Comic versus serious

Sociologists and other social scientists shall, in considering one factor, have a lot of studying and explaining to do on the evolving mindset of many Filipinos. The factor I am talking about is the viewership aspect of the just concluded Metro Manila Film Festival. To be precise, I ask them to research why the greater number of fans went to certain movies and not to others. I am certain that they can come up with a more studious and profound analysis, but to coax them to look in the topic, I offer superficial observations for starters.

The Metro Manila Development Authority, for a number of years, has been authorized to anchor and organize the said film festival. It reported unprecedented successes. Hundreds of thousands of Metro Manilans accordingly trooped to the movie houses and watched their favorite films and stars.

Incomplete reports indicated that the top two movies, in terms of viewership were "My Little Bossings" and "Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy." They were runaway winners registering sales far bigger than the rest of the entries. Upon such indication, I can only conclude that in commanding the patronage of the biggest number of moviegoers, these two films must have appealed to the hearts and minds of the fans.

To confess, I have not seen both films as I have not gone to the movies for a long time now. So I will not attempt to make a deeper review of them even if I am ready to concede that the technical aspect of their production must have reached appreciable heights in filmmaking. But, while that may be so, it is rather easy to assume from the title of "My Little Bossings" that the plot must be about kids. Usually, children are fun to be with and I can surmise that this movie became the top grosser of the festival because it relates to the fun-loving character of the Filipinos.

It is comparably more difficult to fathom why "Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy" became the second top-grosser. The subject of the film, again from its title, is, to me, loaded as it must be sensitive. When one talks about deviant characters, he is likely to touch sensitive nerves. Unless the presentation of the move is done in the lightest and most realistic possible manner, there cannot be a more deviant set of roles to portray than being bakla or tomboy.

Fun, therefore, seems to be the common feature of these two top sellers in the film festival. They must have elicited the biggest of guffaws among moviegoers enough to forget the natural tragedies that hit our country. For all we know, patrons went to see them for the singular objective of entertainment and of giving themselves some kind of a stress debriefing.

I understand that among the entries in the film festival was a movie about Pedro Calungsod, a newly-canonized saint of Filipino blood. Unless there is a twist in the plot somewhere, and by the way, that should not actually be entirely uncommon, the title suggests that the movie revolves around a certain part of the life of the saint. In any means, the treatment should be serious and when so viewed, the movie relates with the sensitive feelings of the religious.

That should explain why this film was viewed by among the least number of moviegoers in the film festival. It must be the rib-tickling antics of "My Little Bossings" and "Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy" that made them the two top grosser movies over the sensitive subject of Pedro Calungsod. In other words, during the festival, more people preferred to laugh and enjoy rather than learn about the life of a saint. This is where sociologists and social scientists need to tell us why we seem to favor the comic over the serious and more importantly, with this mental frame, what do we have in store for the future.