Review: Filipino-American culture comes alive in ‘Debut’

Geoff Carter

Friday, March 15, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

The Debut

Grade: ** 1/2

Starring: Dante Basco, Eddie Garcia, Tirso Cruz III, Gina Alajar and Darian Basco.

Screenplay: Gene Cajayon and John Manal Castro.

Director: Gene Cajayon.

Rated: Not rated; strong language.

Running time: 90 minutes.

For movie times see: http://www.vegas.com/movies/

"The Debut" tells a familiar story in a familiar way. Young Ben Mercado (Dante Basco) wants to be a cartoonist, and attend an arts college. His father, Roland (Tirso Cruz III), has other ideas: He'd rather his son became a doctor and attend UCLA. Roland's own father, Lolo (Eddie Garcia), is bitterly disappointed in his son, and puts great hope in his grandchildren to bring him honor.

All fairly standard -- except the Mercado family is Filipino-American, a culture not previously represented on screen.

"The Debut" makes a running pass at the culture -- and for the most part, it works. Set almost entirely at a girl's debutante birthday party, the film captures what it means to be Filipino and what it means to be a family.

Writer/director Gene Cajayon follows a blueprint that's been used by dozens of films, from "The Jazz Singer" on down: The root of the main character's conflict, his ethnicity, is also the basis of his salvation. "The Debut" would have been fairly unremarkable if Cajayon hadn't gotten such great performances.

Basco is a real find. Best known for his scene-stealing turn in "Hook" -- it isn't easy to shut down Robin Williams -- the soft-spoken Basco has the makings of a great actor. His face is expressive, telling several stories at once; watch for a scene late in the film where a girl makes a racist comment, and he projects sadness, disgust and surprise all at once. You really like this kid, even when he acts up.

And act up Ben does. When his friends -- all white -- express an interest in Filipino culture, his ignorance of his own heritage flares, causing his sister (Bernadette Balagtas) to school him: "Just because you hang up with white boys, you want to hang out in college, is that it?" she says, incredulous. "Wake up, little brother, because you're just as brown as the rest of us."

Cajayon sometimes overplays the racism card. I didn't know quite what to make of the character who spouted Filipino conspiracy theory, or the unwelcome appearance of a gun carried by Ben's childhood friend, Augusto (Darion Basco). But I loved Annabelle (Joy Bisco), the pretty girl Ben is smitten with, saying of the party, "Sometimes (at these things), you just don't know who you're related to."

"We're not related, are we?" Ben asks, terrified. (They're not.)

"The Debut" tells nothing but the truth -- sometimes too earnestly, but always with heart and soul. I winced when Ben admitted that he used to sleep with a clothespin on his nose, to make himself look more Caucasian. "The Debut" says some punishing things about the world we live in, and the ways we try to change ourselves to fit it. Just because they've been said before, doesn't mean they couldn't bear repeating.