FOUR VALUES IN

FILIPINO DRAMA
AND FILM
Nicanor 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.