When Mikhail Red made his debut feature film, “Rekorder,” he was only 21. It was a picture that was fascinated with the behavioral implications of excessive technology consumption and violence, and the main character was a vagabond who stole movies. The film was first presented at the Cinemalaya Film Festival before competing in other film festivals worldwide, including the Vancouver International Film Festival and the Gwangju International Film Festival, where it received the award for Best Director.
After waiting for another seven years, Red has now signed with a talent agency in Hollywood, is developing a miniseries for HBO Asia, and is the first Filipino to make a film currently streaming internationally on Netflix.
During an interview with Esquire Philippines, the interviewers’ initial reaction to Red was that they were surprised by how quiet he can be. He had such a kind manner, rarely showed any signs of emotion, and moved at a leisurely pace. It isn’t easy to picture someone in their twenties in charge of a film team, directing enormous productions to produce renowned filmographies and organising the crew members themselves.
However, the child prodigy born in the 1990s is a powerhouse that cannot be ignored. The second feature film directed by Red, titled Birdshot, was chosen to represent the Philippines at the 90th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. The plot centres on a police pursuit involving a young farm girl responsible for the death of an endangered Philippine eagle. After that, Red worked on the full-length horror picture Eerie, which starred Bea Alonzo and Charo Santos-Concio, both veterans of the film business.
He subsequently shot the zombie smash Block Z with Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto, after which he returned to the local festival circuit with his noir thriller Neomanila. Dead Kids, his debut film for Netflix, is a dark comedy inspired by a newspaper headline. The headline reads, “A bunch of affluent college kids in Manila plot a ransom of one of their classmates.” Red freely confesses that writing the entertaining Dead Kids was his first attempt at writing comedy.
“So you can see they’re all different,” he adds as we cycle through his filmography, transitioning from one genre to another. “So you can see they’re all different” (binge-watching them together is quite the experience). His ability to hit all of the right chords is an intriguing aspect of his performance. The terror is very frightening. The comedy is quite humorous. The underlying messages he conveys about our culture are uncomfortably spot on, and the films he directs are almost invariably strong. He skips genres so casually. Running an episode of Star Wars would be his ideal job for the future.
“From where I stand, I still consider myself a film student, and I always have the impression that I’m gaining new knowledge. “So while it’s still early in my career, I like exploring and trying new things,” says Red of not yet having landed on a signature style like Wes Anderson. “I like exploring and trying new things,” “Perhaps in the future, I’ll be able to specialize in a particular field, but for the time being, I’m having fun with the challenge. I enjoy demonstrating the versatility of my skills as well.
Suppose there is one element that connects all of his movies. In that case, it is the fact that the protagonists are always ethically ambiguous—good people who find themselves in difficulty with the law. “And maybe the hallmark there is that, even though I change genres, I’m always trying to smuggle subtext while using genre as the vehicle,” adds Red in the same interview with Esquire PH. “And maybe the trademark there is that, even though I change genres, I’m always attempting to smuggle subtext.”
Given Red’s consistent output of films, one can’t help but wonder how he passes his time while he’s not working. It does not come as a surprise to learn that he has very few, yet he doesn’t appear to be bothered by this fact. “Between the stages of creating, writing, filming, and editing, I typically travel for a film festival or a project market. I will most likely use Netflix to view movies or television programs if I have any spare time. “I’m delighted that I can make a living doing what I love, and even though there are problems, disappointments, and road bumps, my passion for achieving [my] dreams sustains me.” “I’m genuinely happy I can do a job doing what I love.”
As far as Red is concerned, it appears that those interested in film on a local or worldwide level won’t run out of things to look forward to anytime soon. Because I have so many thoughts and experiences that I want to convey, I don’t believe I’ll be slowing down any time shortly. I am ecstatic to share the news that I have feature film projects planned for me through 2021!
