‘Meteor Garden’: A Mother’s Review

The title itself confused me -- a meteor garden? It sounded like something that Superman should avoid. Then there were the names: Dawmingse? Wa si lei? Misu? Semen? Kinchay? I could not even tell which one was the girl’s name. To get them right, I had to consult the nearest experts – my children.

BY ROWENA PARAAN
Bulatlat.com

My 11-year old son gave me very good tips. He gave me terms that would remind of the characters’ names, such as “daming su (rot)” (lots of fleas) so I could remember Dao Ming Si and “tangkay” (stem) and “san siya?” (where is she) for San Cai, the lead female character. 

I am of course talking about the very popular, shriek evoking Taiwanese television show, Meteor Garden, and its lead actors Jerry Yen (25), Vic Zhou (20), Ken Zhu (22) and American-born Vanness Wu (23), who also comprise a Taiwanese boy band known as the F4. Dao Ming Si and San Cai are the main characters, together with Hua Ze Lei, Xi Men and Mei Zhuo.

The series is based on a Japanese comic book called "Hana Yori Dango," which means "men are better than flowers." F4’s name on the other hand means four flowers.

The Plot

The story is about a poor girl whose neurotic parents (well, they do act dippy, especially the time when they met Dao Ming Si) send her to an exclusive school (which must indeed be very exclusive since the corridors are empty most of the time) in order to snag a rich husband.

She encounters the F4, a group of students whose families are extremely influential and could have anyone they dislike expelled from school. She refuses to buckle from their bullying and eventually captures the heart of F4’s leader, Dao Ming Si.

The plot has all the usual Filipino telenovela elements: rich boy, poor girl falling in love; the boy and girl initially hostile to each other which paves way to comic situations; and the powerful falling for the weak. Well, at least, there are no heavy melodramas such as switched births, blood feuds and ill-fated amnesia… or am I speaking too soon?

And – I’m sorry kids but I have to say this – the acting is terrible. Most of the time, their faces look bland, whether mad, sad or feeling in love. I turned off the volume once and substituted the dialogues in my mind. It wasn’t difficult. Barbie Xu Xi Yuan  (San Cai) shows the most emotion, but only when she crumples her face to cry, reminding me of my daughter when she was two years old and tried hard to make tears fall to get sympathy.  

Their hairdos are also distracting. Dao Ming Si’s comes straight from anime land which must use up a ton of gel every shooting. Xi Men on the other hand seems compelled to do something with his hair, like combing it with his fingers from his face every ten seconds or so.

There is however less exaggeration in the acting, unlike in the usually highly embellished expressions in the Latin variety. The Asian actors also make it easier for the Filipinos to empathize.

Notwithstanding the autistic expressions, the F4 members also do look cute, especially Vic Zhou (Hua Ze Lei). There, I hope I have made my children happy.

The rise of chinovelas

Dubbed in Filipino and shown everyday on ABS-CBN, the Taiwanese soap opera brought in a new era in Philippine television. Meteor Garden, or MG as young viewers call them, stole the public eye from Mexican telenovelas (the popular term for soap), which have ruled Philippine TV since 1996 when the extremely popular Marimar first came on air. MG has even given rise to a new term, the chinovela or Chinese telenovela.

But to set the record straight, MG is not the first chinovela to be shown in the Philippines. IBC 13 pioneered in this area with the show called Amazing Twins. Its setting however is ancient China, with the characters wearing traditional Chinese costumes, something that most young viewers, who comprise the bulk of MG’s following, will not readily identify with.

(Incidentally, it was also reportedly IBC 13 which first aired Japanese anime shows, as well as started the game show mania.)  

Although ABS-CBN would not give the figures, it is a known fact that making a soap opera in the Philippines is extremely more expensive than buying the canned variety. In importing them, the only expenses station owners shell out are for the rights and dubbing expenses. They also spare themselves the headache from primadona tantrums of soap opera kings and queens. This is why the Mexican telenovelas are being shown not just in the two leading stations but even in the three smaller channels.

But MG fan or not, the show has broadened and enriched the range of the Pinoy (Filipino) viewers’ soap opera experience. And for a country that went gaga over Flordeliza, Mara Clara and Marimar, this is indeed a big thing.

Relentless rivalry

With MG’s meteoric success, rival station GMA 7 has rushed to ride in the bandwagon as well as use the competition’s own weapon. At the moment, it has three chinovelas showing: The Poor Prince, which also has one of the F4’s stars playing the lead, MVP Valentine and Lavender. All of them are taking up prime time slots.

ABS-CBN however has also hyped MG to hilt. Many have noticed how its news programs stretch every bit of news and information about the F4 and MG to justify its place in the 6:30 pm news EVERYDAY, as well as in its others shows such as Knowledge Power. 

If anything, MG has brought to focus the relentless rivalry between the two major stations. It is astounding how far the stations have gone to promote their soap operas… it also makes us wonder how far they could go to protect their own interests. Media owners are after all also big businessmen.

Meanwhile, with the airing of several chinovelas and relentless campaign by the two stations, viewers may reach a point of saturation sooner than expected. Just like what happened with the Latin soap operas which no longer rate as high as they used to.

Parental worries

I have to agree however with the anxiety expressed by some viewers regarding the values that the show may impart to impressionable viewers. The lead character is arrogant and selfish. A lot of times, the show makes it seem like it’s cool to be a bully and persecute defenseless schoolmates just because you do not like their faces. The show may also give the wrong impression about the importance of money and the use of violence to settle differences.

Many would say that some Philippine soap series have scenes that are more violent (or have more scenes that are violent) and impart distorted values. True, but it still does not make it right. At the minimum, adults should watch the show with the kids to explain the scenes and give the cultural and social context.

Indeed, the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen in connection with the MG craze is the sight (and sound) of young kids singing the Chinese songs in the series. While some may have found a way to get the translations via Internet, most simply mouth the alien words.  If this is symbolic of how young viewers blindly follow what they see on the screen without understanding what it means, then parents should indeed be worried.

One thing Meteor Garden has made parents thankful for is that children are now rushing home after school albeit in order to catch the show. The downside: they stay an hour (at least) on the phone afterward to recap the episode (and talk about F4) with their friends.

Oh, well…  Bulatlat.com

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