Image from ABS-CBN

Last night, I found myself amidst the throng of people queuing to watch the tandem of John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo at Bitexco. It’s not usual to watch a Filipino film on the big screen here in Vietnam, so you can imagine why the Filipino community was raring to watch this. For some reason, I only got the wind of the film being shown in Ho Chi Minh City last Monday.

Living here in Vietnam, I am amazed by the number of Filipinos that I haven’t met yet. We actually filled two cinemas for this movie.

A lot left work early — and I was just happy to be among people who I don’t need to speak English to. Hahaha!

I went with my 8 yo son and my friends — so totally fun laughing at Pinoy humor or crying about things that only Pinoys could understand – I guess especially the OFW portion where Tetchie Agbayani had to leave to work abroad and come back broken. That resonated for most of us — and also the fact that Sarah as Aprilyn is a school teacher — lots of Filipino OFWs here in Saigon are teachers.

MOR 101.9 DJ Jhai’ho hosted the start of the film with a game. Love this DJ’s vibe and I knew how she was trying to keep everyone in check when we had to line up for the meet and greet with John Lloyd Cruz. Love that she kept her cool.

The icing on the cake was of course meeting John Lloyd Cruz who played the role of Raffy.

So how was the movie?

The plot of the movie is about these 2 unlikely people meeting in the most unusual of circumstances – Aprilyn (Sarah) recovering from heartbreak while Raffy (JLC) did damage control for Randy’s family, when he left Aprilyn at the altar.

I’ve always been a fan of these 2 actors and despite the mixed reviews I from friends, I enjoyed the film — not much on the plot but the amazing cast behind it. You can really see how Sarah and JLC have grown such versatile actors over the years. So amazed at how people like them can just slip into character so effortlessly.

Was it worth watching? Definitely. Plus the fact that JLC came to meet the Filipino community.

Can I just say that it’s so much easier to meet celebrities here in HCMC than in PH? Hahahaha!