For week 5, I’ll get the narrative nitpicking out of the way first before getting to the positive stuff. And then finish off with some general comments about the show itself.
One of the focal points, if not the biggest focus, of the week was the not-love triangle/quadrangle/sister drama, however you want to put it. Basically, the plot point of our Core4 being martyrs in love. It was honestly the least interesting thing about the five episodes this week.
It’s also unexpected that they would resolve the sister drama already. If they weren’t going to use that as a point of contention during the war, then what was the use of even having that conflict in the first place? Kind of a waste of some potential character-driven motivations in the midst of the chaos of war.
Related to that, Adelina’s pakialamera vibes hopping into the trucks rounding up the Japanese people and acting like some wannabe hero was a bit cringe. Like, obviously she is one of the four heroes of this series as a part of the Core4. But she was really doing too much. At some points, she came across as quite pandering and pretentious.
I guess my main gripe with all of this is that it took away from what should be a more urgent and chaotic period between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the arrival of the Japanese forces in the Philippines. Of course, it’s not like every single Filipino was running around panicking in the streets or something.
But perhaps my annoyance is just how the teleserye format affects pacing and how you experience the narrative. Five whole episodes mainly focused on typical soap opera stuff between the major events with the more interesting moments merely sprinkled throughout; it can be a bit jarring. And I watched the episodes in two sittings (the first three episodes of the week on Sunday and the other two episodes together on Wednesday). I can’t even imagine having to watch the series nightly instead. But maybe Filipino audiences are just perfectly wired in with the teleserye format that it’s second nature to them.
Anyway, everything else really was more exciting and engaging to watch. Even if I can understand that even after the attack on Pearl Harbor, life still went on for most Filipinos during the ten-hour period. And that includes petty family drama of the Borromeos lol
The scenes of the poor, innocent Japanese people living in the Philippines getting rounded up was a great first example of how war is absolutely horrific for everyone involved. And how innocent people on both sides are always the ones who suffer the most. And this is only just the beginning of course, sadly.
From those scenes to Hiroshi being attacked by locals to the situation with Eduardo trying to protect the Tanakas to Lt. Col. Saitoh’s self-serving machinations; these were all much more intriguing to watch.
Plus, I very much loved the quick scene of the younger versions of the Core4 once again.
And then the final minutes of Episode 25 were just breathtaking and emotional.
It was so interesting to hear the radio report talking about the initial attacks on Davao, Baguio and Tuguegarao. I honestly did not know that those areas had been attacked earlier in the morning since the focus of encyclopedias and Microsoft Encarta entries that I had read during my life rarely mentioned that and would only focus on the initial attack on Manila and Clark.
I wouldn’t have even known about Japanese forces invading Cagayan had it not been for my grandparents telling me about them living through that time. Experiencing the terror and worry first hand when they had to leave their hometown and run to hide in the mountains for most of the war. I really cherish my grandparents having told their stories to me as I grew up.
https://x.com/dryedmangoez/status/1828684381462073549
There’s already a lack of film depictions of the war in the Philippines. Even less so for seeing the experiences of Filipinos depicted on screen beyond Manila or Clark, etc. So as I tweeted the other day, just seeing and hearing that mention of Tuguegarao really made me emotional.
So the final minutes of Episode 25 were really well done. And I hope we get more of that rather than typical teleserye beats moving forward.
Now changing topics a little bit, I kind of want to talk about a recent post by the show’s creator. She talks about criticism regarding the show’s characters switching languages and stuff like that.
Basically she says the jumping around using different languages each line for each character comes down to accessibility and marketability to the Filipino audience. Which is understandable. But she goes on to specifically say that using English or especially Japanese would alienate Filipino audiences.
Then she talks about how most Filipinos, specifically the “masa” or the poorer majority of the country, have either small TVs or are only watching TV on cell phones. And the use of subtitles further alienates and pushes away Filipinos from the show. Not only that, but she is sure that most of the Netflix audience in the Philippines have big TVs so they can read subtitles.
I don’t even know where to start with this. I think first of all, it’s a bit condescending to belittle the Filipino audience. Whether it’s their ability to have small or big TVs or their ability to understand or appreciate languages other than Filipino or be able to read subtitles. Or even just read, period.
I was immediately reminded of Bong Joon Ho’s quote about subtitles. “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
And it’s very true. Subtitles should not be a hindrance to people. For me, I prefer subtitles over dubbing, for example. Usually dubbing loses the emotional essence of the original performance. And there have definitely been some instances here on Pulang Araw where the forced accents or the language-switching causes jarring whiplash for scenes. Where the emotions and weight of dialogue and the actors’ performances are lost, affected and sometimes even come to a halt because of that barrier.
But specifically to what she says, it’s really disheartening that we have to seemingly lower the standard for the mainstream public instead of making an effort to raise everyone up.
It took a while for Filipinos to get used to network wars and having teleseryes fill both the afternoon and primetime schedules. So why not get the ball rolling with Filipinos so they can start adapting and being more open to hearing Japanese being spoken for more than just a line every couple of minutes, for example.
Remember, this is the same Filipino “masa” audience who loves to watch subtitled Korean dramas. And, let’s be honest, many Filipinos have turned to Korean drama because local Filipino dramas just don’t cut it anymore.
Then there’s the idea that the Filipino “masa” don’t have big enough TVs or that only Netflix-viewers have them. Yet, even legitimately poor Filipinos have the latest cell phones and HD flatscreens. Heck, Filipinos know how to cast their smartphones to their HD smart TVs. And poor Filipinos have Netflix subscriptions that they watch on their phones only too. So that argument really rubs the wrong way.
Well, whatever. I just had to offer my two cents on that. I’m all for offering bigger and better local Filipino content to Filipino audiences. But let’s have a little bit more faith and belief in what Filipinos, “masa” or not, can handle in terms of entertainment offerings.