Pulang Araw – Episodes 61-65 Thoughts (Week 13)

Pulang Araw – Episodes 61-65 Thoughts (Week 13)

A relatively quiet week on Pulang Araw actually. The bullet points for this week are basically:
-Eduardo learns what happened to Teresita.
-Adelina learns the kidnapped women are being raped
-Eduardo wants to be the hero and save his love.
-Speaking of love, a big focus on Adelina-Hiroshi this week.
-Teresita getting raped by Saitoh after her escape attempt which we all knew was doomed before it even happened.

This week, my nitpicking will focus on two things.

First, it’s something I’ve already mentioned, but has just really gotten worse. And it’s the sound effect thing, whatever you call it, that the show employs in basically every scene. I like to call it an “audio punctuation mark” because it always comes at the end of every line. Sometimes almost hilariously so.

Like I mentioned last week, I know the thinking behind using such a sound effect is to emphasize how what’s being said is so dramatic and heavy. But the sound ends up having the opposite effect. That is, it takes away from the impact of the lines and dialogue.

It gets so excessive until it becomes funny.

Like in this scene where it seems like they were throwing it in every other second:

It’s really distracting. And even laughable. And I hope they cut back on it moving forward.

Pulang Araw Week 13 Recap Review

Highlight performance of the week definitely goes to Sanya Lopez. Really emotional, heavy performance from her this week.

For the substance of the week, everything was okay narrative-wise. But I think this week is one of those weeks that again highlights the limitations of the teleserye format.

I’ve talked about how the format has really affected the show’s pacing. And this week was a good example of how. You could see this week where some events should be in the same “episode” rather than be broken up over a few days.

Like, Hiroshi hitching a ride one day, but being absent the next and reappearing the day after. Or the same thing with Eduardo and the guerillas leaving camp one day and then picking back up with them two days later.

Pulang Araw Week 13 Recap Review

It just messes with the pacing. And then you get a dull episode like the one that has to focus again on Mama Borromeo being a typical teleserye kontrabida in the middle of episodes featuring the emotionally charged sibling reunion and Saitoh’s brutal attack on Teresita. It’s really jarring. Even if binging all five episodes in one sitting.

The pacing also kind of messes with our perception of what is happening. Sometimes, the show can feel so boxed in with drama that feels so irrelevant or small compared to the greater war around these characters. Sometimes it can feel narratively claustrophobic, so to speak.

I definitely think there’s a way to be able to focus on the smaller character moments and each main character’s respective stories while also balancing it with more big picture moments involving the war. That balance is still something I don’t think Pulang Araw has found.

Pulang Araw Week 13 Recap Review

Anyway, let’s talk a little about the stuff that did happen. I did like the scenes with Eduardo and Adelina. A bit over the top at some points. But understandable as well. I actually think we haven’t seen that kind of anger from the Filipinos so far. And we do know Eduardo has some anger management issues. So his reaction and being trigger happy and being stubborn definitely is in character for him. And it’s a welcome moment as I don’t think we’ve seen enough anger at the invaders yet.

Same thing with Adelina whose spunky stubbornness will always get her in more trouble than she needs to be in. That whole scene where she gets dragged away really did not need to be that long. But it was very much in her character to be doing too much lol

Pulang Araw Week 13 Recap Review

The Hiroshi-Adelina stuff was okay. Like, I get it. But at the same time, the show is using typical teleserye love story as a prime motivator again for people’s actions during a war. And it kind of takes away from the gravity of the situation sometimes. Again, it’s that balance in that the idea is okay, but the execution is not the strongest.

We get a little more with the comfort women, but the focus in terms of the hell house was definitely on Teresita.

I only watched the broadcast TV cut of Episode 64. And it was already quite graphic. I can’t imagine what the Netflix version was like. Saitoh licked the blood right? Like, wtf? Demonic indeed! Such a brutal, graphic, disgusting scene. Which, unfortunately, was a situation that did happen during World War II many, many times over all across Asia. So again, it’s a scene that is necessary. Especially for people who have forgotten or did not even know of this part of history.

So 35 episodes left I guess? Seven weeks. At this pace, I can easily see how they can fill those weeks. Like, each week could really just be one hour-long episode. But if it can pack in a lot more story, then that would be better. We’ll see.

Pulang Araw Week 13 Recap Review

This scene ^ gives me hope that we’ll finally get to see some fighting back.

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