Princess and I: Week 2 Review

wellflower's comments:

I think in a way, drama, shows and movies are like poems. You show and not tell. This is pretty much the reason why even though I know that Rio is getting ahead of Jao this keeps Jao unbalanced and cold and nasty. However, I don’t feel it. In an episode, the competition between Jao and Rio could have served a greater purpose if it was executed well. However, the show only told us that Rio proposed something really great in the council of Drukpah and we weren’t even given the opportunity to see for ourselves how great that proposal is. You see? It would have elevated the stakes nicely if Jao was able to see that great proposal and he starts to doubt himself and he takes such doubts on the people. Then, we pretty much get the reason why Jao is acting baldy and badly. We could have empathized with him. It’s also why it was hard to learn to like him even at the half part of the week. The only part I was able to believe in his character was in the fourth episode and that I think is long overdue.

I’ll talk about the language issue for the last time so please allow me. The show used two kinds of devices to overcome the differences in language, with subtitles and voice over. But this is problematic in a sense that the use of these devices is totally arbitrary. I HIGHLY SUGGEST, if any prod staff ever reads this, I HOPE THAT YOU PICK ONE DEVICE AND MAKE UP YOUR MIND. Another tricky thing is, when they use voice over the pauses do not cut the sentences per idea. In one of the dialogues, the king paused four times for just a one-idea sentence and I’m telling you it’s bothering. It’s like a pirated CD. Or Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.”

I’m rooting for the bestfriend romance between Kiko and Mikay since they have good rapport for me. Although I’m kind of being swayed by Jao’s coquetry but sorry because of your manners, I have to let you down. The romance of the show is a good investment although as an audience you wish the show to offer more. They have expensive adult actors so they should play the political, more devious and more intellectual slice of the show. Jao and Rio’s competition could have been a good take off for this. The bittersweet could have beens.

neonkim's comments:

I think this drama's having an identity crisis. It's a Filipino drama with Filipino actors and a Filipino production team, but story-wise it's more like half-Yangdonese (and in reality it's half-Bhutanese) because it's really about the missing princess of Yangdon, who is half-Filipino and only happens to be sent to the Philippines because of an assassination attempt on her life. Now, considering the devices that they've been using for the drama-using a foreign language, dubbing over it for "easy comprehension", and now they're back to the original audio without the dubs (but subtitled!)-they don't seem to have their minds made up on what the drama actually is.

It's actually quite a big deal because it is language, and they're somehow obstructing communication not between the characters but between the drama and its viewers.

How? well, it confuses the audiences if the Yangdonese characters are really Yangdonese. I'm not implying that they should have employed Bhutanese(?) actors to make it realistic, but the fact that Filipino actors play foreign characters already slashes a bit of the foreign factor in the drama. Yes, actors wear foreign clothes and they incorporate a bit of Yangdonese culture into it, but the fictional language barrier is also a necessity in terms of this foreignness. They chose to do away with it and dubbed lengthy Dzongkha dialogues in Filipino. So instead, what the audiences see are Filipinos pretending to be Yangdonese mouthing Dzongkha dubbed in Filipino. And if that isn't confusing enough, they also sometimes talk to fellow Yangdonese peeps in English, or actually even in Dzongkha (but subtitled)! And then, they talk to Filipinos in Yangdon-accent English. Of course I'm not completely disregarding the major characters' acting prowess, but even with their acting skills, it's hard to imagine they're not juxtaposed in an incomplete setting. It's quite difficult to digest, therefore making it harder for a viewer like me to fully keep up with the progress of the characters' identities.

Oh and like what I said last week, it's distracting, especially since the production team can't seem to decide if they're going with Filipino, English or subtitles. Sad, dissapointed face here.

By wellflower with No comments