Sure there are good Filipino films that attract the attention of quirky art awards bodies every now and then. But why are the hits confined to low-brow downright crappy flicks that cast the likes of Vice Ganda, Vic Sotto, and Kris Aquino? The key lies in the Filipino audience.
Filipinos don’t like to think. Therefore every nuance of plot, every dimension of a punchline, every reference to a cultural artefact needs to be spelt out explicitly. There is no leaving it to the audience’s imagination in Philippine movie-making. Humour needs to be slapstick, drama needs to be cheesy, and action needs to be exaggerated. The alternative is to leave your audience scratching their heads.
This does not leave much to creative writers to work with. Like children’s books that require lots of pictures to make sense to their readers, creatives are hamstrung by their Filipino audience’s narrow attention spans. And this is why Filipino films suck — because they spoonfeed their viewers.
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Webmaster of Get Real Philippines