“A future with no goodbyes, and in that future, Joy, you have a home in me.” – Ethan

Ethan and Joy has been in our heads since they released the new sequel of their first movie Hello, Love, Goodbye. Starring Kathryn Bernardo, and Alden Richards, the epic movie collaboration of two of the biggest channels in the Philippines had made yet another history. Pulling out to be the current highest grossing film worldwide, breaking their own record, this definitely a win for Filipino movie and talents. Directed still by Cathy Garcia-Sampana, this has set so many records and first to the Filipino movies.

Before we even go there, you can read my previous moview about the first movie, so that you will have something to compare to. There’s so much going on in this movie, like especially when they actually matched the timeline in the real world, it was really a good move to do that because the movie became more relatable to every viewers.

This second sequel, is about how Joy and Ethan walk through the paths of the real challenges of having a long distance relationship. They’ve seen the brightest of days and the darkest of nights. Joy moved to Canada to start a new journey and fulfill her dreams of becoming a nurse while Ethan continued to live and support his family in Hong Kong with his dreams of a successful bar.

While they struggle to catch up with different timezones, they managed to meet halfway and Ethan was able to visit Joy in Canada, however, the whole honeymoon stage of visiting Canada ended when pandemic hit in 2020 and both of them had to face struggles, like being stuck in only one place and will never able to travel back to Hong Kong and also the death of their parents and also the struggle to find a job because Ethan stayed in Canada for a while and had to work to have some money but then again, reality hits them very hard. Ethan had to move out and come back to Hong Kong because he left his family there and then his business is having problems caused by the pandemic and so they had to really be apart again.

However, being apart from each other made everything a little bit hard and everything just fell down for both of them and that’s when they decided to part ways, and that’s where we meet Marie, the new Joy, after moving on form Ethan, she had to move on with her old life too but universe works in mysterious ways and they cross each other’s paths again, but this time, Joy is nowhere to be found anymore, and Marie is there.

Yes, I won’t spoil much, you need to watch it. If you haven’t watched it, you better do before you scroll more. The next few sentences will be read at your own risk.

So, let’s talk about Marie, she’s studying to become a nurse, she is caregiving and she had herself in control of everything. She manages everything and she made sure that she will never go back to the old person that was Joy, but it left her astounded when she saw Ethan again in Canada, thinking Ethan went there to pursue Joy again, so she kept her guard up but Ethan was there for other reason and that wasn’t Joy. The two agreed to be civil and make sure everything that they have right now won’t be affected until, Marie agreed to help Ethan with his visa and they had to pretend that they are back together to convince the immigration that they are couples for him to get the residence visa, but this plan didn’t really went however they liked it. They had to part ways for good and decide to live their own lives without each other.

The Verdict

I mean, that’s the reality, people marry for green card and permanent residence, because they want to stay in the country where they are working in. I have seen so many scenarios like that and I think this movie had shown us the bittersweet comings of how this reality works. We also saw how they matched the timeline of the movie form the real world, how in 2020 everyone just got stuck and in one country to another or in another house to another and how the world just fell apart, losing family members, friends and just how we all got stuck in that trance where we can never go anywhere. The movie caught all of those realizations in just few hours.

I liked how the movie really did that and to be fair, they had to give both of the characters their own set of problems to deal with because most movies try to make one character miserable and they’ll just have to create a scenarios to end the relationship using that, but in this movie they managed to create a reason over reason over reason so that they ending of relationship is not a petty reason only. I also liked how they made sure, both of the characters will show growth and both of them showed how past taught them so much.

All in all the movie was fine, predictable yes, especially for people who know how the reality of marital conquests in other countries work. I bet you knew about the stories where married couple in PH had to separate so that one of them can marry someone who is a USA Citizen and then the one who married will divorce the US Citizen after he got the green card and that’s the time he will remarry his ex partner and bring them to USA for a better future. In reality, 60% of those kinds of plans work but 40% of them just ended up leaving their previous families to build a new one and that’s what the reality is.

To be honest, the movie reminded me of Piolo Pascual in Milan and John Lloyd Cruz in Dubai, those movies are also about the OFWs and the changes they face in other countries. And I felt like the stories and the lines came from those movies too. It was surreal.

The movie, was squeezed in to 2hrs and 20 minutes which I didn’t really liked because they had to fast forward everything and that’s where the loopholes became more obvious. Such loopholes made the whole movie a little too tight and short, a little too fast and predictable and I guess most of the people in the cinema were agitated about how the movie was going. Yes, there were changes but the taste of Filipino movie is still there. Filipinos love happy endings so they had to squeeze that in too. They had to create a sour plan of getting that happy ending and a bittersweet farewell to somehow maybe, trying to teach the world that cheating shouldn’t be romanticized, but then again, just like what they said, Ethan just fell into the pit of loneliness and alcohol, which I bet we all know they say every time. Okay, I’d leave my opinions about cheating right there.

I’d definitely give this movie a 85% wonderroanne rating. It wasn’t the best, it wasn’t the worst either but my take on this is that the movie was cut too short for us to really enjoy the changes and growth that both characters had. It was all for what? A happy ending. I even heard someone from 2 rows in front of us, while watching, saying “And then they will just get back together like nothing happened.” which was my exact thoughts while watching the movie.

The only growth I saw in the movie is that Kathryn had crossed the borders of being a innocent sweet actress to becoming a new woman in the industry which I believe all women can relate after a failed relationship. And it is good that we saw how she stand still after all the issues she had in the last year. It was a standing ovation for her, how she handled everything and she faced all challenges in her real life. i really admired her for that.

P.S. It is safe to say, I would love to have a third sequel, where in they will have to live together and build a family together. That’s quite a story if it is well written.