[PPP 2019] Cuddle Weather is an unconventional love story about connection and intimacy

Cuddle Weather takes us into an underground industry, something that's technically illegal but still present, sometimes even in plain sight: sex work. With the advent of the internet, it's easier to hook up with a stranger for money, and people can earn tens of thousands of pesos on a good day. Although physical contact is virtually implied in this line of work, emotional intimacy is not. It's reflected in the neon colors of the film's production design and lighting, providing a false sense of sterility and artificiality that embodies the profession's lack of emotional attachment.

When an enterprising high class hooker (Sue Ramirez) meets a bumbling rookie (RK Bagatsing), they form a strange mentor-mentee relationship. The woman even recruits her new charge for cuddle services, in an attempt to reclaim the emotional intimacy that she has lost in the course of doing her job.

Ramirez gives her all in this particular performance. She doesn't shy away from doing things that her contemporaries would otherwise shy away from. It's a career best performance, but I hope it doesn't end there. It's going to be interesting to see where Ramirez takes it in the future.

In this film, names are important. They serve as labels for personas that can be created and thrown away. They signify old lives and new. What we call ourselves, a respected doctor or family man out in the streets, just another john in the sheets, is important.

But because the film decides to present itself in a relatively mainstream manner, it shies away from the more lurid aspects of sex work, which is still one of the most dangerous professions to go into. These dangers are mitigated by stringent rules and the ability of online based workers to pick and choose their clients (both of which are practiced by Ramirez's character), but it adds a strange layer of artificiality that (this time) doesn't fit in that well.

That said, the central romance does make the proceedings a little more than compelling, though the third act blurs the protagonists' motivations towards the end. It's still worth seeing, if only for Ramirez's outstanding performance.