All right, this is now getting out of hand. In the past year, I’ve seen four Filipino romance films (Kasal, Alone/Together, Miss Granny, and today’s film) and nary a one has been worth more than a good nap. I don’t find this necessarily true of Korean romances, Japanese romances, Chinese romances … what is up with the Filipino stuff that is making it such a turnoff? Perhaps I can discover while I write.
This is the second Filipino film in a row in which a young handsome doctor is an eternal bachelor. Is this common in the Philippines? I mean, once I could understand, but multiple occasions says there’s a possible taboo here. I mean, in my country, “young handsome doctor” is the ultimate catch – well-to-do, smart, and altruistic can all be inferred. I can’t believe the Philippines is any different … so why are your doctors so available, huh?
Health juice hawker Zyra (Kim Chiu) can’t figure out her love life. Has she already found and lost her One Great Love? She was once crazy about a pilot (JC de Vera), a pilot who hates to fly by-the-way, isn’t that cute? Kinda like a premise that hates to fly, like the one here. Carl the “pilot” meets Zyra while failing to deliver flowers to another girl, who refused them. This is not a good sign, fellas. Oh yeah, Carl is smoooooooth, refusing to give Zyra the bouquet because she “deserves flowers of her own” … which he delivers next scene. Ok, points for style even though the meetcute should have been a warning. The two start seeing one another romantically and exchange sweet nothings, hand baskets, and consumer goods, and just when it was time to unveil Zy-Car to the world… Carl leaves without a trace. For years.
Now when somebody’s in love with you and you disappear for years without explanation, the word “coma” had better be part of your first sentence upon returning. Oh, but that isn’t this type of film. This is the type of film where Zyra can see Carl with a woman draped all over him at the movies and deliberately misread that she’s his cousin. This relationship-assumption-without-factual-knowledge occurs multiple times in One Great Love. Lemme tell ya, even when Carl is around to rekindle, I can’t say I’m wild about how he pressures Zyra or embarrasses her. Zyra, you might have to rethink this “One Great Love” thing, especially when he leaves again. And Zyra, don’t think you’re getting off easy; you don’t know how to respect a relationship any better than he does.
This is a film in which the phrase “I love you” is never returned, a telling sign! You see, if they don’t say, “I love you” back, they don’t! Thank God for my enormous movie IQ that I was able to suss out such cinematic subtlety.
One Great thing that really irked me about this film was how much moments in it reminded me of my own life. I’m not talking about plot necessarily, but reactions of desperation and inadequacy that I had once upon a time with regards to romance. Instead of feeling, however, that “One Great Love truly understood me!” the poorly displayed material had me going in the opposite direction. I.e. After watching this film, I became convinced that while my own romantic life would seem four stars to me and, hopefully, my spouse, it would barely rate one-star material to outside observers … and I sure as heck wouldn’t blame them for the pan. Anytime a film makes you feel worse about your own life, that film deserves to be humiliated, scorned, and incinerated in that order.
You’re not wrong to dream of your bae
Just know you’re not getting your way
When it comes to life’s bling
If assured One Great thing
I’d make it the perfect sundae
Not Rated, 115 Minutes
Director: Eric Quizon
Writer: Gina Marissa Tagasa
Genre: Figuring out your love life, sorta
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Romantics with very selective memories
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Realists
