There they were, the complete cast of GMA 7’s newest Taiwanese import, The Frog Prince, at the network’s headquarters on October 11. All garbed in stylish white outfits, the leading femmes Joyce Zhao and Joe Chen looked every inch like adorable dolls. On the other hand, the leading men Ming Dao, Sam Wang and Johny Yan, brimmed with pop-idol charm in their retro padded jackets and styled tresses.
They spoke English better than most Filipino actors. They knew how to charm the local media as well with witty replies to standard queries concerning off-screen romances. (“I have no girlfriend now, but if we get to tour Manila tonight maybe be I’ll find one!” exclaimed Ming Dao.)
The plot of The Frog Prince is old hat; another poor and pretty girl falls for another handsome, wealthy hunk. Such a cliché just won’t do justice to the vibrant personalities of these wonderful stars—especially if the show is dubbed in Filipino. But what the local viewers don’t know won’t hurt them. They’ll be getting just half of what the cast has to offer though one half of these beautiful people are better than nothing. GMA 7 is well aware of this as the phrase “Made in Taiwan” now offers a different connotation, especially if it’s a teleserye.
The network’s head of program management Jose Mari Abacan told Life & Times that The Frog Prince is the biggest teleserye to hit Taiwan. “It was actually bigger than Meteor Garden and we have high hopes for it in the Philippines. It did very well on its premiere night on Monday,” he said.
Abacan is tasked to travel to Taiwan and Korea to shop for teleseryes. He claimed it isn’t hard to make a decision when it comes to selecting a show. He chooses whatever clicks in Taiwan and Korea. He noted that Taiwanese, Koreans and Filipinos have the same tastes when it comes to TV shows. And if the cast is very good looking, it’s sure to become a monster hit.
“Like the Mexican telenovelas, the Asian telenovelas are easy to grasp. There’s always the underdog to root for. The Asian telenovelas eventually took over when Filipino viewers discovered the Asian superstars. They didn’t look like Caucasians but they were very good looking. It was even easier to relate to them than the Mexicans,” Abacan explained.
Although the Mexican productions have run their course on Philippine television, Abacan sees no end to the Asian fever, not in the immediate future anyway. Every show that had been shipped in from Taiwan or Korea had been a hit in the Philippines, he claimed. None of the imports have ever flopped.
“We’ve been watching Chinese programs for a long time. Remember the Beautiful Sunday shows they aired every Sunday morning? That was our first taste of Chinese programming. They weren’t dubbed but we still took time to watch them. So in a way, our fondness for Chinese shows evolved in as much as they’re on prime-time now,” he said.
Abacan also claimed that the influx of Asian teleseryes has been good for local television. While he admitted it was less costly to import a show than to produce an elaborate production like Sugo, the imports also inspired local producers to come up with high quality teleseryes. “If you’ll notice, the production values of Asian shows are very high, even better than the Mexican shows. Right now, if you watch the locally produced teleseryes, they’re striving to at least equal the other Asians in terms of production values,” he said.
Yet Life & Times noted that high-quality programming from Hollywood has long been on Philippine television and they did nothing to inspire local producers. Abacan explained that Hollywood shows offer a vastly different culture, unlike the Asian shows, which is closer to home. “My favorite show is Desperate Housewives. It’s a fantastic series but a local producer would find it too hard to offer something similar to what that great show has to offer. The culture it projects is much too different. The average Filipino can never relate to it,” he pointed out.
When asked if the dubbing of shows in Filipino actually affected the quality of the original material, Abacan said: “We would have used subtitles instead but it would be harder for the mass audience to grasp. It’s hard to translate the foreign languages on paper.
Meanwhile, thanks to the Asian teleseryes, Philippine television is suffering from a trade deficit of sorts, with the Philippines on the losing end. Abacan said GMA 7 is trying to fix this. It is marketing Sugo in Taiwan and the United States and he said the response to the show has so far been encouraging.
While Abacan reiterated he sees no end to the popularity of Korean and Taiwanese shows, he said he knows where to shop next once this happens. “They have great things showing in India, Japan and Malaysia. Wait until you see them!”
Posted on Nov 5, 2006, 5:06 PM from IP address 203.177.249.175