Upon release in 2019, the romantic drama “Hello, Love, Goodbye” was the highest-grossing Philippine film of all time. (It was surpassed by the time-traveling romance “Rewind” earlier this year.) Directed by Cathy Garcia-Molina, the film chronicles the struggles of overseas Filipino worker Joy (Kathryn Bernardo) who wishes to earn enough money as a domestic helper in Hong Kong so she can move to Canada for better employment opportunities. She eventually meets the cocky but sweet bartender Ethan (Alden Richards) whose growing affection for Joy puts an end to his wayward womanizing. The two bond over their respective familial woes and professional dreams as expats with fluid conceptions of “home.” Before Joy departs for Canada, they confess their love and promise to meet again.
The film’s sequel, also helmed by Garcia-Molina, fulfills the promise that Joy and Ethan made to each other, but predictably not without its share of complications. Primarily set in 2024, “Hello, Love, Again” presents Joy as a confident, successful caretaker living in Calgary. In between studying to become a nurse, and debating a move to the United States, she helps secure domestic cash jobs for other members of the Filipino community who attempt to transition from temporary to permanent Canadian residents. Joy’s relatively comfortable status quo becomes disrupted when Ethan reenters her life after their relationship fell apart a few years prior.
Much like “Hello, Love Goodbye,” “Hello, Love, Again” has made box office waves by setting the record for the biggest opening for a Filipino film in the United States and Canada. It earned an impressive $2.4 million during its first week, which exceeds the earnings for the entire North American run of “Hello, Love, Goodbye,” in part because its distributor secured the widest release ever for a Filipino production. Who would have thought that providing supposedly “niche” audiences the access to watch so-called “specialty” entertainment in theaters would be a profitable enterprise?
At least superficially, “Hello, Love, Again” offers something for everyone: stirring romance, politically-tinged drama, and shots of Calgary that resemble a regional tourist board’s wet dream. In execution, however, the film exhibits something of a split personality by awkwardly moving between cutesy soap operatic romance and an unsparing, oft-devastating portrait of the myriad hurdles facing foreign workers. Garcia-Molina visually underlines this narrative disparity by lighting the non-dramatic scenes like a romantic comedy while bathing any serious moment in darkness, if only to ensure that audiences’ emotions are appropriately primed in every single moment.
The lighting strategy complements the narrative structure of “Hello, Love, Again,” which alternates between Joy and Ethan’s rocky reunion in the present-day and flashbacks to their COVID-era dissolution. In 2020, Ethan decided to leave his successful Hong Kong bar behind and join Joy in Calgary. But when the sudden onset of the pandemic severely impacts prospects for overseas workers, whose status in Canada was already tenuous, Joy and Ethan buckle under financial and professional pressures. Joy tries to make the best of being a caretaker for the elderly, but Ethan balks at the idea of cleaning rich people’s toilets or working as a busboy, especially considering that he’s a business owner back in Hong Kong. The stress-induced wedge between the two young lovers only widens when Ethan’s father contracts COVID, which forces Ethan to leave Canada and Joy (ha ha) behind.
Even within a melodramatic framework, “Hello, Love, Again” assumes a bracing honesty whenever it depicts the fragile, uncomfortable realities of life as a foreign worker. The frank texture of the COVID-era scenes not only capture the demoralizing details of marginal cash-only jobs — getting lost as a bike courier in an unfamiliar city, being accidentally pricked by a syringe while cleaning the trash — but also how a relationship could conceivably crumble under these circumstances. Ethan’s disillusionment with Canada and Joy’s determination to beat the odds and build a better life are both reasonable responses to their environment. Their arguments about their shaky future, conducted in a small basement apartment that can barely fit the two of them, display a type of authenticity that’s hardly present in the rest of the film.
While the 2024-era sequences also delve into the details of domestic labor by foreign workers, including the prevalence of predatory scammers and the reliance on community networking to acquire jobs at any level, they feel less integrated into Ethan and Joy’s rocky relationship. Ethan’s return to Canada as a softer, more humbled man initially doesn’t impress Joy, who harbors mistrust and resentment for his behavior three years prior, but his attempt to slowly earn her forgiveness make up the bulk of “Hello, Love, Again.” With their roles in “Hello, Love, Goodbye” now reversed — Joy is established in Canada while Ethan is the fish out of the water — they begin to see each other more clearly as mature adults who have dealt with their fair share of loss and compromise.
Unfortunately, Ethan and Joy’s romance itself only intermittently compels on its own merits. Bernardo and Richards display some natural chemistry, but they convey their emotions through repeated longing looks and pregnant pauses in speech. Their scenes together can feel unfocused solely because they’re needlessly drawn out. Plus, the various plot complications that hinder their inevitable reconciliation, like a half-forgotten love triangle or Joy’s impulsive decision to accept Ethan as a common-law partner, generally feel like caricatured dramatic obstacles. The film’s leisurely pace, its large company of broad and one-dimensional supporting players, and an unshakably saccharine tone don’t help matters at all.
Maybe these shortcomings are to be expected in a film like “Hello, Love, Again,” who wears its earnestness on its sleeve. It’s not inherently a dealbreaker that you can set your watch to certain storytelling beats or that the many montages feel like bad music videos, but it’s disappointing considering the film is clearly capable of more. The moments when “Hello, Love, Again” infuses social and political realism into its melodramatic romance are genuinely effective and anytime it falls back on hacky comedy or trite theatrics feels that much more dissatisfying.
In many ways, the strengths and weaknesses of “Hello, Love, Again” resemble those of a mainstream Hollywood picture. Maybe its box office success shouldn’t have surprised anyone.
Grade: B-
An ABS-CBN Films and GMA Pictures production, “Hello, Love, Again” is now available in select theaters.
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