Awkward Kissing Scenes and Bad Establishing Shots

What I do not get about the Philippine film industry is why it worships romance so much. Don't get me wrong - I love the Philippines and attest to the insane "It's more fun in the Philippines" maxim, and I am not so cynical as to trample on the romanticist beliefs of others, but the blatant trend of Philippine cinema focuses so much on the romantic genre that sometimes I wonder if foreigners think we're always in bed with someone.


No; actually, I get it. Romance, technically, is easy to understand. It's something everyone has experienced at some point. That feeling you get when your limbic system overheats is just too good to pass off as something "normal". Plus, in the entertainment industry, money is the second most important thing (looks being the first; oh, superficiality!) so we, being 1/n Chinese, focus on whatever the market wants most and knows best.

Should we content ourselves with only the satisfaction of watching people fall in love with each other gives us? I understand that our fascination with the opposite sex is entertaining in a primal sense and should somehow be explored via film, but there really is more to capture on camera than a couple of teenagers or middle-aged men and women trying to grope each other. (Or, while on the subject of "romance", we should at least try to appreciate it further and watch films of the genre that are more fulfilling and exposing, like Paris Je T'aime.)

This is why independent films remain independent: why would a producer spend excessive moolah on something that won't guarantee good profit? It's sad because most independent film directors are very talented. What is sadder is that they make films about what actually need to be filmed, especially sociopolitical issues and the human identity. (Check out Nick Deocampo's Revolutions Happen Like Refrains in A Song shot on Super 8 film.)

The saddest part is that we can't exactly blame the film industry. Should we blame ourselves for being willingly ignorant to culture and intellectual depth? Basically, since we are the "market", we dictate what is in the mainstream. In other words, what is in the mainstream reflects the universal mindset of a population. And what is in the mainstream receives the attention.

Our culture can't grow because we don't cultivate it. How can we produce intelligent films if we stay devoted to what doesn't require much brain activity to understand? How can we understand the concept of "love" when films are currently centered on infidelity and mindless copulation? How can we develop an understanding of the human psyche when film characters aren't even remotely realistic and are restricted to certain social classes?

Then again, this is entertainment. Maybe it's just a fad.