Film Review: Can this be Love

Can This Be Love
By Rianne Hill Soriano

This is a simple “pa-kilig” love story that stars one of the most popular love teams in the country – Hero Angeles and Sandara Park. In this movie, they are two different people who prove that love can bloom amidst their cultural differences. And in a larger and more serious scope, it provides a gist of the economic issues that push the young Filipinos to find the greener pasture elsewhere in the globe.

It exposes the lives of the University Belt students. Ryan (Hero Angeles) is a Nursing student who struggles to finish his studies while doing part time work as a typist for term papers. Like the mentality of most people today, he has a clear goal to leave the country to work abroad and become financially stable. Daisy (Sandara Park) is a Korean exchange student who comes to the
Philippinesto study English. One day, Ryan gets to work on the worst term paper ever written entitled “What is Wrong With Filipinos?” The grammatical errors and nasty words against Filipinos from an annoying Korean stranger gets Ryan too affected and pissed. It turns out that the Korean he hates so much is the same girl he starts texting quite dearly after negotiating on buying her cellphone. The ironic thing for the two is that their sweet friendship starts blossoming as textmates but the aggravation for the term paper issue increases even more – until he discovers that the girl who has become her dear textmate and the owner of the rude term paper is the Korean girl Daisy (The overall Filipino-Korean relationship here in the Philippines is also subtly shown through some details). From here, their cultural differences and the language barrier pave way to their bonding, their breaking and their realizing – in the end, as more matured/open-minded individuals.

This film has a very traditional love story that has probably gotten its inspiration from what really happened to Sandara Park’s life during and after SCQ – coming to the Philippines as a typical Korean stud who adjusts to the nasties of being seen as a weirdo foreigner struggling from the barriers of being from a different culture and having a hard time adjusting to a foreign land’s ways and means. Meanwhile, Hero’s struggling life has also been made open to the public after SCQ. And though the story flows like any ordinary boy-meets-girl or girl-meets-boy story, the acceptance of the people, particularly the Hero-Sandara fans, validates the storyline for their enjoyment. The romantic scenes for the fans feed them with those ‘kilig moments’ they really seek inside the moviehouse. And because they are considerably fresh faces, the on-screen romantic tandem of Hero and Sandara comes out really pleasurable to their followers.

The sequence where Sandy joins Hero during their family reunion reminds me of the 80’s Regal movies where some forms of songs and dances are being rendered in a sort of comic relief sequence (usually through out-of-town trips incorporated in the storyline). The sequence reveals much things for the film through the dialogues. It also tackles further the issue about the increasing numbers of Filipinos, whether young or old, still wanting to migrate to other countries to have stable lives.

Camera shots give ample facial reactions on screen by having mostly close-up shots. This gets to carry a more intimate feel of the scenes. And these are bonuses to the fans who enjoy seeing the faces of their idols much on screen. However, the cutting and editing of some shots are not seamless enough. Moreover, at times, there have been some dragging feeling especially when the characters’ lines tend to become too verbose and their acting starts to rely with the shouts to create their very own moments. But I should commend Roderick Paulate for always keeping up the momentum with his powerful delivery of his comic lines which could have not worked if the manner of saying is not a brilliant comedian’s know-hows.

At times, the make-up of the actors and actresses become a slight bother – especially the make-up of Sandara, Hero and Roxanne. The way too pink and sometimes kinda weirdo Sandy-look can probably give some validation – as her anime-style fashion statement can be within the young adult Korean’s point of view which the Filipinos could probably accept. But with Roxanne who wears ordinary jeans, blouses and baby tees, with a character more like the typical young adult girl minus the ‘astig-style’ nor the ‘too girly’ personality, the really heavy make-up makes things quite unrealistic, unappealing and unconvincing already. Worse, Hero’s make-up is way too heavy for a guy’s make-up on screen. The lipstick shows too much. Even the heavy foundation which at times are not that even on his face and neck. Some trifle thing that has come out funny and has made us laugh inside the moviehouse is when Sandy’s really large baggages being transported to the cab are being carried: it convincingly shows that the baggages are actually empty or almost empty – way too light when being carried/handled by the actors/actresses at the said scene.

What is very, very much noticeable is the great number of sponsors seen all throughout the movie. They are mostly from Sandara’s various endorsements, along with the endorsements of Hero, Joross and Roxanne (Yakiudon, Asian Classics, BNY Jeans, etc.) and the locations where they have shot the movie. I have nothing against them actually (as these ads help the producers get some additional funding for such a ‘dying industry’), for as long as they are placed in good means and still in creative ways, and not to the point that they bother too much and even interfere with the story.

The idea of coming up with scrapbooks for the time lapse of the future years in the lives of Ryan and Daisy is somehow cute: as you get to see some nicely-made scrapbook pages. However, the main conflict of the story has not been visually empowered because of this. There has not been a clear climax for the story anymore and it becomes too feel good without the suspense to hype up its ending. It is clear that the cultural differences of Ryan and Daisy become the great hindrance to their relationship. However, the ending feeds us with the finish product right away without the hurdles and struggles that can spice up the story before tasting and appreciating the sweet end. And with all these, I would rate this film 2.8 out of 5.