten percent. 

Andrew: Why did Jun not complete the film?

Conrad: It's not that he didn't complete the film, he was fired. By me, I think. Because I listened to Vittorio Romero, and he told me we would not get anywhere with this movie. He knows where the movie's going, because he's a director, he's at the location every day. I know Gallardo, because he is the director of Kimmy Lim, and you know how they make movies? I said, "Do you know what you're doing?" Yes, yes…

We kicked him out; Vittorio did not tell me that 60 percent will be taken out. What he did was reach 120, 130,000 feet [in negatives]. Double.

Andrew: So double the money too? 

Conrad: Yeah. 

Andrew: This is your first international production, so you're learning as you go along?

Conrad: Yes. And the actor that we got, the first time we met it was like this, we were fine… American. I find out later he's from Cebu, he got married to a Cebuano and he can talk in Tagalog and Cebuano. I only found out because at one time - he don't talk to us in Tagalog, but when those guys come he will talk in native. I did not know this! But the point is, the guy is a nice guy. After the shoot he will play around. But Vittorio Romero, I would say he used his educational knowhow, and he was able to get those people to move cinematically. Those people are extras, they're just people who get paid 300, 400 pesos, and we were able to make them stars. Firebird Conspiracy, we made money, despite the losses. That's why I am used to it. So many times in my career, I have made so many X's. 

Andrew: But you're also selling what you're making?

Conrad: Yeah, if you know what you're doing, you can never lose. I told you, when I first went to the market with that kind of film, no-one could survive. I told my partner, we were able to pay all our debts, we were able to move onto the second, to the third, to the fourth. I think we made around six movies. We had Tough Cop, Hostage Syndrome, Narco Dollar, Death Bond, Get The Terrorist, and Firebird…

Andrew: And Ultimax Force?

Conrad: All these movies have a story. One guy who plays a Viet Cong, he owns an insurance company, and the reason why he does that is to get laid! But he's a rich man! Because I don't go into production, it was Pio who always dealt with him. I'm more on sales, all the markets. 

Firebird Conspiracy, I put all my energy into bringing it all over the world. With me, the thing about being a salesman, I was able to achieve. I helped bring these movies that cost peanuts compared to the US of course, bring them to the door of Paramount, CIC, all those majors in the world, not once or twice - that is important for me. To be known by people in Hollywood that I was a producer. Because I know what to do. 

After that I made Ultimax Force. When I say I brought in people from the States, I brought my writer, the lead star, they are not famous guys.

Andrew: But you need those faces to make the films look "not Filipino"!

Conrad: But don't let them speak because none of them are American - most of them are from Italy, Danish, German. But we are able to make these movies - if you compare some of the films that were done by Roger Corman or by the Italians, I can compete. I had Ultimax Force - cinematically you can see the jumping of the bullet, one was a gardener from Israel. Another was the son of a policeman in New York. Ultimax Force made us a lot of money because the way it was done. Filipinos are very creative. Of course you need to hire the best! You hire the people who worked on Born On The Fourth Of July with Oliver Stone, also I hired.

Andrew: You also had Jo Mari Avellana…

Conrad: He was supposed to be an assistant director. And Totoy, he worked with Cirio Santiago. When Cirio called them, I had to… But the secret was hiring good people.

Andrew: You also had a really good network of actors living here - Henry Strzalkowski…

Conrad: Romano Kristoff. He was the lead actor in Tough Cop. The only pictures we were unable to get back our money, Death Bond. Because during those times, the market was changing, and I was feeling a little tired, I felt like I got burned already, because I had no time to live my family. But we made so much money, remember. I live in a comfortable house, I have good stuff with me. I cannot say I have regrets. And we came from a company that had no money. The idea of being in LA, in Hollywood, brought us to this position we are in - we are a part of Hollywood. I hired good people with experience, and the movies that we made are better than the other ones. I would not say we were cheap, because the scenes… in fact there was a time we had to hire the whole boat.

Andrew: Hostage Syndrome?

Conrad: Was it? We had a German guy…

Andrew: Robert Marius?

Conrad: What happened to him?

Andrew: Hung himself, a couple of years ago.

Conrad: He was good, he really delivered.

Andrew: At what time did you feel that the bubble was about to burst?

Conrad: That time, 1989. America, we were losing the market. During the early times, selling those movies, Firebird Conspiracy, Ultimax Force, that was really the peak of my time to sell, because I'm really getting good money for them.

Andrew: Direct to video, or to cinemas?

