If you have been waiting for another blockbuster coming out of Southeast Asia and something that would remind your lust for non-stop bloody action when watching the Indonesian surprise hit “The Raid,” then come the 1st of August, a movie from the Philippines may just be the big one that you have been waiting for.
“Buy Bust” is about an elite anti-narcotics squad that went for a “Buy Bust” or sting operation in a Manila slum and it everything just went wrong. The members of the team will have to fight their way through gang members and slum residents out for vengeance for their relatives how have become collateral damage in the government’s war on drugs. If it is a commentary of the Philippine’s President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody war on drugs, it sounds like it is making a strong statement of condemnation of the Filipino strongman’s who is accused by his critics to be running an incompetent government and kowtowing to China.
The story is about a police officer, Nina Manigan, played by Anne Curtis, who is more known for rom-com films rather than action flicks, who previously survived a disaster operation in which her team go wiped out was sent to join a new team on a mission to capture a big drug boss via a gang member that was caught before. The target failed to show up and the team was instructed by the snitch to meet him inside the Gracia ni Maria slum, which looks like hell on earth.
There in the Gracia ni Maria slum, all hell break loose. The big boss charged into the meeting with his henchmen and it was the start of the shootout. Nina survives the initial skirmish and together with another surviving team member, Rico, who is played by MMA fighter Brandon Vera, work together and fight through the dizzying maze of the slums.
Then the body count starts to go up and with all the blood and gore and all types of objects that can be turned into weapons. Both Nina and Rico have to fight for their lives fending off the gang members and slum dwellers out for the heads of any police officer who have devastated their lives with lost loved ones, innocent or not, in the drug war.
Directed by Erik Matti, a famous Filipino director who says this is his full-on action film. He is a critic of President Duterte and the release of the “Buy Bust” in the Philippines would surely generate controversy, especially among the fanatical followers of Duterte who still commands high approval rates even if he has lost some support amongst the populace.
“Buy Bust” will be shown in the Philippines on the 1st of August 2018 and will be distributed in the USA by Well Go USA and will be released on the 10th of August.