Hotshot, not!
I saw Hotshots on cable yesterday. It felt nice to remember those years when, like the movie’s characters, I was a teenager trying to find my place in the sun.
For those who don’t know or can’t remember, Hotshots starred Aga Muhlach, Gary Valenciano, Raymond Lauchengco, Herbert Bautista, and virginal-looking Jobelle Salvador and Eula Valdez. There was actually one other girl whose name I can’t remember.
Hotshots, along with Bagets I and II and Campus Beat where the biggest local movies of my teenhood. I didn’t care much about Ninja Kids, although I admit I saw that too. My favorite Hollywood movie at the time was Ghostbusters. Then there were THE Taboo series and Deep Throat on betamax. Just kidding. The Champ was my favorite on beta.
Funny, only last week, we were listening to Leah Salonga’s revival of some of the songs in the soundtrack. There was Reaching Out and Shadow of Time, along with three other upbeat songs like, of course, Hotshots and You’ve Got Me Working. Odette Quesada was queen songwriter then; Lito Camo has yet to escape the Ghosbusters’ vault.
Aside from these songs being all time personal favorites, there are other things in the movie that are familiar to me, even to this day.
Herbert became a classmate and seatmate in college. There were scenes in the movie where some of the cars I drive today were featured. There were the L300 van, the Mitsubishi Lancer and the Ford Laser. And somewhere in our old provincial house, I still have the studded leather wrist band I wore when I first attended a dance party (yes, with disco lights and breakdance music), similar to what Herbert and Aga wore in the movie. I even owned shirts with shoulder pads and side flares then. I had baggy pants and wore sandos over shirts. My shoes then were black Blahblahs. And I used Lord Wally gels for my Spandau Ballet-like do. Yes, like them, I dressed and looked funny too. In fact, I make it a personal mission to hide all my pictures taken during this time. Dyahe, pare. So baduy!
Unlike in the movie though, this boy did not get the girls. Booo! (I wonder where Sheryl Canapi, Honey Guzman and Jobelle Viloria are now. They were my crushes in our Moonstone class then.) But I wasn’t hopeless. I had my first girlfriend in 1984. A Grade 4 girl at Tuguegarao West Central. I don’t even remember her name now. I hope Ernie Dy Jr would remember. Where are you, dear friend? Hope you are still alive.
One last thing: I was pigging out on something when I saw this movie at Alvin’s Cinema in Tuguegarao (was a freshie at St. Paul’s). Then I felt funny all of a sudden. I did not run to the bathroom, afraid someone I know might see me puking my guts out. So I ran outside to a nearby bridge, thinking I would be safer there. Turned out, a classmate was shooting the breeze on Balzain Bridge and saw me nonetheless. The next day, a Monday, I was the talk of the class.
Guess I just wasn’t a hotshot then.
