Mel Tobias

Melecio “Mel” Carpena Tobias, film critic, writer, radio host (born 29 July 1939 in Laguna province, Philippines; died 7 October 2017 in Vancouver, BC). Mel Tobias was a longtime Hong Kong correspondent and film critic for Variety magazine. After immigrating to Canada, Tobias worked as a film critic, writer and radio host. He was also a prominent and respected member of the Filipino Canadian community. A public plaza in Vancouver is named in his honour.

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Film critic Mel Tobias
Mel Tobias signs a copy of his new book, Flashbacks, a review of Hong Kong's film industry, at the book’s launch party at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, 14 March 1979.
(photo by C.Y. Yu, courtesy South China Morning Post via Getty Images)

Early Years and Education

Mel Tobias was born in 1939 in the Philippines. His mother was a physician and his father was an airline manager. Growing up as an only child in a well-off family, Tobias was exposed to Hollywood films in the Philippines. He attended the University of the Philippines High School and De La Salle College, earning a degree in business administration. In 1968, he worked as a director at the Asian Institute of Management in Manila.

Early Career

On 16 November 1969, Mel Tobias went to Hong Kong for a brief project. He decided to stay and found a job as an advertising executive at the San Miguel Brewery in Kowloon, a subsidiary of a Philippine brewery.

Tobias was then hired as the Hong Kong correspondent for the show business trade magazine Variety. Over the next two decades, he established himself as a film critic covering the Hong Kong New Wave. “[M]y passion for movies flourished into a career which lasted until the ‘barren rock’ was returned to China,” wrote Tobias. “An initial two-year love affair lasted twenty-four years.” He hosted programs like Off the Beaten Track on Radio-Television Hong Kong and appeared on the Eye on Hong Kong on TVB Pearl.

Immigration to Canada

Mel Tobias arrived in Canada on 16 November 1993, the same day and month he left the Philippines for Hong Kong. He decided to move to Vancouver with his partner, who was also a movie critic.

Tobias continued hosting the radio program Off the Beaten Track on Vancouver talk radio station AM 1040. He also hosted and produced the one-hour radio program Club Filipino. It was the first English-language Philippine radio show on the multicultural station CHKG 96.1 Fairchild Radio.

Tobias’s writings were published in media outlets such as the Philippine Chronicle, Dahong Pilipino, Philippine Star, Georgia Straight and Canadian Filipino Net. He was also the editor and creative director of the lifestyle magazine Living Today from 2009 to 2015.

Notable Works

Mel Tobias began writing about films in Hong Kong broadsheets using the pen name Eli Carpena. Later, his film reviews appeared in various publications including Screen International, South China Morning Post, Asiaweek and Asian Wall Street Journal. Signing under the mononym “Mel,” he wrote about the Cannes Film Festival. He also served as a juror at major film festivals in Manila, Tokyo, Sydney, Toronto and Vancouver. His collected essays were republished as books.

Honours

Mel Tobias died in Vancouver in 2017 after a long bout with prostate cancer. A public plaza in East Vancouver was renamed in his honour. Formerly called the Collingwood Clock Tower Garden, Mel Tobias Plaza is located at the southwest corner of Kingsway and Joyce Street. A plaque at the plaza notes, “Tobias chronicled the challenges and achievements of his community in Canada and inspired countless Filipino Canadians to celebrate their unique and multi-faceted culture.”

(See also Filipino Canadians.)