YES! They’re finally here!
Sounds kinda strange I’m celebrating seeing the Japanese finally attacking Pearl Harbor. But of course, I’m excited only because we are now getting into the heavier material of Pulang Araw. From a narrative standpoint, from a performance standpoint and from a technical standpoint, I know (hope?) we are in for some really engaging episodes coming up.
I found myself tearing up the moment Adelina was writing her letter to Hiroshi and talking about the explosive moments at home coinciding with the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was so emotional watching those scenes of the attack, which were very well done. Of course, all computer-generated. But no less impactful depicting the shocking and tragic events of that morning.
I was brought back to when my family had the privilege of visiting Pearl Harbor in Hawaii back in 2019. It was our first time and knowing that 80 years before, how so many people lost their lives that day but also realizing it was the start of what would be many more deaths and so much suffering especially in the Philippines; It’s really tough.
That’s why I couldn’t help but start to tear up and feel heavy watching those final moments of Episode 20. The scenes of Pearl Harbor. The sirens blaring in the Philippines. The radio report on the attack. And then the preview of the planes arriving in the Philippine skies.
Emotional from a historic perspective. Darkly exciting from a television experience. I don’t know how to explain it. I feel offended thinking about it like this lol But those are the complicated emotions and feelings when watching historical fiction such as Pulang Araw.
I’ve been a bit tepid on how much time we’ve spent with the pre-war, establishing time period. As much as I understand the necessity of these four weeks to establish and develop our main characters, I was also eager to get to the more dramatic and heavier material. Especially when the establishing narrative called upon familiar Filipino teleserye tropes.
But even with just these couple of minutes at the end of Episode 20, the past four weeks already felt worth it. As the war is hours away from arriving in the Philippines, it is also hours away from invading the lives of characters we have come to know and love and hate. Characters we have already become invested in, to varying degrees. But because that has happened, we are now more invested and we actually care about these characters and what they will be going through during the war.
The war itself is of course dramatic material on its own. But being able to depict this historical moment with a good helping of character-driven story is a balance not many series are able to make. So if Pulang Araw can handle that, then it will be a big accomplishment indeed.
So moving forward, as we enter wartime, I expect every aspect of the series to level up. We’ll just have to wait and see!
But let’s talk a bit about Week 4 first.
Again, more familiar teleserye tropes with the arranged marriages or looking down on the poor bastard children or sisterly rivalry or the love quadrangle.
But this week I think planted the seeds more than any other week so far in how we might see our Core4 reacting to the war.
Most especially for Eduardo (Aldren Richards). We of course have seen he has some anger issues. But we’ve also seen how he refuses to be stepped on any longer. Especially now that he has a dream to better himself. He’s trying to better himself too for the woman he loves. So that will obviously play a big role in how he responds to the war and fighting for freedom.
Hiroshi (David Licauco), meanwhile, took a big leap in his own story. Especially with the show offering up a bit more on the Tanaka Family and Japanese culture.
Oh, by the way, many kudos to Jacky Woo and Maria Ozawa as Mr. and Mrs. Tanaka. I actually wish we got to see more of them. Especially in exploring more about Japanese culture and Japanese people living in the Philippines at the time as well.
They’ve been great with what little material they’ve had. But as much honorable as the efforts of the Filipino actors speaking Japanese has been, it’s much more refreshing hearing Jacky Woo and Maria Ozawa with more natural deliveries of the Japanese lines. Though the back and forth between English, Tagalog and Japanese can be a bit jarring.
Meanwhile, Adelina (Barbie Forteza) and Teresita (Sanya Lopez)’s relationship of course takes a huge hit. And I wouldn’t be surprised if part of their story during the war is them being separated while on bad terms with each other and then them having to find their way back to each other against all odds too.
And I think that would be a great story to tell. It might honestly even be more interesting than any of the potential romance-focused plot threads with them and the boys.
Also! I loved the quick visit back with the young versions of our Core4 too.
But the highlight of the week for me is the final minutes of Episode 20 and the signaling of this next section of the series. It’s going to be dramatic and heartbreaking and emotional. I have high expectations moving forward. So we’ll see if Pulang Araw can deliver!