FOUR VALUES IN FILIPINO DRAMA

AND FILMNicanor Tiongson

Symbols of Social Stratification in the Philippines

• Light coloring is correlated with intelligence and a light-skinned attractive person will receive advancement before his or her colleagues.

• Family position and patron-client associations are useful in achieving success.

• Money to buy consumer goods is an indicator of power.

• Owning a vehicle is a clear statement of a high social level.

• Women above the poverty level have extensive wardrobes.

• Sending one's children to the best schools is the most important indicator of social position.

Aesthetics

• is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.

• sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.

• defined as "critical reflection on art, culture and nature.“

• studies new ways of seeing and of perceiving the world.

White is Beautiful

During the Spanish times:

• To be a prince or a princess in a komedya, one had to “look the part”.

• One had to have sharp nose, big eyes, small mouth, and most of all, white skin.

• He or she had to have magandang tindig, which is to be “tall like a man.”

During the American regime:

• Bodabil not only singled out Filipinos who can do imitations but necessarily favored the Caucasian-looking either as the closer imitations of the “originals” or as “leading mans types”, above the “ethnic-looking” who, in spite of their superior talent, were relegated to slapstick comedians and roles of maids or minor friends.

Shows are the Best

Forms of Entertainment before:

• Komedya• Sinakulo• Zarzuela• Dramas• Bodabil• Stage show

Hurrah for the Undergo

• In the Spanish times the two principal forms of literature and their dramatic counterparts set up two types of heroes for the indios edification and emulation.

• The pasyon and its dramatic counterpart, the sinakulo.

• The awits and koridos and their dramatic counterparts, the komedya and the moro-moro.

• During the American regime, usually has for heroines are, blushing rural maids, utusans, labanderas, tinderas of sampaguita or kakanin who are hounded by various relentless furies, represented by adject poverty by rich donyas, evil madastras, malicious mother-in-law, and ugly but well dressed step-sisters.

All is Right in the World

• In Spanish times, the colonial dramas always ended with the affirmation that all evil are punished and all good are rewarded.

• In American times, the maudlin heroines and shy heroes of the dramas and zarzuelas were showered with happy endings usually in the form of marriage to a rich man’s son or daughter and were besieged by teary repentance of donyas, madrastas and sisters-in-law.