Taste and Preferences in Philippine Movies

According to Cirilo Bautista, an award-winning fictionist and poet in the Philippines, the Philippine people:

“are victims of popular entertainment which engenders low taste. Television programs and the movies are dominated by stories, talk shows and contests that perpetuate intellectual and aesthetic stagnation with their stereotype techniques and shallow subjects. In the long run, this has created a visually-oriented society for whom colorful images are the height of artistry and profound thinking is optional.”

This is a searing indictment of the state of Philippine Cinema and the arts. If you watch noontime television shows, you will get the point. The masses are flocking to these shows like sheep in search of green, green grass. They want to have money. By doing this, they become the laughing stock of the whole country for their antics in the so-called “reality TV.”

The movies are not much different. Every now and then, we hear about a good movie that defies convention and still make money in the box-office. We have the likes of Ishmael Bernal and Lino Brocka who had their share of commercial flicks. But they never forgot to make the movies that left an indelible mark in Philippine Cinema and society. For every two commercial films that Brocka made, he filmed a quality movie that arrested the imagination of the people and left them wondering what is going on in the broader society.

Who is to blame?

Is it the masses who have low taste and who enjoy slapstick humor, cheesy dialogs and formulaic films?

Should we rather blame the producers who are after the money of the people without even considering that film, as an art form, has the capacity to captivate people and lead them to think more deeply about the state of their lives and the state of our society?

Another important question is whether these people truly deserve feel-good and crappy films. How do producers perceive the movie industry?

When these people favor money over quality, when they keep on producing blockbusters that are supposed to make money and make people happy, at least on the surface, they are furthering the intellectual degradation of Philippine society.

There are a number of movies that I consider quality. But they all seem to belong to an era long gone. Now is the time for cheap thrills and formulaic entertainment. I really squirmed when I saw the full-length feature movie, Urduja. It is not because of the technical aspect of the film. It was rather good in that area.

What struck me is the lack of historical research on a historical character! Is that poetic license? I don’t think so! It shows laziness and an insult to the viewing public. I don’t have qualms against postmodern and smorgasbord type of movies. But if you base your story on a historical figure, then at least have the decency to do your research and make the story worth the while of the people.

Even the use of language in the movie Urduja smacks of colloquialism that is utterly out of place in the setting and atmosphere of the movie. Too bad, just too bad. Let’s just comfort ourselves that Filipino animators, who are being hired by Disney and other production outfits in the world, have a chance to showcase their wares and the Filipino talent. I’m saying this because the movie has a lot of potential wasted because of its story.

Stereotype techniques and shallow subjects! Cirilo Bautista was right. Our society has low taste in the arts. And perhaps we deserve it!

Good thing, there are independent films that experiment and explore the boundaries of film as an art form. They deal with topics that commercial producers would be afraid of. They show us our foibles and our mistakes as individuals, as people, and as a nation.

I hope that good quality movies in the tradition of Bernal and Brocka will be produced once again and usher an enlightened and golden era of Philippine movies. We just might start thinking profoundly. And who knows what will happen if we do that!