Say That You Screwed Us!
The Filipino movie RADYO by Yam Laranas has one scene inspired by the classic Russian film BATTLESHIP POTEMPKIN. The visuals and audio style of Erik Matti’s PROSTI were borrowed from Wong Kar Wai’s IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. Gil Portes’ opus MUNTING TINIG has a plot similar with Zhang Yi Mou’s NOT ONE LESS. Filmmakers tend to pay homage to their influences by infusing their idol’s style to their own movies. Everybody does this even in Hollywood. Lucas and Spielberg often times borrow a thing or two from Kurosawa’s films. This is a normal practice to improve the art of cinema. However it is a whole different story when someone uses the basic storyline of a movie. This is a crime. Anyone who has the nerve to do such act should be punished! This is stealing pure and simple.
SAY THAT YOU LOVE ME is the latest movie from Regal Films. Its basic storyline goes something like this:
1. Girl meets guy.
2. Girl turns out to be the bossy type.
3. Guy likes the girl even when the girl bullies him all the time.
4. Girl likes the guy because he reminds her of her ex-boyfriend.
5. Guy does the things the girl’s ex-boyfriend used to do to her.
6. Girl suddenly dates someone else.
7. Guy tells that other person the rules to follow to make the girl happy then goes away.
8. Girl realizes that she has already fallen in love with the guy.
9. Girl tries to find the guy.
10. A special circumstance brings the girl and the guy back together.
Sounds familiar? If you are a fan of Korean cinema, bells should now be ringing. This is the exact storyline of the box office smash hit MY SASSY GIRL.
MY SASSY GIRL is often times referred to as the film responsible for the emergence of Korean cinema to the world market. Since its premiere on 2001, the film spawned legions of fans around the globe. It made people cry, laugh and fall in love because of its intelligence, wit and originality. It launched the careers of its stars Jeon Ji-Hyun and Cha Tae-Hyun. It also made its writer-director, Kwak Jae-Young, a household name. MY SASSY GIRL gave the world a peek on everything Korean. In effect, the world responded by making the Korean movie industry a US$1,000,000,000 per year industry. Hollywood is now set to make an English version of MY SASSY GIRL along with other top Korean films like OLDBOY, JSA, IL MARE, RED EYE and MY WIFE IS A GANGSTER.
Regal Films sure did some modifications to their final screenplay. They made it “more Filipino” by adding “dancing in the beach” scenes, “dancing in the mall” scenes, placing familiar Filipino jokes, melodrama scenarios and ofcourse including a homosexual subplot. However, there should be no contention from anyone familiar with Asian cinema that Regal Films used the exact storyline of MY SASSY GIRL. I would leave out the details of each scene for you to watch and decide for yourself what to call SAY THAT YOU LOVE ME. In my humble opinion, this film committed a serious offense!
The victims of this scenario are once again the Filipino people, particularly the masses who made SAY THAT YOU LOVE ME an overnight box office hit. Wala silang kamalaymalay na nagoyo sila! What’s even more unfortunate is that these producers might capitalize on this kind of behavior and continue such practices. There will be no more motivation for Filipino filmmakers and film students to be innovative. Filipino masses will just be contended for whatever garbage this kind of producers gives to them. How could you expect the world to take our local cinema seriously if we just make films copied from other nations? Furthermore, how could you expect Filipinos to be more intelligent movie viewers?
