If we go by the track record of Celso Ad Castillo as a filmmaker, then his next movie, Isang Dalaga sa Panahon ng Trahedya (A Woman in the Days of Tragedy), will surely set some new trends. So in character with a Castillo picture, trends did flourish in every art piece he made in the past, proving the innate talent of this little giant of a Filipino filmmaker.
This little chap whom Fernando Poe, Jr. once called my little genius during their Asedillo days, is not far off the mark, not dreaming of a farfetched goal. Consider:
When Castillo made Nympha in 1970, his first serious picture of note, he was only twenty six years old. Nympha turned out to be so good it became the only Filpino movie after Manuel Conde's Genghis Khan to qualify for competition at the Venice Film Festival.
Straight from directing an unkown (Rizza) in Nympha, Castillo handled the acknowledged King of Filipino Action Movies, Fernando Poe, Jr., in Asedillo, " my first political movie ", Castillo was then only 26. Asedillo gave Fernando Poe, Jr. his second – and some say, more deserved – FAMAS Best Actor trophy, and made him as well a more durable star with four Castillo successive hits in a row, to wit: Asedillo, Santo Domingo, Ang Alamat and Esteban.
At a time when Philippine movies were dominated by hombres and machos, Castillo dared to elevate Filipino women to stardom via the wet look in the blockbuster Ang Pinakamagandang Hayop sa Balat ng Lupa, handling a raw, greenhorn of an actress in the person of a Filipina Miss Universe, the voluptuous Gloria Diaz.
1977 propelled Filipino actresses to greater heights in Castillo's Burlesk Queen which, incidentally made Vilma Santos an indubitable superstar. After Burlesk Queen, every actress then wanted to portray burlesque roles.
Patayin Mo sa Sindak si Barbara (Kill Barbara with Panic) was the first Filipino movie entered in the Los Angeles World Film Exposition.
FGO Films' Return of the Dragon with Ramon Zamora is said to be the best Filipino Kung Fu ever.
Ang Madugong Daigdig ni Salvacion was so explosive a political satire that the Marcos administration had the print copies seized.
Other films like Asedillo, Ang Alamat ni Julian Makabayan, Paradise Inn or Isla stamp the moviegoers' minds with ineffaceable clarity like a red-hot seal scorching a cow's flesh.