I've been in the Philippines for nearly six months, so naturally, my update is about a Pinoy soap opera called Forevermore. I've been busy with farming/gardening as well as raising chickens and I also have some random observations about the Philippines since moving back, but maybe I'll post about those later. In the meantime, here's some observations about a soap opera set in my hometown:
Disclaimer: I’ve only watched the first 30 episodes.
1) The truck owned by the Calay’s has an Igorotak sticker. Cool.
2) Cool also that they sometimes speak Ilokano.
3) More cool stuff: the two main characters did a native dance with what appears to be Ibaloi garb.
4) The show is pretty funny, e.g. lines from Mang Bangky.
5) ‘Mang Bubs’ sounds like ‘man boobs’.
6) The ethnic group of the farming family is ambiguous. It seems like they’re Ibaloi, but its unclear. I wonder if that's intentional on the part of the producers.
7) Its pretty funny that everytime someone is having a conversation in the show, there’s a 90% chance that someone will happen to overhear the conversation. Probably a standard soap technique.
8) Although occasionally corny and over the top (hey, its a soap), this show is pretty good. I was originally going to joke that it looks like that the verbal abuse of the director must’ve paid off. But then, it turns out the verbal abuse was only directed towards the extras.
9) The theme song sounds like Cat Stevens ‘The First Cut is the Deepest’.
10) The best thing about the show, of course -- it was shot in Baguio.
