AMILYN

I have a question…

What line of thinking would be crossing someone’s mind when they come up with the bright idea of sneaking into someone’s room in the dead of the night and somehow manages to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of dyeing said someone’s hair all while making sure they don’t wake up their victim? And more importantly, why would they do such a thing? What is this, some sort of twisted prank? I don’t remember crossing someone as of late ( I mean I sure hope I didn’t cross someone).

BAGANI POSTER

So after Enca I decided to take a long break because, updating five times a week for ten months straight wasn’t easy as ABC, and I wasn’t really interested in any of the upcoming shows although I did consider following Mulawin vs Ravena but Mulawin is not really my thing eversince so I passed, La Luna Sangre was pretty interesting too but I was reluctant since it was a sequel to Lobo and Imortal and I never watched any of those, so baka hindi ko ma-gets ‘yung story, and the rest were either too pabebe for my liking or too cliche and overly dramatic af (in short, boring) so I just went back to binge-watching Kdramas UNTIL @9ri sent me a photo about an upcoming LizQuen show called ‘Bagani,’ and even before ABS dropped it’s trailer the show was already receiving a lot of backlash because: 1. Bagani allegedly copied the story of Enca, and 2. the cast were too mestizo/mestiza and do not look “very Filipino” at all, now here’s what I have to say:

Bagani and Encantadia are two DIFFERENT stories, although I have to admit when @9ri sent me the photo of LizQuen’s new show/Bagani’s launch, I did sense some Encantadia vibes in there because who wouldn’t? The concept is quite similar but it’s not entirely the same you know what I mean? When someone writes a fantasy story inspired by Filipino folklore and myths, expect to meet gods, giants, etc. and it [almost] always involves the elements of nature so what’s the big deal? Surely a lot of stories in this world do have some similarities but that doesn’t mean they copied each other’s ideas, at the end of the day sa story-telling ‘yan nagkakatalo mga bes! I watched Bagani’s first set of episodes and it’s completely different from Encantadia, trust me. So please stop ranting about who’s copying who, just enjoy the show and appreciate the fact the Filipino show’s are really bringing their A-games to give the viewers the kind of entertainment we deserve.

Now with the cast ensemble, I have to say when it comes to honing their artists, ABS-CBN does it waaaaaay better which is why when a new show comes out especially in Primetime, I’m not worried about the actors messing up. They always, ALWAYS cast the best of the best, and the newbies CAN keep up with the veteran actors (in general) which is why I admire a lot of actors from ABS. There’s no questioning about the performances of Bagani’s cast, everyone is doing great so far even the newbie Sofia BUT the fact they fake tanned the actors just to make them look more “Filipino” or “Tribal-looking” or whatevah is not cool, some actors like Quen and Rayver look orange-y and sometimes yellowish, like…wtf? I know people from the desert region are supposed to have dark skin, but hey they don’t look brown or tanned, I don’t know if it’s the lighting that’s making them look orange, but it’s not cute. I personally prefer an actor who’s much more Filipino-looking than LizQuen, Matteo and Sofia (excluding Makisig of course). But then again, take Amaya for example, the main character was portrayed by Marian Rivera who’s by the way half-Spanish, but why wasn’t that a big deal back then considering that it was clearly inspired by the Philippine history specifically during the pre-Spanish era? Surely there weren’t any Filipino mestizo during that time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not bashing Amaya, I just used the show as an example and I hope everyone gets the point. What I’m trying to say is, I would rather go for someone who’s features do not fit the character description but can deliver so well and give justice to the character than someone who looks perfect for the role but fucks up in the end, remember: a bad make-up is easier to fix than a bad performance.

Now for Bagani’s pilot week:

So the story opens with a young man fighting a dragon and from a distance was a boy telling the viewers the story of his “pinaka petmalung lodi” Lakas and the story of Bagani unfolds.

The Petmalu:

-The cinematography, like I said in the trailer was A-MAZING, it was breath-taking, each region has their own unique feels to it which I really really like, my favorite so far is the Patag region what’s yours?

-The backstory is fast-paced without neglecting every details that we need to know, a lot of shows usually fuck up in this area but I must say they nailed it.

