Monday, June 30, 2008

BAO JiA WEI GUO (PASSION AND HONOUR)

passion and honour is a ch 8 series. it was the 9pm show not sure when.. but recently repeated again bout 12 midnight.. so i remember it quite vividly.
as lecture was going on about mass media and someone mentioned propaganda and such. i remembered while i was watching the show that it was like MAJOR message from the government. (GOOD msg. not bad msg.. ahhaha)
but yes. a lil overview of the show.
its about a family with one dad. hes like some sir in the army.. and he has 3 sons and a daughter. so all the boys go through army. one is a commando still. and basically the whole show is about them.. their various friends, love interest and job. the aunty also works in the army and one of the sons future girlfriend also in the army. so yes. the whole wide worlds in the army.....

throughout the show there would be episodes where they will launch into explanations of why the army does various things and what they do and such. eg. there was once one of the sons went running with his friends. and they were saying how good his timing is then still train with them. so his friends were thanking him. and he suddenly launched into an explanation of how we should keep fit for ippt and how you can earn money through getting gold or whatever and why the army has ippt for their soldiers blah blah.

also there were several parts where they introduce the weapons and tanks super randomly. it was like showing the dad's job and what he does. but it was so weirdly random.

i thought it was a good way to create awareness of what the saf does and how it helps build men out of boys.. but it was a too overwhelming i think. it lead my family and i to think that the saf were a bit too desperate to promote their things.. it didnt fit that well into the show part and it was so scripted and openhouse type when those episodes arose. maybe its only a good idea to use subtle mass media when its really subtle. like plant a little seed first instead of full blown advertising.. kinda turns people off i think. 

did any of you guys watch?? comment please, how you felt watching the show.. did you realize it was major saf promoting.. (im sure you did) it was with tay ping hui, bryan wong, nathaniel ho, felicia chin, dawn yeo..

7 comments:

carlynnnn said...

TV serials! I always watch, but end up forgetting half of them. Haha, but this one I kinda have an impression.

Not very often we get such shows with such 'national pride' and seeing the green uniform every episode eh?

At least that stuck in my head. So i guess the message is kinda sent across...about how important army is to Singapore and how we must have passion and honour...? haha but other than that i can't remember much about the plot.. :)

sheila said...

hahahaa. yeah, actually the plot also not that fancy. very typical kind. so i think they just concentrated on the whole green uniform thing.. hahahha. i think every single episode had please! wth. even showed POP. hurrh. YAY i got one comment! thanks carlyn ((:

tab said...

well regarding this show, to be honest i don't recall a single thing about it's plot or the characters. it's mostly etched in my mind as the 'propaganda show ah!'

haha and well yes i think EVERYONE who watched it got a sense that the saf was blatantly promoting itself.

then again, we realise that in terms of agenda setting, media hegemony and determinism they've got it all pretty well.

government = political and economical power. obviously mediacorp has to do what the govt. wants. what better way to do it via our daily ch8 dramas that kids as young as primary school and grandmas watch?

granted, the message wasn't that subtle. but that didn't stop us from watching it did it? that's because these dramas have become such a routine in our lives!!

sheila said...

yeah now that youve mentioned it, tv has indeed become so routine in our lives! this links to my next post actually, about how dependent we humans are on technology. HAHA.

and yes, its really a whole propaganda like show. i got really irritated with the green uniforms and technicals they were informing us public about.

Anonymous said...

i watched that show and yeah, it did seem like somewhat propaganda-ish. haha. portraying such a nice and efficient side of our arms forces.

however its always the case where subtitle things are put into tv serials. i remember watching one on channel 8 where they were talking about cpf and teaching people how to make use of cpf properly and all the medishield and medisafe. though part of the storyline, its very subtitle but yet shows how the government's policies are beneficial.

bOn said...

i loved this show only for 1 reason - felicia chin :D i was still in the army when this show first aired. i feel that there was very strong propaganda in the show. for example, i remember one scene where soldiers lined up neatly to take turns to do pull ups before their meals. while waiting they had to stand with their hands behind their backs. i have to say, THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN THE REAL ARMY LIFE! my army buddies and me really had a good laugh at the show's effort in trying to influence audience's view that the army was very organised.

sheila said...

omg! i remember the cpf one too!!! hahahhaa. and there was one about what neighbourhood help thing as well. a lot of ch8 shows as governemnt inputs in it.. i guess to publicize, create awareness and maybe also to influence us abit.

bon thats hilarious! hahahaha. ok i didnt know it isnt like that in the army. funny how they try to potray a really nice clean and organized image when it really isnt. well.. sometimes the truth hurts i guess, maybe saf is in denial.