Nary a drop of tear stays unshed even through the driest of bloodstreams. From “Barcelona” to Hong Kong, "Hello, Love, Goodbye" sees Kathryn Bernardo fly on the wings of Joy Fabregas’ ambitions. The horizon is blurry than she may have planned it to be, like when the eyes are welling up with buckets of sentiments.
As a domestic worker, Joy (Bernardo) is self-willed to achieving her near-feverish goals for herself and her family. Bernardo steams with melodramatic scent, her dynamic fragrance flourishes into truest and unhinged intentions for conducting cinematic force. Hong Kong’s cityscape is only a scenic façade for her laborious yet candid pomp. When the foreign boulevards become suffocatingly tight, Ethan del Rosario (Alden Richards), an enthusiastic bartender struggling to repair his splintered fate, resupplies lost air to the movie’s heaving pace. Ethan’s will is only as sharp as the spirits he mixes for a living in a show that pours into a soulful hangover. “Hello, Love, Goodbye” is the prime piece of Richards’ undeniable tremor, too; a display of his heart-smashing sappiness.
“Hello, Love, Goodbye” enamors a plot clouded with personal matters that require willful decisions from its characters. Being an overseas Filipino worker certainly demands the strongest of nerves, but portraying a dark comedy instead of another romantic drama (or any hybrid of the two local genres) for the classic plot will stir a breather plus a saucy perspective on the real situations of domestic employees. Unapologetically sweet, “Hello, Love Goodbye” cracks up the dearest fireworks orchestrated by local movie master, Cathy Garcia-Molina. The veteran director is the undisputed queen of Filipino romance drama flicks, and the film is her love letter to the industry. Garcia-Molina is never gone, just letting other cameras warm her director’s seat.
A juicer of mood, “Hello, Love, Goodbye” rewards with a string of eloquent occasions since Joy and Ethan are painstakingly resilient to mow the protruding seams from their realities. A few threads cannot remain loose ends which the destined wooers tie up into a ribbon, never to be opened again. Or so it seems, for their electrifying life cords inevitably loop into a closed-circuit. Fate is a path that leads back to familiar faces to recognize and relish the looming inseparable solace.
Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina
Trailer © YouTube.com; ABS-CBN Star Cinema
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