“The Hows Of Us” is cheesy but in a good and cute way. It’s about youthful love trying to survive between worlds of idealistic passions and realism of life. A whirl of romance, comedy, and drama.
KathNiel magic
Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo once again amaze their audience with a beautiful film. I wasn’t really a fan of them but I must admit I’m steadily becoming one. I first saw them in “Barcelona: A Love Untold” and was actually pretty impressed with what they have to offer. But now I know why KathNiel fans are going crazy over them. Their performance and how they deliver their script makes you feel a bit cheesy but deep inside they’re able to penetrate your true emotions and you can’t help it but smile at them while watching.
The feel of it
If you’re up or some kilig moments and some cheerful laughs, then The Hows Of Us is for you. The people who watched obviously enjoyed it. You could hear people say “yiiiiiii” each time something romantic comes up. An there’s a whole bunch of it. The two young lovers effectively makes you want to become young, dumb, and in love again.
The movie is relatable as it depicts that some dreams do not come true no matter how hard you try. It doesn’t tell us to give up on our passions and aspirations, but it suggests for us to give up on our ego. Our failure to achieve our dreams does not affect the people we love, but how we face failure is what affects them.
There was one scene that made me a little disappointed. There was moment in the movie that you could actually see a bad computerized editing and it kinda ruined the moment for me. It was a scene where Primo (Daniel Padilla) was heavily drunk and sitting on the gutters by the side of the road. Out of his drunkenness, he’s unable to sit up straight and ends up falling on the road. You can notice how poorly edited this scene is. It’s like Daniel had to do this scene in studio with a blue screen behind and the editor just cropped it and overlayed it on the main footage.
Over all, it’s the type of movie you’d enjoy talking to your friends about after you’ve seen it.
Out of town romance, AGAIN
Not that I’m complaining, it seems like it has indeed become a trend in Pinoy romantic movies to film in other countries. The problem with this kind of setup is that locals of those countries are included in certain scenes and they have no idea what’s going on. The end result is that those locals tend to look at the camera with confusion and sometimes even smile.
In one of the movie’s scene in Amsterdam, the cast was shooting near some sort of bus stop or smoking area and you can clearly see a woman glancing at the cast several times and even smiled at the camera.
Plot
Two young lovers, Primo (Daniel Padilla) and Georgina (Kathryn Bernardo), lives under the same house that was inherited to them as conjugal property by Georgina’s guardian Tita Lola. Before Tita Lola died of an illness, the two made an oath that they’ll take care of each other and the house when she’s gone. After her death, the two happily moved in together and started refurnishing the house. They shared their dreams together and made plans for their future. Primo was an aspiring OPM musician and Georgina was a med student who has plans of becoming a doctor. Georgina also openly admits that the reason why she loves Primo was because of his passion and his willingness to stand firm by his dreams and beliefs. But their relationship soon became difficult to uphold when Primo’s many short comings became too much for her to handle.
Things went downhill for them, especially for their finances. They find themselves not being able to pay their bills and electricity on time. They were having difficulties making ends meet and Primo was not getting any gigs and would often get in to fights. Soon his band breaks up due to the lack of prospects, leaving Primo more depressed and angered by his situation. Georgina also became more desperate as she grew tired of Primo’s stubbornness and pride on top of his growing recklessness. She sees that she has given up so much for him including her studies just to support him . She also realized that the very reasons she fell in love with him was now also the reasons why she hates him. His passion fed his pride and his firmness fed his stubbornness.
On her birthday, Georgina breaks down in tears and vents out at Primo. She throws away Primo’s gift for her and tramples on it out of anger. She blames him for the situation she’s in where all of her prospects in life are fleeting away. She vents out that she has given everything she can but got nothing from him in return. She then asks Primo to leave signaling that she want’s to start over with her life. Primo leaves but what Georgina truly wanted was for him to stay and make amends for his short comings. After all, she still loves him and wants him to take charge of his life.