Conrad: In some cases to cinema - in Latin America our movies are released to theatres. There are some territories who take my pictures more for theatrical release, but more for video, my kind of movies. We were getting good sales during those times. It was only during Death Bond when I noticed the market was changing tremendously. I must admit we are the low budget or small budget bill. I think during those times, I noticed our market was becoming smaller and  smaller, also for my clients. I would be missing a couple of them every market. Some say the market is no good any more, some cannot pay you no more, some are just moving around. For me, I also had the thought during the later years that I'm losing my partner. That's really the one that I decided that's enough. Death Bond was the last movie we made. Although the presence of Pio was still around, but I feel his heart is no longer in our office, in our business. He got involved already, the wife became active - I think I lost my partner. When we partnered, we still had money in the bank, and we still have some properties. Do you know we own the rights here in the Philippines of Capitol Records? We were the ones who bought it. From the start. But we could not market it. You know how it is here, piracy is too rampant, but if we could develop it… The negatives, the rights to all our movies is with me.  I'm already in the next phase of my life which is acquisition. Before when I was with Pio, I would sell. We paid all our debts, making those Tagalog movies, and I think it ended well. 

Andrew: It's not on a sour note.

Conrad: I would say it was more the market declined, a lot. You know in Japan how much they were paying us? The most we got from Japan was $130,000. We were paid by Gaga for Ultimax Force. Tough Cop, I think, was $130,000. The point is that we were able to sell to UK, to Germany, to Spain, Canada. Canada is a tough market, but we were able to sell it to. All our movies were sold worldwide except for Death Bond, which I think I sold to some territories. We have no heartache in this, because you can imagine I got tired of travelling - you arrive first class, you stay in five star hotels, but for me it did not matter anymore. I lost my appetite, and it takes two to tango, and me and Pio when we started, we started from Tagalog… 

Conrad: You go to Cannes in May, then you go to certain markets…I'm still friends with Pio - after all he did not lose money - but I think that's it. 

Andrew: Why did he call himself "Pierre"?

Conrad: Because when we made movies, and we put in the credits the Tagalog names, they will say that our movies are foreign. So when we put names like Italian or American, it's an American picture. Pio is Chinese - Pio Lee. In fact my name is Conrado Puzon. I use Conrad, more American. One of our directors is Eddie Rodriguez, he happened to have a grandfather by the name of Elmo Smith. So he became Dominic Elmo Smith. And there's a lot of guys in my movies, I gave their names. Like "Warren Fleming" [in Firebird Conspiracy"] - he happened to be a top model in Hong Kong, now he's one of the top security guys in Las Vegas. You make an "American" film, so you'd better deliver "American", even if it's an imitation. And we were accepted.

Andrew: The name of the company was "F. Puzon Films"?

Conrad: That was my father, F. Puzon. After all, that's the one registered. Cinex was production, then we had Puzon Films Inc.

Andrew: That was a different company?

Conrad: It depends on the papers. 

Andrew: Where did you do your dubbing into English?

Conrad: Here. We just hired independents. Whoever.

Andrew: Would you take it to Magnatech?

Conrad: It was a studio. Yes, I think so. With our direk. When we did the American movies we'd shoot in straight English, and if there was some dubbing, we'd do it here. Remember there are some people we hired who we cannot use their English. They would know it right away. So we'd need to hire people. Even Avellana, he's a dubber. Henry, Nick was, but you cannot compare to America, so you need Americans. It will register if you're not American.

Andrew: Luckily Henry sounds American.

Conrad: Normally we'd use them as the Viet Cong. Since I would say in my market, our movies are being recognized they dub it, because it's very important for us to supply a dialogue list. As long as you have the NME? track, they can do it. In Japanese language, or in Italy they do Italian. Or you say we do our Latin American in Teatro in LA. Sometimes if a distributor does it, we will just ask for a copy. Or even in French - we get a copy.

Conrad: Now you need to transfer to high definition digital - it costs a lot. And you only make so much. Aside from that, we don't have a vault to keep the materials. They should be kept in the right temperature. My master for Firebird… is in Pinewood. 

Conrad: Because I want to big, I want to feel big. The secret is whatever they do, do it. That's why we spent so much money. But we could afford it. The important thing is we did it, we spent it, we rubbed elbows with the elite.

Andrew: Tough Cop - Bobby's listed as writing the story. Is that a mistake?

Conrad: Tough Cop? We just had a little misunderstanding, or sometimes things don't work. It didn't work. You know how it is - talk talk talk, development and negotiations. You know Bobby…

Up til now I'm still here. My dealings now are with television. We almost put up our own cable, it did not work.

