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Hello Stranger: The Movie philippines drama review
Completed
Hello Stranger: The Movie
0 people found this review helpful
by Mil
May 25, 2021
Completed
Overall 7.5
Story 7.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 8.5
This review may contain spoilers

The long road to the destination we all knew

The first thing I want to say is that I deeply appreciate that they made the decision to make this a movie and not a second season, a few months ago at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic that the world faced, the format of home series invaded us, some very good (like Gameboys or Hello Stranger) and others so bad, but so bad that I will not even mention them here because I refuse to give them even the slightest recognition.

Obviating the production and acting, these series were a success mainly because of the proximity, around the globe as has rarely been seen before, we were all living a situation similar to those presented in these series, we all had to face the new model educational and work, loneliness, confinement, fear and uncertainty, we all feel for a moment that the world stopped, in that context is where these series are born that quickly conquered our hearts for their simplicity, but at the same time familiarity.

And although the situation continues to be complicated (unfortunately in some countries more than in others) the reality is also that in a certain way the return to "normality" has begun to occur gradually, so it seems to me a more than correct decision to place this film is that transition towards a normality more similar to the status quo, keeping the distance clearly.

Now leaving that point established, we walk itself to the history of the film, although I think it is a bit "unnecessary" it did not seem bad at all, but let me sink in on this point; the first season (let's hope only one, that the BL has already demonstrated with enthusiasm that the second seasons are not its strong suit) closed the plot that had been presented to us from the beginning, although they are not explicitly "boyfriends" it is more than clear that their feelings are mutual and the rest can be concluded by the spectator himself.

The film decides to go the lengthy way in search of that ending that we all knew they would have, please no one expected that they did not stay together, it would have been an intrepid decision (perhaps based on genuine moments of frenzy caused by the strange pandemic life) but That was never on the way to take and it shows in the second one, well, the point is that due to fate, the ex-girlfriend of one of the protagonists needs it and he sacrifices his true love for his sense of responsibility, so far nothing new the truth, the protagonists are forced to live together on a school trip and it is from this point that everything turns into a great check of all the tropes of any series or romantic movie, BL or not: same room, seeing themselves naked "casually", feeling jealous for a new subject (who has zero possibilities, even more so if his introduction happens in the middle of the film, the viewer would never forgive that, mainly because do not know this new character at all), a breakup, a new failed reboot attempt, a public confrontation, a character that very Obi Wan makes the character or characters reflect on their true feelings, a beautiful reconciliation and confession in the beach, a kiss, the end.

As I said, a great check of everything that has to be done in a film, the reality is that it does not contribute anything new, or innovative and many of the emotional and close resources of the series are lost here, however, the film does not It is bad, it is quite short so it is not annoying at any point.

Despite being a fairly common film, it has some elements that make it entertaining, to begin with, all the main and secondary characters are pleasant, none of them is a villain, nor are they intriguing people or anything like that, they are normal young adults and despite that there are some tensions between them, each and everyone acts like normal people, they are polite among themselves and their intentions for others are not negative, although they are selfish at times, but under the line of real people.

Let's see a bit of the party scene, I liked it a lot, the main reason I think is that despite them being the focus of the scene from the viewer's point of view, they are not the center of the action for the rest of the characters, they are one more, living their own affairs, this of course is personal taste, but something that in general bothers me about the teenage or college romance series is that: it seems that everyone cares too much about what they do, in life really things are not like that, maybe your friends care a bit, but let's not lose our minds, no one is going to found a fan club for you, least of all at university those people are only worried about surviving; so personally the montage the scene seemed like a pretty good decision.

Anyway, the film does not add anything new to its own history, nor to the world of cinema in general, but it is entertaining and the romance is sweet, the good thing is that you can also see the series and the film as separate products so the existence of neither of them ruins the other for you, which in general is a good creative decision in this type of production.

Finally, I don't want to leave without mentioning: What happened to JC Alcantara? What do you feed that boy? He grew like a lot, right? He is also beautiful, he realizes.
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