A few years later, after working with his family in Italy, Primo is back in the Philippines and comes back to the same house he shared with Georgina. He had the impression that Georgina too has left the house after they broke up. But to his surprise, she also came back to the house and now has plans of selling it. She wanted to use the earned money to take her brother, Yohan (Darren Espanto), to Amsterdam and find their long lost father there. But Primo firmly emphasizes to Georgina that he also has legal entitlement to the house and that he does not agree to sell it since he plans to live there and take care of it as he has promised to Tita Lola.
The two once again lived together under the same roof. Only this time, they have agreed to split their presence in the house 50-50. Meaning, they can only be in their agreed space of the house and can’t come across the other’s “territory”. Primo’s space is the living room and some parts of the house and Georgina’s space is the bedroom and the dining area.
Having the opportunity to be together again, Primo and Georgina became close just like before. Primo admits that he came back from Italy to make things right for the people he has left and hurt in the Philippines, especially her. But Georgina, almost falling in love with him again, does not buy it. She still has doubts about Primo’s ability to commit. She recalls giving up so much for him and going through so much heart break before being abandoned by him. She does not want the same thing to happen for the second time and demands Primo to leave again.
Primo accepts that he and Georgina could never be reconciled anymore even after numerous efforts. He also grants her the legal authority to look for a buyer and sell the house. At this point, Georgina’s brother’s diabetes has become worse and Primo understands that she can use the money for her brother’s medications.
Primo makes his final efforts of making it up to Georgina. He helps close the deal to a buyer for the house and also purchased tickets for a trip to Amsterdam for her and Yohan. The two siblings can now look for their father. Primo will eventually join them in this trip because he has a relative currently residing in Amsterdam and later proves to be a big help in finding their father.
When they were in Amsterdam, they were able to find their father’s residence but only to find out from his widowed wife that he has already passed away. The wife welcomes them to her home and introduces them to their half brother who is also named after their father. She also took them to the cemetery where their father was buried and tells them that he has always loved them and tried to find them when he was still alive. Georgina and Yohan happily understands and are now at peace.
While still in Amsterdam Primo and Georgina had the opportunity to spend some time together. Primo shared to Georgina how moving to Italy and working with his family changed him for the better. He learned to humble himself and worked low-waged jobs. He is also more hopeful for his future and does not dwell in the bad things that has happened in his life anymore. He shares to her that he was so depressed before because he couldn’t fulfill his promises to her and couldn’t pursue his dreams. But now he sees his life like a sunset that goes down into the dark of the night but would eventually rise brightly again in the morning.
Back in the Philippines, they were officially able to sell the house and the buyer wants to move in right away. They agree and started hauling their belongings out of the house. While moving out their remaining things, Georgina stumbles upon Primo’s gift for her birthday that she trampled on from the day they separated a few years ago. She opens it and finds a vinyl record and a heartfelt written letter inside. Primo wrote the letter to express to her how sorry he was for all his short comings and that he sees and appreciates all of her hard work for both of them. Georgina falls in love again and shortly sees Primo. The two share a kiss, sealing their reconciled relationship.
Cast performances
It was great for The Hows Of Us to include low key but well inducing cast for the film. Juan Miguel Severo who plays as Mikko, a newly graduated doctor who is one of Georgina’s best friends shows a great performance for his role. He is also an amazing poet and artist in real life. I was also impressed with Ria Atayde as Awee, another best friend and coworker of Georgina. She has a gorgeous smile and I would like to see her in other roles. Her bubbly personality in this movie made me more interested with her than the leading cast. But nevertheless, Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla showed their prowess in giving the audience the kilig feel that they came for. It was money well spent in seeing their movie.
Box Office success
The Hows Of Us proved to be a success as it was reported that it earned P35.9 million on the first day of screening. Long lines can be seen in most cinemas, queuing for the popular KathNiel flick.