Andrew: The local producers you bought films from and then dubbed into English - why those producers? Why Anthony Alonzo, Rey Malonzo? Why not the thousands of other companies?

Conrad: First, I'm not looking for a star. I can always go to Fernando Poe and say, "Because you're Fernando Poe I can sell your picture." It's hard to convince them, because at that time when I talked to him, I heard that his intention was he would do it by himself. He believed he would dub the movie, he will sell this movie as Fernando Poe. You know he's a great actor here, but that's what his plan is, same thing abroad. But for me I don't see the difference between Fernando Poe and Rey Malonzo. Who is Rey Malonzo? He just makes karate movies. During those times, since our money is also limited, I was disappointed, because Malonzo did not take care of his materials. I don't know where he put it. He made tons of movies, but he sold them all to me - we only got two. The rest are wet. They don't take care of therm. I was able to save two, and you'd be surprised, the two are still with me and still running, and in good condition, because we rejuvenated it in Hong Kong, processed it in Burbank. But the worst is W. And it's work. We spent $100,000 on that. But we made so thousands of dollars with that! I think W made more money than Firebird Conspiracy. Because of the kind of movie - a Mad Max kind of movie…

Andrew: And the Italians were making hundreds at the time!

Conrad: We sold it. When we got our cheque from Japan for $30,000, we ran backwards! It was amazing. So to answer your question, because they were some of the few [local producers] that we knew personally, to say hello, and then we offered them this kind of money and they took it. $50,000 for you to give the master. Another materials in terrible condition was Stone Boy, but we were able to save it. One thing - we have so many movies here, you will be surprised, you go to the Archive, those movies that you know are not there. Me, I had my blockbuster movies, I just got one yesterday. The W I have is the W that was cleaned in Hong Kong, not the one that was rejuvenated frame by frame. I know I cannot sell those anymore so I throw those pneumatic tapes away. And you know what's hurting here? It cost me 200 pesos. Every time I throw them away. I had tons and tons of tapes. It breaks my heart. But that's how it is. 

You mentioned why I only took films from Rey Malonzo. Because some of the Filipinos who happen to have good action films. You know the Rey Malonzo films I took? They are rubbish movies! I mean, they know it because they only shot it in one camera, two cameras. 

Andrew: It's a cheap goon film.

Conrad: Yes. And the ones who have good movies, they won't sell. 

Andrew: In other words, the success of your operation is: small outlay, take it to the international marketplace. If Cannon are asking for $100-200,000 per territory, you offer a fraction of that…

Conrad: One thousand, two thousand dollars.

Andrew: … and because your capital outlay is so small, you can't help but make a profit?

Conrad: Yes. 

Andrew: Because you don't have to compete with Cannon - someone from a Greek video company or Finland or Sweden, says "I'll buy THREE of these" for a fraction of the cost of one Cannon title! And even Cannon are offering titles at a fraction of the cost of a title from United Artists or Warner Brothers. So it's a sliding scale, but your budgets are so miniscule that you can't help turn a profit?

Conrad: Like I said, as long as each movie, sub-territories, we'll take it. You'd be surprised, all my movies were sold to Finland. Finland is a very difficult market! 

Andrew: But the price was right, the genre was right? If you have a ninja film, an American-style action film, a jungle war film…

Conrad: Chuck Norris, he shot movies here, and he became very popular. A lot of people tried to do the same thing, and it didn't work. Because they really did not know what is the mechanical bit?  

F. Puzon Film Enterprises U.S.A., Inc.

Incorporated by Conrado C Puzon, F. Puzon Film Enterprises U.S.A., Inc. is located at 1150 Wilshire Blvd # B Los Angeles, CA 90017. F. Puzon Film Enterprises U.S.A., Inc. was incorporated on Tuesday, March 05, 1985 in the State of CA and is currently active. Sofia L Nietes represents F. Puzon Film Enterprises U.S.A., Inc. as their registered agent.

PHASE ONE: CINEX FILMS INC. (PRODUCTION) 

All films distributed by F. Puzon Film Enterprises

1980 – Evening Class [Release date 25th July 1980]

1981 – Ex-Wife [Release date 22nd April 1981]

1981 – Hiwalay [Release date 30th October 1981]

1981 – Init O’Lamig [Release date 28th December 1981]

1982 – Malikot [Release date 9th July 1982]

1983 – Lumaban Ka Satanas/“The Killing Of Satan” [Philippines release date 10th June 1983]

PHASE TWO: CINEX INC. (DISTRIBUTION)