Pinoy Sunday

Week 2 17/1/12


Today's lesson was also watching an Asian film, Pinoy Sunday. This film is different from the Nasi Lemak 2.0 because it is more focused and specific on one particular area, which is foreign migrant workers, whereas the Nasi Lemak 2.0 is a generalized film of many problems at a time. 


A film by Wi Ding Ho, Pinoy Sunday has won the best new director award at the 47th Golden Horse Awards. Wi Ding Ho is a malaysian chinese who graduated from New York University and then stayed in Taiwan. Wi Ding Ho was inspired by the optimism and positive feelings of the foreign workers in Taipei though they had their own struggles to deal with, hence he made this film.


Synopsis: Two Filipino migrant workers, Dado and Manuel, who were construction workers in Taipei lived different lifestyles. Dado was a hardworking man who will do his best to send money to his wife and child overseas. However, he was away for so long that he had an affair with another domestic filipino worker, Anna. Manuel, on the other hand, is single and longs for love, where he tries to pursue Celia. He is also a guy who loves to dream beyond reality. He dreams that he has a nice sofa couch on the roof of their dorm, drinking ice cold Taiwan beer.


On Sunday, Dado breaks up with Anna with guiltiness in his heart and Manuel realised that Celia was not in love with him. Both came together and express their sorrows but instead, they found a sofa, which was abandoned by a quarreling couple. Manuel decides to take it home and persuades Dado to help him. Reluctantly, Dado helps but many times tried to give up helping Manuel. Throughout their journey, the problems pushes the boundary of their friendship. 


2 themes : Survival and Friendship
Survival
- How little money they had because there was one part where Manuel asked Dado for 50 taiwan dollars to buy their lunch. 50 Taiwan dollars is about $2.25 sing dollars. 
- How they looked at other things to escape reality, eg. love and beer.
- How they had to adhere to rules and regulations of the dorm and in Taiwan, though they did not abide by the rules. (Crossing of roads)
- How they had to learn chinese to communicate. Communication breakdown.
- How they had to adapt to foreign land. Unfriendliness of Taiwanese people towards them.


Friendship
- Hang out with their own people instead of with the locals. 
- Filipinos extending help to their own kind in foreign land. (A married filipino coming to their rescue during their lunch).
- Because of friendship, Dado endured Manuel's scoldings and arguments, and even continued to help him.
- At the end, even though they did not get the sofa, Dado and Manuel still did not break their friendship. They even continued to share their dreams of having a furniture company.


Intersting points:
- How the Taiwanese were portrayed as quarreling and problematic families, attempting suicide youths, and abusive people.
- How in the first part of the movie where a Filipino was handcuffed. 


My Thoughts
I was surprised that this movie is not a typical Taiwanese show because when I see the title, I thought it would be more of the Taiwanese point of view. However, there were very few parts of Taiwanese people in the show. It is interesting how a foreigner (Wi Ding Ho) had made this film through the foreign workers' point of view. It's as if the Taiwanese hadn't realised the struggles of the foreign workers in their country and needed a third party (Wi Ding Ho) to tell them in their face.


As both films have different forms, they still have the substance of stereotyping of races, nationality. It's always about their languages (even if we have subtitles) and accents that has this barrier between the people.