Perhaps the most eventful week of Pulang Araw so far. I think this is the kind of week I wish we got around Week 10. Or even better, much earlier than that. We’re in the thick of the war with still lots of ground to cover. But we only have five weeks left?!
We start the week with the big revelation about Col. Yuta’s backstory. Maybe not a surprise that he is half-Filipino. But unexpected to have the detail about his Filipino father being an abusive maniac to his Japanese mother. It’s very interesting because the revelation isn’t really meant to humanize him, per se. But maybe more of an example of the cyclical nature of violence and war. You can understand where Yuta is coming from, especially having to suffer from an abusive father who ended up murdering his mother.
Obviously, his anger toward all Filipinos is misplaced and unjustifiable. But it does give him an extra motive aside from Japanese imperialism.
The reveal also plays into what should be one of the main threads of the series and that is family. What would one do for their family? We saw several examples this week. And that’s really what drove the other four episodes of the week.
First Papa Tanaka risking his life to see his son and then talking about the betrayal by Col. Yuta in not punishing the murderer of Mama Tanaka. That’s certainly one example of potentially prioritizing family over country.
We of course have Adelina and her siblings. Auntie Amalia thinking of her daughter Luisa. And Mama Borromeo caring only about her daughter. So plenty of different stories about how families are affected during this time of war.
It was nice having Adelina finding Luisa on the streets. It was a bit of a motivator for Adelina as she embarks on her dangerous new role. But it of course makes Auntie Amalia’s desperation more realized as well. Her separation from Luisa feels so long ago. So bringing her back on the scene helps a lot.
It’s nice to see these kinds of different pieces from earlier in the series come together in engaging ways. But it certainly doesn’t excuse the long, drawn out build up to get to this point.
This week was all about close calls as well. We had the doomed-from-the-start escape attempt. (With another on the way! lol) Teresita was never going to get killed off this soon of course. And Adelina going on her weapons delivery mission.
Both had predictable outcomes. But with Teresita, it did help to drive the part of the story where Mama Borromeo finally gets a clue (and somewhat of a grip on reality!) about the true horrors of this war.
It was great to see some big battle scenes (even if in the dark of night where we can barely see anything). And they reminded us that there is indeed evil and darkness on all sides. That fact doesn’t absolve anyone. But it is an unfortunate reality of war.
Speaking of evil on all sides, the show never fails to continue to make Mama Borromeo out to be an irredeemable bitch. Seriously! Not even a joke. How infuriating the way she initially brushes aside learning a nun and child were raped and abused so long as her own daughter wasn’t involved. Like, hello?
Not even any shock or show of concern? Too much of a caricature of a typical teleserye villain rather. I guess the show is making her this way so we can all agree that her eventual comeuppance will be well-deserved. But as I’ve mentioned throughout the series so far, she can come across as too cartoonish. Or teleserye-ish, in this case rather than a multi-faceted character with depth. You can’t even root for her against Col. Yuta because you know how it’s going to end anyway.
It’s things like that and the incessantly questionable sound design that can take away from truly profound moments.
Like seriously,
Please stop with the odd sound design. It is so unnecessary. 😫 pic.twitter.com/ML1RtVyqli
— DryedMangoez (@dryedmangoez) November 11, 2024
I’m not doing anything to the audio. It’s like they clicked the wrong button and it dropped that sound effect at regular couple of second intervals. It’s like you’re watching a spoof or parody.
Scenes really don’t need that audio punctuation to make a scene more impactful or dramatic.
As evidenced by the entire sequence leading up to Mrs. Dolores’ execution.
First of all, standing ovation to Isay Alvarez please. Just an emotional and heartbreaking performance. The show definitely did not use her as much as they should have. But she delivered what had to be one of the single best performances of the entire series with this sequence in Episode 73.
From her song to Dolores pleading with Teresita to allow her to make this sacrifice; this is the kind of heavy, emotionally devastating moment that has been absent far too much in this series. Especially when we are now 3/4 through. And when paired with some of the more weakly executed (not in the killing sense of course lol) moments and developments, it only just elevates a sequence like this more. And makes those weak aspects even more noticeable.
Moving forward, we are seeing the lines being drawn and lines being crossed even more. This week showed how to properly escalate the drama and tension in a way that was really sporadic in the first 50 episodes. But now that we are heading into the final weeks, let’s hope they don’t take their foot off the gas pedal. Or let go of the reins of the horse attached to the kalesa at least.