Pelikulang Komiks: Toward a Theory of Filipino Film Adaptation

Abstract

This paper tackles the major assumptions of a proposed/emergent Filipino komiks-to-film adaptation theory based on archival texts from the 1950s. An inventory of extant texts has led to the identification of twelve komiks-to-film adaptations representing Filipinized genres such as the korido film, fantasy/folklore, family drama, woman’s film, personality comedy, and historical film. Textual analysis of uncovered texts has been complemented by a social film history based on unstructured interviews with ten komiks and film scholars and retrieval of archival film journalism pieces. The main concern of this paper is to present the concepts and assumptions about komiks-to-film adaptation that will constitute the proposed Filipino film adaptation theory. The main arguments of the prospective theory follow either one or all the definitions/phases of contextualization, namely: indigenization, localization, vernacularization, and hybridization. The prospective theory will be referred to as Pelikulang Komiks.