The "Koreanovela" fascination
Dan Ketchum, in an artic le at www.moviefone.com, quoted Forbes Magazine that about 41 percent of South Korea's population tuned in to the 16-episode, military-themed romance, "Descendants of the Sun." Just for comparison, the sixth season finale of the "The Walking Dead" drew in 14.2 million viewers in the U.S. – that's roughly 4.4 percent of the population.
The Philippines is a completely different story. While the country may not register as high a viewership of “Koreanovelas” as the Koreans do in their homeland, Filipinos certainly go for “Koreanovelas” much more than the Americans do of their own TV shows. The curious thing, a “Koreanovela” is not the Filipinos’ own.
But how did the “Koreanovelas” get to thrive in the Philippines in the first place? Well, for local TV producers, dubbing Tagalog dialog to a well-produced foreign show is much more financially economical than a producing a local show of much inferior quality. That’s, at least, on the business side of it.
With the TV-viewing public, the appeal appears multi-faceted. First, the visual element, which is mostly riveting. The high production values do help a lot, to get viewers hooked up. More so, the choice of actors – all these cute slit-eyed heroes and villains – seem to tickle the Filipinos’ penchant for Asian looks.
And there’s the storyline. While the Korean way of life is far distinct from that of Filipinos, being both Asians lends a common denominator between the two cultures. And so Filipino TV viewers can easily relate with the plots of “Koreanovelas”; while the conditions are different, the struggles are the same.
But what makes television dramas a big thing with Filipinos in general? It’s inexpensive and very available entertainment. Watching TV provides people with a respite from their harsh day-to-day realities.
The psychological principle of “projection” probably works here. Someone who watches TV drama and can relate with a character in a certain situation emotionally engages in the same struggle the character does – but safely, because it is only fantasy. Or, a wife of a philandering husband finds “company” in the character of an abused wife in the TV drama.
Thus, “Koreanovelas” quite fit the Filipino mindset. And these are not ‘heavy’ to watch, the stories told are often of the “formula” type, and frequently there’s a happy ending. That’s the kind of entertainment that clicks with the Filipino audience, who already have serious stuff going on in their lives.