Excerpts from Sir Ed Cabagnot's Lecture in Korea

                                                         Me with Direk Brillante Mendoza.

Go here for the complete article.

Asian superheroes come to rescue of region's film industry

 

BUSAN, South Korea (AFP) — Asian filmmakers who have watched in envy as US superheroes have won billions at the international box office are determined not to let Hollywood have everything its own way.

 

Veteran Philippine film critic Edward Cabagnot says history has shown that smart Asian filmmakers have been able to look to the West and learn.

 

"We love our heroes in Asia," he says.

 

"In the Philippines for example we have taken what America has given us and made it local. That's why a character such as our Darna, who has been around since the 1950s, is basically Wonder Woman but with local characteristics. Like Philippine society itself, her stories are a mix of Catholic guilt with Hollywood glamour."

 

Joo Youshin, who lectures in cinema theory at Yongsan University in Seoul, believes the success of the Hollywood heroes reflects universal human desires.

"They speak to us about the contradictions we feel in society everywhere," she says. "And sometimes they reflect our psyche too."

 

But Cabagnot has a simpler explanation.

 

"Sometimes we just like them because they are sexy," he says.

"In Asia of course we can copy this. It is how we can be successful. And no one has the copyright on sexy. Not even Hollywood."