Women Empowerment on sexual discourse seen in Philippine Sex Melodrama

This post is based on ““Woman’s Body Power” in Philippine Sex Melodramas”  of Jamal Ashley Abbas

                          The article stated that sex melodrama should be an official genre in Philippine Cinema. It defined the genre, a dramatic story which has sex as its theme. It also touched Mulvey’s Male gaze theory, the scopophillic characteristic of the spectator in viewing the actress as a sexual object in the film. And the article is also based on Weber’s three dimensions of difference. The class, status and power. And Wilhelm Reich thoughts on sexuality and also Michae Foucalt’s “technologies of the self”

                              

                         It describes the Philippines sex melodrama as an Film genre in the Philippines which shows woman empowerment. Like for example 

 

                     Vilma Santo’s Burlesque queen it showed how the character of Vilma uses her body as her source of life and also she uses this to manipulate the man that has been with her. This clearly showed that the woman is the one controlling the flow of the film. And not just a mere sexual object that is used in a film for erotic spectacle. 

Apparatus Theory: Cinema as an Institutional State Apparatus

According to Apparatus theory “Cinema is by nature ideological because it’s mechanics of representation are ideological. The central position of the spectator within the perspective of the composition is also ideological”

According to Karl Marx in order to obtain a classes society capitalism should be stopped. We all know that in Capitalism, All businesses are privately owned by the people. Meaning, all the rich people will stay rich while the poor continues to be enslaved by the rich. Like how the students nowadays attend an expensive university just to be able to work for those rich people who own big business in our country.

According to the Apparatus theory the cinema is being used as an apparatus, by the people controlling the cinema with their money, to let the people think that what’s happening is just a normal thing. Meaning cinema is being used as an Institutional State Apparatus (ISA). That them being enslaved by the rich is what’s right. Because according to Lacan people watching cinema thinks that the big screen is a mirror, that they are put in a situation that they see themselves in the shoes of the protagonist.  Just like what the Screen Theory says “It is the spectacle that creates the spectator and not the other way around”. Spectators are being fooled by the movies that they are watching they are being lured into a world of enslavery. 

Cinematic Desire

According to Mr. Slavoj Zizek "Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. It doesn't give you what you desire, it tells you how to desire"

Which I agree when you go to a certain movie house to watch a film you don't actually go there expecting to watch something you desire. if you watch a movie the possibility is that you put yourselves in the shoes of a certain character and after watching the film you would also desire the things that happen to that character.

Even if sometimes what the movie is showing is something that is not fair you naturally accept it knowing that it is natural because that is what you've witnessed.

Like for example the matrix in the film you we're shown that there is two other world the dream world and the reality what if there really is the dream world are we truly being blinded by the materialistic things around us. What if we really are being slaves of the richest people in the world. You all should have the desire to wake up from the dream and be in reality.

Auteur Theory in FIlm

Auteur Theory explains that the director is the main author of the film It is not the writer but the director. And it says that the each director has different way to make a film or he or she will put his own trademark in the film that He will do. Like what we had discuss on our film class using Harry Potter as an example even though the 9 movies has the same story and all written by Rowling the movies has different Director whcih made some of the movies different from the rest.

FEMINIST THEORY IN FILM

Early feminist criticism was focused on the issue of stereotyping mostly in Hollywood film. Because of the repeated roles of females in films such as a negative distraction on the male lead. That's why the females called for  positive image for womens in cinema. But they thought that the positive image is not just enough so the theorist studied the power of the male imagery so that they will have the way to equate the female to the male in which sexual difference is encoded.

SERBIS (SERVICE) by Briliante Mendoza

         

  Serbis is a movie which basically revolved around a porno theater  which is owned by the Pineda family the film the whole film was actually filmed in that theater.
            Gays often come there not to watch the porno films but to get service from boys who needs money by service I mean sexual service.
            The film showed what people can do in middle of poverty. Although the scenes where the camera is tracking the characters through the corridors took a lot of time it also showed the lives of people that is caged in that kind of lifestyle how they can't get away and their successors will also get the life that tey get used to.
             I really liked the color of the whole film how yellowish each frame looks and how genuine each of the characters emotions are.
           

Who killed the Philippine cinema?

                         During the 50’s Philippine cinema was travelling around the world and making a name of its own. It’s a wonder why the Philippine cinema sudden dropped. So the question is who killed the Philippine Cinema?

                              

  Pepe Diokno talked about this issue during his time on TED talk. He pointed out the percent that the government’s having in each film. And if you’ll know it is so much that some producers aren’t taking the risk of making movies.

                                And it is also somewhat the audience fault. They didn’t patronize our own films that’s why producers are afraid of taking the risks of not having any profit at all. On the other hand, it can also be the producers fault maybe the audience wants something more like Lord of the rings or Harry Potter. But the producers fail to give them what they want.

                                And in the end it is not just the film industry that is suffering also the country itself. Because in a movie it is not just the movie that they’re promoting but also the country so maybe it would be better if the government were to focus some of their attention to the Philippine Film Industry.