MARICAR BAUTISTA, news reporter: Top of my list is both the original and re-make of the movie Our Love Affair. I have seen the film for the umpteenth time and it never fails to move me to tears each time I watch it. It depicts a love that’s pure, unselfish and one that overcomes all odds. Rare to come by these days, but if God wills it, no matter how far apart individuals who have shared a past become, if it’s meant to be, then love will bring them back together. Sure, it may sound mawkish and a remote possibility, but just the thought of it gives you something to look forward to, that you’ll find the right person you’re destined to be with.
One romantic-comedy flick I also enjoy watching is While You Were Sleeping, starring Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman. It’s equally entertaining and makes you feel good after seeing it. Sometimes you’re focused on someone you so desire not knowing that there’s someone better waiting for you. All you need to do is look the other way.
MENCHU TANTOCO LOPEZ, president, Rustan Flower Shop; director, store development, Rustan and Coffee Corporation: I have many favorites because I like watching love stories. I actually watch them again and again. But the ones I remember enjoying the most in the last year are Lake House, The Girl in the Cafe and The Wedding Date. Lake House because it shows the simplicity and pureness of love. The Girl in the Cafe is very powerful, it shows that true love can truly make a difference and change a person’s life. The man gives up an honorable and prestigious job in order to defend and fight for the dignity of the woman he loves. Lastly, The Wedding Date because it made me laugh all throughout the movie.
JONAH DE-LUMEN, global brand manager, Dove: Serendipity. If it’s meant to be, the world will connive to make it happen.
OGIE ALCASID, singer, TV host: Bridges of Madison County, a touching story about forbidden love.
JOANNA PREYSLER FRANCISCO, owner, Tint: I am a sucker for a good romantic comedy, so I would have to say When Harry Met Sally. I love how their story unfolds over decades of chance encounters and humorous incidents, and how they form a solid friendship before finally falling in love. They have great conversations and connect on many levels before ultimately ending up together, proving that things will unfold and fall into their proper place at the proper time. I believe that great love begins and ends with friendship, and with genuinely liking the person you are with. When all else fails, you have to be able to laugh together!
NINA DAZA-PUYAT, homemaker/mother: There are two movies that I can watch over and over: Love Affair with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, and You’ve Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. I still get kilig, choked up and cry each time I watch these films. The first is a remake of the classic An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. I prefer the Beatty and Bening version because of its contemporary appeal. I love the wit and humor of writer Nora Ephron in You’ve Got Mail. Both are stories about strangers who start out not liking each other but end up falling in love. I believe that God plays Cupid in real-life romances.
BEA VILLEGAS, student: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.
MARIANO B. GARCHITORENA, director of public relations, The Peninsula Manila: The English Patient, both Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel and Anthony Minghella’s Oscar-winning film. It’s a love story set in World War II between Hungarian Count Lazslo de Almasy (Ralph Fiennes) and married Englishwoman Katharine Graham (Kristin Scott Thomas), and Canadian nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche) and an Indian bomb diffuser named Kip Singh (Naveen Andrews). It’s passionate yet tragic. I can’t say I prefer the film over the book (or vice versa, although the former conspicuously reduces the Hana/Kip romance), they’re equally good and heartbreaking. Ondaatje’s prose is lyrical (just learned that he’s a prize-winning poet, which may explain why) while Minghella’s is a powerful story played against a historical and geographical backdrop (the desert is beautifully lit and photographed here) that’s emotional, suspenseful and full of action yet intensely personal. Fiennes and Thomas share an onscreen chemistry that movies these days don’t have anymore. Then there’s dialogue like "Every night I cut out my heart, but in the morning it was full again." I’m such a sucker for that sort of thing! Like a friend of mine put it, the book/film’s passion, politics and memorable characters make it a modern-day Casablanca.