To Adapt is Human; To Pay is Divine

I was planning to see "Say That You Love Me" today. I didn't because I've read that the movie was sort of an adaptation of "My Sassy Girl". When I saw its trailer, a friend already commented that it seemed like an adaptation (actually, the Pinoy word is "ginaya" which seemed to have a really bad connotation here) but I refused to believe it because I'm rooting for the Jennylyn Mercado-Mark Herras tandem. But then, when I read the Click the City review, it was confirmed! According to them, it was still an enjoyable film despite "borrowing" some key elements that made Sassy worked. They added that the movie adapted "three explicit things: Kristine is an insolent lady to Stephen, who always bows to her ingratiating whims; at one point, Stephen details the things that he had learned about Kristine; and lastly, someone has been trying to introduce them to each other since before they met."

I've no problems with adaptations. I believe that there are only a few original stories around and it's up to the writers to make something different out of it. How many times have the story of "Cinderella" (i.e. "poor" girl meeting her "prince" and falling in love) resurfaced on screen and on tv and still succeed? I've problems with adapting a certain story without ever mentioning the original story where it came from. It'd be really easy to accept an adapted film if in fact, it admits that it came from an original story. So many Filipino films have been a product of adaptation yet not crediting the source. Why? Is it because they don't want to pay any royalty? Would paying royalty means less income for the film? If that would be case, then I suggest that they better come up with original and creative stories and not "steal" anyone's hardworked product.

Anyway, I still have high hopes about this film. As I was reading its synopsis on the official site, I still think that it could stand on its own. I may or may not catch it on screen. But I'd surely see it on video in case I missed it. So sad, though, that Sassy was not shown here. Filipino audience is missing a lot by not seeing this Korean gem. I hope that distributors would also include Korean romantic movies on their list of releases here and not just focus on horror stories. I believe that we had enough of those Sadako-type characters who kept coming out in most Asian horror movies.