The Year of the Wattpad Adaptations

2014 was a year of movie adaptations from the Wattpad writing community, where authors create and share stories together. The Philippines has a sizeable presence in this community, so when there's a market and when there's demand, it's a winning formula for studios eager to cash in on the craze.

Now I'm not a fan of either love team involved in these movies (Nadine Lustre + James Reid a.k.a. JaDine, and Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla, a.k.a. Kathniel) so I'm approaching this as objectively as I can.

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Diary ng Panget is a highly successful series of novels that made waves in Philippine bookstores. Both movie and book are about an ugly girl named Eya (Nadine Lustre) who becomes the personal maid to Cross Sandford (yes, that's really his name, and he's played by James Reid) who is a total asshole. But as it turns out he's just tsundere and he kinda likes his new servant. Meanwhile Eya befriends Chad (Andre Paras) and Lory (Yassi Pressman) and kinda likes the dude and tries to support the lady.

I feel like I'm missing a lot from the books because Diary ng Panget feels like a loose mishmash of scenes that have little to no coherent structure behind them. Most of the scenes exist to elicit 'kilig' from the audience or to show us James Reid's abs, if you're into that sort of stuff.

To be fair, a good number of these scenes were genuinely entertaining and some even made me laugh. I just wish they had a better vehicle for their love team. Fans, of course, will lap it up.

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Talk Back and You're Dead has the distinction of being the only movie in this lineup where I have actually read at least some of the source material. The source material reads like a weeaboo's wet dream, filled with cliches from shoujo manga (particularly Hana Yori Dango, but take your pick) with a gang (the Lucky 13, which is like F4 times three plus one) and kaomoji polluting the text. Imagine if I populated this text every time I felt something about the work ಠ_ಠ HNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG (((p(>o<)q)))
 The male lead (James Reid) is Timothy Odelle Pendleton or TOP (getting icky shivers as I write that sentence)  (o-_-o)  (￢_￢;) who is a giant tsundere. Thanks to a misunderstanding, he gets into a fight with plucky Sam (Nadine Lustre) but eventually falls for her. Shoujo-style hijinks ensue, but only more exaggerated. Sadly, there's a lot gone from the books, including Sam's relationship with Red, TOP's right hand man. The story tends to focus on the dynamic between Sam and TOP, but that isn't fully realized either. By the time the story ends, you feel a lot of context has been removed and the ending feels incomplete as a result. I feel this movie would have been better served as a TV series rather than a movie.

This movie feels exactly the same as Diary ng Panget, and it shows: almost the same cast (with an English speaking bitch trio in both), same director, same tsundere lead, same plucky female lead. It comes off worse than Diary ng Panget because it feels like such a retread. If you're looking for the better movie, it's Diary ng Panget.  凸(｀ﾛ´)凸

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She's Dating the Gangster is kind of a misnomer: he's not really a 'gangster' when all he's leading is a group of dorky 90's kids. Heck, if that makes someone a gangster, then I guess you could call me John "Fatman" Tawasil because I had a small group in high school too. When I think of gangs I think of MS-13 or the Yakuza, not this shlock.

But beyond that, She's Dating the Gangster is actually a very entertaining movie. It begins with Kenneth (Daniel Padilla) making a scene at the wedding of his father Kenji's (Richard Gomez) friend. They fight; and it seems that Kenneth has mommy issues (another recurring theme with all of the male leads so far) which makes him hate his dad. Unfortunately, his dad gets into an airline incident. Kenneth sets off to find him and meets Kelai (Kathryn Bernardo) who is also looking for Kenji. Why she is doing so, and her aunt's relationship with Kenji, forms the basis of this film.

The acting is okay. Daniel Padilla gives a serviceable performance as both the young Kenji and Kenneth, and Kathryn Bernardo is mostly annoying as Kelai but great as Athena. The best performances come from the special appearances of Richard Gomez and Dawn Zulueta, who can say more with a heartfelt stare than a thousand words.

There's one thing about this movie that sets it apart from the others and makes it a far superior film: it has a plot, by God and all the saints and stars in heaven. You get invested with the characters and keeps you from getting bored. It also helps with the kilig moments.

So here's advice to any love teams looking for material for their next vehicle: make a good story, and let your love team revel in it, instead of tailoring scenes just for the love team. It makes the love team look better and regular moviegoers like myself will be satisfied with the end result regardless of our affinity for said love team.

(´• ω •`)ﾉ

There's something I want to mention about these stories in particular, and it partially delves into the realm of critique rather than just a simple review. After the deluge of media from countries like South Korea and Japan in particular during the early '00s, these Wattpad stories seem to be an attempt to emulate the same tropes and storylines in our culture.

All three male leads seem to have some sort of foreign ancestry to them (or in the lightest sense, a foreign-derived name) partly to make the lead more exotic and partly as an attempt to connect with the origin cultures, while the female leads are usually natives. The social milieu is more often than not rich and privileged for the man, while for the female it ranges from equally (if not more) privileged for the female (not many examples in Japanese or South Korean media) to downright lower middle class (more common in Japanese shoujo manga, notably in manga like Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Kareshi Kanojo no Jijo, Hana Yori Dango or Ouran High School Host Club - manga aimed towards the teen to young adult age group.)

We seem to be enthralled by tsundere male leads - cold or violent at one moment, tender and caring the next - a Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Perhaps it's because it stems from a desire by people to change or transform a seemingly irredeemable person as their partner.

Mother issues for the male lead are also prevalent in these works - the mother is either dead, separated physically and/or emotionally, or very overbearing and controlling. The female protagonist and by extension, the reader, may now replace the mother's role in her partner's life.

There's a heavy emphasis on romance, which drives the story forward - where the presence of a romance or a relationship with a male (or in yuri titles, female) is presented as necessary. As someone once noted regarding Twilight (a similar work from Western culture): it teaches us that the most important thing in life is having a boyfriend.

The relationship is usually highly idealized. Despite being the receiving end of various types of abuse, either from the male love interest himself, one or both sets of parents, or from jealous rivals to the male love interest, our protagonist perseveres. Somehow it all works out in the end. In Japanese manga, a teenage pregnancy is sometimes involved.

Most of these themes and cliches are not seen as strongly in manga or other similar media aimed towards a younger audience. Manga aimed at more mature readers (Josei manga) are hit and miss, but the most memorable Josei manga are those that eschew the stereotypes and cliches of its younger sister.

I think the fantasy/idealized romance aspect of these stories is one of the main things that makes stories like this accessible. Don't get me wrong, escapist media like this has existed here in our culture for quite a while. It just turns out that some people are far more skilled at spinning a great escapist story than others.

Will the trend persist for, say, five more years? Who knows. But if we look at the box office of these three films, these Wattpad stories are financial cash cows to be reckoned with. 

Edit: Fixed some grammatical errors and a plot related error.