MOVIE REVIEW: What Went Wrong With 'Penduko,' 'When I Met You In Tokyo' + More

(SPOT.ph) Despite carrying big name stars, these four MMFF movies didn't perform as expected in the Metro Manila Film Festival box office, nor did they spark substantial buzz online. Could it be due to their lackluster storytelling and unsatisfactory scripts? We've given you our two cents on Rewind, GomBurZa, Mallari, Becky and Badette, Kampon, and Firefly. Here are capsule reviews of Broken Hearts Trip, Family of Two, Penduko, and When I Met You in Tokyo.

MMFF 2023 Movie Reviews for Broken Hearts Trip, Family of Two, Penduko, and When I Met You in Tokyo

Broken Hearts Trip

Christian Bables stars as the host of a reality show that takes broken hearted LGBTQIA++ people on adventures around the Philippines—with the promise of a one million peso prize for whoever remains on the show at the very end. The contestants come from various walks of life, and are basically united by having been betrayed by a partner in the recent past. Not that this really matters when they’re white-water-kayaking, or ATV racing somewhere. The show-within-the-movie just doesn’t make a lot of sense, making tenuous metaphors about getting over heartbreak as the participants are made to fashion clothes out of whatever they find in a pile of loose materials and junk shop detritus.

The film seems to operate on the idea that it might be able to replicate the drama of a TV reality show, but of course, none of this is actually real. And it’s a real chore to sit through the film’s “surprises.” Reality shows are scripted enough, and now they’re scripting the scripting. It’s too much.

Rating: 1½ out of 5

Family of Two

Alden Richards plays the son of Sharon Cuneta, and the two are very close. As he sees it, he’s paying his mother back for the years she spent raising him as a single parent, and he’s more than happy to play the good son, taking care of her while heeding her at times overbearing pieces of advice. The conflict comes when he gets an opportunity to work abroad. Hesitant to leave his mother alone, he tries to find a way to get her a romantic partner. The story isn’t devoid of pleasures, but they’re pretty mild. The film never builds any substantial conflict, and it often feels like the characters are overreacting to little problems that only require small decisions to be made.

The thing the film never really reckons with is how it feels like Richards’ character has undergone arrested development, and everyone else around him seems to be solving his problems for him. He’s unable to get himself to talk to a girl he likes, hesitates to tell his mother what he wants to do, and seems incapable of imagining a life without his mom around. It’s sweet sometimes, and it’s nice to have a film that advocates for adult education, but it just doesn’t really get around to anything at all.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Also read:
MOVIE REVIEW: GomBurZa Is A History Lesson Worth Paying Attention To
MOVIE REVIEW: Rewind Should Rethink Its Message on Death and Loss

Penduko

A miscast Matteo Guidicelli is the new incarnation of Francisco Coching’s Pedro Penduko. In this version, he rejects his destiny as town healer and instead chooses the big city to seek his fortune. He becomes a wastrel, and then gets recruited by a group that assembles people with powers and sells their healing services for money. It’s a decent idea to turn Penduko into an unlikable character: deeply arrogant, overly aggressive, and unable to see the big picture. Presumably, though, that’s done for the sake of a larger arc that will make him see the error of his ways and put him on the right track.

That isn’t exactly what happens here. It appears they might be saving things for a sequel, which leaves this movie feeling terribly incomplete. It basically tells a story where the hero learns nothing, throwing away whatever dramatic developments they put forth in a final act that just seems to forget everything our hero went through. Technically it’s fine, though there’s a drab desaturated look to the whole thing that makes it feel less fun than it ought to be. The world they built has potential, but the way they leave things makes it hard to want to come back.

Rating: 2 out of 5

When I Met You in Tokyo

Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon play characters who meet in Tokyo. While their relationship is contentious at first, they soon warm up to each other and pursue romance in the Land of the Rising Sun. The story reaches a natural ending somewhere in the middle of the movie—but it just keeps going. The film then sort of becomes about what it’s like to be old and in a relationship, though it avoids building new conflicts and largely just shows two older people pretty happy with each other and occasionally encountering problems with their health.

Santos and de Leon are still pretty good together onscreen, and there are cute moments scattered throughout. But the production is kind of shaky, and there just isn’t a lot of story to tell. Later in the movie, there’s a subplot involving younger relatives back in the Philippines but it doesn’t go anywhere, only creating extra bloat in a film bloated enough as it is.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Also read:
MOVIE REVIEW: Mallari Is Gorgeous But Gets a Bit Ridiculous
MOVIE REVIEW: Firefly Is a Lovely Film About the Magic of Stories