Kilig factor: The relationship-oriented themes in a very special love film series

Abstract

The research looks into the success of Filipino romantic comedy blockbuster films from another perspective, which is the kilig factor, by analysing the relationship-oriented themes embedded in the films. Kilig is defined as the flutter of excitement caused by romance while relationship- oriented themes refer to the verbal and non-verbal portrayals of romance by the lead characters. The subject of the research is the romantic comedy blockbuster film series A Very Special Love shown to Filipino audiences in 2008 to 2013. The objectives of the study were analyze the relationship-oriented themes presented in the films and the level of kilig it achieved. This study is grounded on the concepts of Berio’s SMCR Model of Communication by David K. Berlo, specifically giving emphasis on the two factors under Message which are the element and treatment to analyze the content of the film. This study used a descriptive research design and employed content analysis as the method. In order to analyze the content of the film series, the researchers formulated a codebook that was derived from the concept of relationship-oriented themes developed by Johnson and Holmes (2009) and the “Levels of Kilig” by Director Olivia Lamasan of Star Magic. The results of the content analysis shows that there are a total of 231 occurrences of relationship-oriented themes in the three films combined, and the second film You Changed My Life got the highest tally of 96 counts. In terms of relationship-oriented themes, gazing and smiling got the most number of occurrences with 43 instances. In conclusion, the film series A Very Special Love reached the highest level of kilig, Level 3 - kilig na nagpapatili, which theoretically proves that the film series is a successful Filipino romantic comedy blockbuster film.