Kris Aquino and the/as a Philippine Horror Genre
Article
This paper discusses Kris Aquino as text vis-à-vis as a unique horror genre, within the context of her title as the “Philippine Box Office Horror Queen.” While foregrounding comprehensive arguments about Aquino’s textuality, the essay also reveals her cinematic history, which has crowned Aquino as the queen of the genre, which the author calls, pelikula ng lagim [translation]. This cinematic history is used as a narrative guide in constructing an in-depth scrutiny on the concepts of genre, lagim, and the pelikula ng lagim. The author strategically plays with these concepts, thus heightening their meaning, while revealing the rich, covert discourse of Aquino as a genre that has launched itself as “a culture of kasarian” [literally, gender, but by way of a Filipino root word, sari, variety, or more appropriately, polysemy], highlighted in the two franchise Feng Shui movies (Roño, 2004, 2014), where she played the heroine. While these movies may be said to have placed the Philippines into the realm of Asian Horror Films, they also present Aquino as a text that is “becoming a complete genre.”
Si Kris Aquino at ang/bilang Genre ng Lagim sa Filipinas
Article
Sa papel na ito tinutuklas ang pagiging nakapagsasariling genre ni/ng textong Kris Aquino, sa konteksto ng kaniyang pagiging “Philippine Box Office Horror Queen.” Habang naglalatag ng ilang masusing argumento hinggil sa tekstuwalidad ni Aquino, sabay ding isinisiwalat ang kasaysayan ng pagpepelikula niya, na nagtatampok na nga ngayon sa kaniya bilang reyna ng genre na tatawagin ng awtor na mga “pelikula ng lagim” sa Filipinas. Gagamitin ang kasaysayang ito bilang kapanabay na salaysay sa pagbubuo ng masusing pagdalumat sa mga konsepto ng genre, lagim, at ng pelikula ng lagim. Estratehikong pinaglalaruan ng awtor ang mga ito at pinaiigting ang mga kahulugan, habang inilalantad ang mga nakatago at mayamang diskurso ni/hinggil kay Aquino bilang “genre” na naglulunsad ng kaniyang sarili bilang “kultura na mismo ng kasarian, at ng kasarian,” na itinampok sa dalawang prangkisa ng Feng Shui (2004, 2014) kung saan siya ang bida. Samantalang sinasabing inilulugar ng pelikula ang pagpasok ng Filipinas sa larang ng Asian Horror Films, ang mga pelikula ring ito ang nagtatanghal kay Aquino bilang isang texto na naghuhunos “patungong pagiging (ganap na) genre.”
Asian Ghost Film vs. Western Horror Movie: Feng Shui
Article
In this essay I will examine the question to what extent the Philippine production Feng Shui (Roño, 2004) is a horror film according to the well-established (Western) definitions of the genre. This seems to be a pertinent question as many Filipino horror films are based on ghost stories and folklore from the archipelago, that are often a lived reality and believed in by many people in the Philippines. The fact that Feng Shui as well as other horror films from Southeast Asia are produced for an audience that actually believes in ghosts seems to me to be very relevant for the analysis of these films. I will argue that Feng Shui shares a good number of traits with other Asian ghost films, but that it also features “the return of the repressed” that according to the late film critic Robin Wood is one of the defining features of Western horror movies.
