Why Monsour del Rosario shunned doing movies
Published Sep 11, 2018 07:14 am
It took more than a decade for Taekwondo champion Monsour del Rosario to return to one of his greatest loves – doing action movies.
Monsour del Rosario
Monsour is cast in “The Trigonal” set for international release. It opens in Philippine cinemas on Sept. 26.
“I was out of the limelight simply because there were no offers to do action movie. For a long time, doing action movies were thought to be passe,” he said.
After “Uno” with Ronnie Ricketts in 2005 and “Super Noypi” in 2006, all offers he got were to play nemesis. Monsour turned them all down.
“I don’t like to rape women in scenes. I don’t want to be seen getting beaten up in films. I have to protect myself being the Secretary General of the Philippine Taekwondo Association and then ambassador of the World Taekwondo Federation for the Philippines,” he explained.
Monsour would later become a public servant. He focused on that until he met again with his childhood friend-turned-director Vince Soberano.
“We talked about doing movies. He said, ‘Why don’t you make films again?’ I told him, ‘It’s because movies nowadays are about love triangle, horror, comedy.’ I don’t think I would fit in. I don’t fit into those kinds of roles,” the actor shared.
Their first collaboration was on a short action film which was fielded to a festival in New York. It won the best short martial arts film up against movies made in China, Japan, Korea.
Then came “The Blood Hunters” and now, “The Trigonal.”
It was Monsour who recommended his former taekwondo student Ian Ignacio to play the lead character in the movie.
“He was my student in my training school, Olympic Taekwondo Training School. I coached him during competitions, but then he left for the US to study. I told his father, Levi Ignacio, that I was sorry to see him go because he has a lot of potential,” Monsour recalled.
Filming “The Trigonal” was quite the challenge for Monsour.
“We shot scenes in Negros Occidental. So, I would work for Congress Monday to Wednesday then fly to Bacolod on Thursday to shoot until Sunday. It was like that for about one month,” he related.
But it was all worth it as “action aficionados, athletes and members of Philippine Team of other combat sports said the movie is Hollywood-ish.”
“The movie is being endorsed by Senator Miguel Zubiri because he is president of the Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (PEKAF). It is also being endorsed by Filipino martial artists because we promote Filipino Martial Arts in the story.
“The beauty of this is that other film buffs will see our industry is not just about romance films. We have fighters who are skilled and, at the same time, they are good in acting.”
Monsour del Rosario
Monsour is cast in “The Trigonal” set for international release. It opens in Philippine cinemas on Sept. 26.
“I was out of the limelight simply because there were no offers to do action movie. For a long time, doing action movies were thought to be passe,” he said.
After “Uno” with Ronnie Ricketts in 2005 and “Super Noypi” in 2006, all offers he got were to play nemesis. Monsour turned them all down.
“I don’t like to rape women in scenes. I don’t want to be seen getting beaten up in films. I have to protect myself being the Secretary General of the Philippine Taekwondo Association and then ambassador of the World Taekwondo Federation for the Philippines,” he explained.
Monsour would later become a public servant. He focused on that until he met again with his childhood friend-turned-director Vince Soberano.
“We talked about doing movies. He said, ‘Why don’t you make films again?’ I told him, ‘It’s because movies nowadays are about love triangle, horror, comedy.’ I don’t think I would fit in. I don’t fit into those kinds of roles,” the actor shared.
Their first collaboration was on a short action film which was fielded to a festival in New York. It won the best short martial arts film up against movies made in China, Japan, Korea.
Then came “The Blood Hunters” and now, “The Trigonal.”
It was Monsour who recommended his former taekwondo student Ian Ignacio to play the lead character in the movie.
“He was my student in my training school, Olympic Taekwondo Training School. I coached him during competitions, but then he left for the US to study. I told his father, Levi Ignacio, that I was sorry to see him go because he has a lot of potential,” Monsour recalled.
Filming “The Trigonal” was quite the challenge for Monsour.
“We shot scenes in Negros Occidental. So, I would work for Congress Monday to Wednesday then fly to Bacolod on Thursday to shoot until Sunday. It was like that for about one month,” he related.
But it was all worth it as “action aficionados, athletes and members of Philippine Team of other combat sports said the movie is Hollywood-ish.”
“The movie is being endorsed by Senator Miguel Zubiri because he is president of the Philippine Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation (PEKAF). It is also being endorsed by Filipino martial artists because we promote Filipino Martial Arts in the story.
“The beauty of this is that other film buffs will see our industry is not just about romance films. We have fighters who are skilled and, at the same time, they are good in acting.”