After two years since her film To Love Some Buddy, Maja Salvador will finally return on the big screen as she will star in the upcoming movie Arisaka directed by Mikhail Red.
In an interview with Esquire Magazine, the 27-year-old director Mikhail Red revealed why he chose the actress to play the leading role in his latest film.
“Considering the varied range of TV and movie work that she had gone through, I am confident she has the experience and technical prowess to make the most out of her difficult role in Arisaka,” he explained.
Last 2011, Maja Salvador won the best actress award at the Gawad Urian and the Film Academy of the Philippines for the film Thelma.
Direk Red also revealed that the film would revolve around survival and revenge. According to him, the title “Arisaka” is the name of a Japanese soldier’s rifle during World War 2 and the Bataan Death March.
“It’s about a woman who must retrace the forgotten trail of the Bataan Death March in order to escape her captors. Arisaka is a film about survival, transformation, and ultimately, revenge,”
the critically acclaimed director explained.
Moreover, Red, as having a fondness for online games, linked Arisaka to his favorite video game at the moment.
“If I am not at work, I play Destiny 2. It is a looter shooter. In a way, Arisaka is a looter shooter, or at least its story structure is inspired by those genre elements.”
Philippines production house Ten17P, whose credits include Lav Diaz’s A Lullaby To The Sorrowful Mystery and Paul Soriano’s Mananita, is set to produce the film.
Red and the production studio are targeting to release the film by 2021. Arisaka is Salvador’s first project with the young director, known for the blockbuster films Birdshot, Dead Kids, Block Z, and Eerie.
Aside from Arisaka, Red is also working on his upcoming film The Grandstand, inspired by the real-life 2010 Manila hostage crisis where a disgruntled police officer hijacked a bus full of tourists from Hong Kong and demanded national media attention.
