Rom-Coms, Love Teams and Filipinos' Obsession with Them
WRITTEN BY: FRANCESA JANA SANTIAGO
Motion Pictures in the Philippines by Vincent Salumbides, 1952
Motion Pictures in the Philippines by Vincent Salumbides, 1952
Shipping has become a massive part of fandom culture and if you don’t know what that means, it is essentially when passionate followers pair two figures as lovers, whether it’d be real-life celebrities or fictional characters. But before this whole ordeal even became a thing, Filipinos have been doing it a century ago! No, we’re not talking about arranged marriages… we’re talking about love teams! The first ever considered love team to appear in Philippine cinema was Mary Walter and Gregorio Fernandez, who often acted together in films like Ang Lumang Simbahan, Desperation, and Dimasalang. The reception for their chemistry is what maintained their pairing and soon it would become a staple formula in the Filipino entertainment industry.
Because of its consecutive commercial success, romance has evolved into the undisputed genre of Philippine cinema. Nearly half of all the highest-grossing Filipino movies of all time are rom-coms, with two even hitting the Eight Hundred Million mark… both even directed by the same person! (Thank you Cathy Garcia-Molina for “Hello, Love, Goodbye” and “The Hows of Us”) In truth, these would not have been made possible without the best promotional tool: love teams. Almost every well-known local star has been a member of a love team at some point in their career, such as James Reid and Nadine Lustre or popularly known as JaDine. With rom-coms or the romance genre in general, it’s already been designed to put the focus on these coupled actors to lead the love story and when people start wanting to see more of them, they continue to do almost every project together.
Some love teams even go so far as to go from reel to real, such as the happily-married parents of two, Marian Rivera and Dingdong Dantes (DongYan) and the ever-so-strong Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla (KathNiel). But being in a love team isn’t all fun, because fan bases tend to get hostile when their favorite actors, well, start doing things separately. “Hello, Love, Goodbye” for example, received immense backlash for partnering actors from different existing love teams. One being Kathryn Bernardo, who back then made an agreement with Daniel Padilla to do things on their own for individual growth. Amidst all that, the film still became a major Filipino blockbuster! Filipino rom-coms on one hand, may have problematic tendencies as well. For instance, it sends the misunderstanding that love can solve everything or that you can only be a fully functioning humanif you are loved by a significant other.
But there is something about romance that really resonates with the Pinoy audience. This may be due to the rich romantic culture our community has, which dates back to the original eras of ligaw. Today, the love team phenomenon still continues but in a more evolved fashion as according to film critic and professor Richard Bolisay, “the success or failure of love teams is highly dependent on what is currently changing in society.” Unlike before, there are more on-screen queer couples like Gameboys’ Kokoy de Santos and Elijah Canlas or gen z-reflective love teams such as Donny Pangilinan and Belle Mariano. Streaming and social media has also influenced the way Filipinos consume romantic content. And just like how Spanish Telenovelas did it, the emergence of Korean dramas has also played a significant role in changing how love stories of today are told. But what makes love in the Filipino context genuine is that it always ensures to depict the many aspects of mundane life, both the good and the bad.