Joy Marie Fabregas, we’re gonna hold your hand when we tell you…
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Major spoilers for Hello, Love, Again ahead.
There’s a new box office sensation in town, and its name is Hello, Love, Again. While it was expected that the sequel to one of the biggest Filipino movies in history would do well, the movie has been breaking box office records locally and abroad. Hello, Love, Again has seemingly everyone and their mothers heading to the theaters to support local cinema, and that’s a good thing.
So, with all that hype and ticket sales under its belt, does Hello, Love, Again deliver? The film gets a lot of things right, from Kathryn Bernardo eating every scene to Kath and Alden Richards’ strong chemistry, a scene-stealing performance by Joross Gamboa’s Jhim, a focus on the struggles of OFWs to the importance of Filipino communities living abroad, and more, but when it comes to its ending, that’s where Hello, Love, Again leaves people divided, for better and for worse.
JOY AND ETHAN CHAPTER 2
Hello, Love, Again picks up after the events of the first movie and finds Joy moving to Canada to pursue her dreams while Ethan stays behind in Hong Kong to manage his bar. The work is tough, especially as Joy works her way up, and it isn’t helped by their long-distance relationship. But things seem to get better when Ethan joins Joy in Canada as the two build their future together. That is, until, the COVID-19 pandemic strikes. Four years later, we find Joy, now going by Marie, still in Canada and working as a healthcare assistant at a home for the elderly while studying nursing.
With the help of her friend Uno, Joy plans to move to New York and become a nurse there. Things take a turn though when Joy runs into Ethan and Jhim at the airport, making for an awkward reunion. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Joy and Ethan tried to make things work during the onset of the pandemic. But as Joy accepted any cleaning job she could, Ethan became increasingly uncomfortable with what he felt were demeaning jobs.
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They fight more often, and when Ethan’s father tests positive for COVID-19, Ethan is forced to go back to Hong Kong, only for his dad to pass away while in quarantine. With Joy staying in Canada and Ethan moving back to Hong Kong, their relationship is as strained as ever. The final nail in the coffin comes when, after a night of drinking, Ethan cheats on Joy by sleeping with another woman. What makes it worse is that Joy finds out when she’s about to board the train to the airport to visit Ethan in Hong Kong. Needless to say, the relationship was over.
Now, in the current timeline, Joy wants nothing to do with Ethan, who moved to Canada to rebuild his life. But that’s easier said than done as Joy frequently crosses paths with Ethan. Their reunion gets even more intense after Joy volunteers to be Ethan’s common-law wife so that he can attain permanent resident status after a year, which is driven by Joy not wanting Ethan to be Baby’s, another Filipina working at the elderly home, common-law husband. They initially play it up for the cameras, but things start to feel real again, that is until they learn that Baby plans to report their ruse to the authorities unless they stop.
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By the film’s final moments, it seems that Joy is ready to move to New York to follow her dreams as she reconciles with Ethan. But when Joy reads a letter from an elderly woman she took care of during the movie that talks about finding your “tahanan”, she tells her driver to go back as not only does she get back with Ethan, but they get married by the end.
GIRL, DON’T DO IT
While it isn’t inherently wrong for Joy and Ethan to get their happy ending, the way it gets there does leave some questions. Joy is a great character. She’s inspiring and comes off as hard-working, driven, determined, and, more importantly, practical. She was extremely wronged by Ethan and his selfish and cheating ways, so it’s understandable that she doesn’t want to go back to him.
Yet, it is hinted that Joy reconsiders this after seeing Ethan with a changed mindset, even though he doesn’t do much to actually put in the work to prove to Joy he is worth going back to. For most of the movie, Joy is determined to get what she wants, and with all the BS she went through, she deserves it. So for her to throw away her dreams after conveniently reading a letter (which in itself is also questionable since this key plot point was written by a white woman in a movie that puts the focus on finding a safe space in Filipinos abroad) and go back and marry her cheating ex doesn’t feel justified, especially with how Joy is portrayed up to that point.
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It would have felt plausible if Ethan acted like he wanted Joy back, but that initiative felt lacking on his part. TBH, it makes Joy look weak with how she folds for a man because she realizes that he’s her “tahanan”. What do you mean you’ll abandon your dreams and won’t choose yourself to marry your cheating ex? It also sends a message that love is seemingly more important than choosing yourself (which is kinda awkward considering what Kathryn has been through in the past year).
Maybe in another reality, Joy Marie Fabregas chooses herself for once and moves to New York to be a nurse while Ethan minds his business and starts a new life in Calgary. But that wasn’t meant to be. Does the ending ruin the whole movie? Not really. It’s still a fun movie with its fair share of cute, funny, and kilig-inducing moments. But for a film whose central plot centers on a woman going through hell and back just to have a better life for herself, the conclusion leaves us wanting more.
You can decide for yourself if Joy and Ethan get the ending they deserve with Hello, Love, Again now showing in cinemas nationwide.
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