A review of Un/Happy For You

 

Note: I recommend watching the film first before reading this, as there are some small spoilers especially near the end.

Was there ever a time where I held the torch for too long? Oh yeah. Many moons ago, I was young, stupid, and hopelessly infatuated with this person. When she didn't reciprocate, those feelings had nowhere to go, and they turned into frustration, and that frustration turned into anger. As I tried to save a "romance" that was never there and had no chance of being saved, all I did was destroy our existing friendship. When I realized how stupid I was being and stopped, it was too late. That put me off relationships for almost a decade.

My case is not an isolated one; I've heard lots of stories of love becoming something destructive, with people unable to process their feelings maturely. Aside from a lack of emotional intelligence, these attitudes spring from a culture that over-romanticizes longing, while not doing the same to the act of letting go. Hugot, that oft-repeated term for unrequited love that has become an entire sub-genre of cinema, is what has emerged in contemporary cinema thanks to that obsession. 

That's why I enjoyed Petersen Vargas' Un/Happy For You, Star Cinema's latest romance offering. It's basically a film that repudiates hugot, or at least warns of its dangers when it goes out of control. The film sees two former lovers meeting again: Juancho (Joshua Garcia) and Zy (Julia Barretto) meet in Bicol after an abrupt end to their relationship years prior. Chef Juancho had previously followed writer Zy to Manila in order to establish a restaurant together, but stress and mismanagement eventually tore the two apart. To Juancho, he felt neglected by Zy, and they weren't operating as a team anymore. One day, Zy leaves for New York, tells Juancho in a phone call that she's met someone else, and ghosts him. This leaves Juancho understandably angry and distraught at the lack of closure.

There's an immediate tinge of sexual tension between the two when they meet again, tension that builds and eventually explodes in a sexy scene that surprised even me, considering Star Cinema romances are usually rather tame. There's the idea of rekindling the romance between the two, and true to formula, the film isn't shy with showing the two in all sorts of cute situations. The thing is, something feels off about the whole shebang. For one, Zy is engaged to Matt (Victor Silayan), her editor, and Zy is basically cheating on him. This idea drives Zy away from Juancho initially, but the two can't help but cross paths, encounters that Juancho actively tries to cultivate.

Juancho's hung up on a relationship left hanging, but he's also filled with the resentment that comes with love unsated and unrequited. When I saw his character, I saw that past version of myself in more uncomfortable ways than one: that sense of entitlement to love denied, that desperation that maybe, just maybe, I can make it work, even if all evidence shows otherwise. Juancho's probably one of the most pitiable characters in contemporary Philippine cinema. Like the dishes he cooks, Juancho's folly is that the love that he gives is too fiery, too all-consuming, to the point where it does not only ruin him, but his relationships with his friends. Seeing him try to be better, then relapse is very painful to watch, but it is unfortunately part of the long process to emotional maturity.

It's even made more evident when we see Zy's point of view near the middle of the film, where we see how much Juancho's love blinded him to everyone else, ironically including the person he claims to love the most. This is perhaps my biggest gripe with the film: Zy feels like an accessory character to what is supposed to be a love story, and it takes two to tango. Granted, Zy's equally conflicted in their relationship rekindling, though we don't exactly see much of her thought processes behind her decisions. It can be argued that the film would become even more bloated than it already is, but I feel that getting more of her perspective is important. Ultimately the film is more a character piece focused on Juancho than anything else.

Despite its flaws, the ending of Un/Happy For You drew me back in. In my view, it sends a message that too much love, too much spice so to say, ruins a dish; that hugot should be the beginning, but not the end, of a love spurned; and that while clinging on to love despite all odds may seem great, the most profound and deepest kinds of love are those where you know when to let it all go.