-Great performance from the stellar cast, as expected, they did not disappoint. It’s only the first week and they already set the bar high, there wasn’t anyone who showed a ‘waley’ performance, even their extras can act quite well.

-The fact that they did a legit outdoor taping is more than enough to show the viewers that they are dead serious about this show, and they are really working hard to make this show an epic one. It’s not easy to film under the scorching heat of the sun but, they did it! And for that, I have such high respect to each and everyone, hands down! Definitely A+ for efforts.

The Waley:

-Please fix Enrique’s fake tan because I cannot stand it, oh wait, not just Quen’s but the rest of the Disyerto tribe. Thanks!

Lodi of the Week: Christian Vasquez

~I couldn’t say much about the show yet because it just started, and I haven’t really fallen in-love with Bagani…yet, but I’m really, really liking it so far.

Let me start by saying I don’t watch Filipino TV series. I think they’re very corny. The only reason I know about Bagani is because like everyone else in the Philippines, I have a huge crush on Liza Soberano. She is, of course, beautiful in not just the physical sense but that’s a whole other post.

I read recently that there are some who have criticized the casting of Liza and Enrique on this TV series because they are partly white and not really representing Filipinos. The producer has defended the casting saying it’s a fictional world. Liza tweeted in response to someone saying she’s as Pinoy as it can get, and there’s a post here making fun of her “I love sinigang” remark which in all honesty is pretty dang funny and accurate. 

It is absolutely no question that being fair-skinned is a standard of beauty in the Philippines. Just a glance at the list of celebrities and we’ll see that most of them are half-Filipino and half-American or European, which is the case for both Liza and Enrique. It seems to be that Filipino genes mixed with anything else results in a... really handsome/beautiful person. But this is just regarding physical appearance and standards of beauty, of course. Is it wrong that having fair-skin is what’s considered beautiful in the nation? I think so. Is it the fault of these actors and actresses? Definitely not.

But it’s the accurate representation of a Filipino that’s being criticized here. Could Liza, Enrique, and any other mixed blood Pinoys represent Filipinos on the screen? I definitely think they can. If the criticism is that they’re “fair skinned”, does this mean fair skinned Pinoys are not really Pinoys? If it’s about their mixed blood, are we in the Wizarding World where there’s Purebloods, Blood Traitors, and Muggles/Mudbloods? If we’re criticizing two people who can speak Tagalog and who have been exclusively in the Philippine entertainment industry for years now for “misrepresenting” Filipinos in a TV show that will air to Filipino audiences, why are we so proud of Dave Bautista, Bruno Mars, Nicole Scherzinger, and Hailee Steinfeld who have Filipino blood to represent us on a global scale?

A BAGANI THEORY:

Here’s my own understanding of the trailer so far and some theories regarding it. The Bagani trailer begins with the introduction of the five regions of Sansinukub.

Contradict to what I assumed before, which was about elemental tribes, I think these regions represent the old way of living. The maharlikas, which I guess is the seat of power. I think their source of power is ginto. As you know, gold is found in bedrocks so if gold is to be found it will be found on the surface, on the shore or in the valley where a stream is flowing through. (We haven’t seen the full view of the place but there’s water?) This gold or ginto are harvested by the low class men or workers (Who were casted away and made their own place.) Now they are known as the people from the desert or mga taga disyerto whose primary goal is to invade fertile lands/tribes. Then the fishermen or mangingisdas, ther farmers or magsasaka and the forest people (I’d like to assume that they’re the first katutubos.)

Now as this is kinda of a Filipino folklore, back then even without religion, we believed in a higher power. In Bagani, I think there is two higher power: the god of creation and the god of destruction. And since it is in their nature, the god of destruction is probably bored with peace and harmony so he decided to play a game or whatever you call it when a god sends a number of monsters to disrupt peace.

So this is how I think Bagani will be formed. Chaos and monsters are everywhere, spreading horror throughout the tribes. That’s when Lakas decided to make a team of warriors (the sons and daughters of the the tribe leaders). Since the god of destruction is having too much fun (HAHA), the god of creation made a decision...and that is too bestow borrowed powers to their weapons. That’s my explanation regarding why they were struck with colorful lightning.

I think the story will revolve around how this five, especially Lakas, be able to achieve peace. How they’ll be able to develop friendship and most importantly how they will learn to trust each other and themselves