Meet, Greet & Bye: A caravan of courage, a display of love

If it were food, it would be easy to say that Meet, Greet, & Bye is a meaty reheat. Director  Cathy Garcia-Sampana served a riveting family drama whose film feel was akin to Tanging Yaman (2000) and Seven Sundays (2017). Not much reinvention on the plot was done but this honesty worked to the advantage of the exposition of the film.

It’s not trite. Because any story that dissects the Filipino family is good copy.

It’s not stale. Because any story that delves into the Filipino family is current.

Meet, Greet & Bye revolves around Baby Facundo (Maricel Soriano), a mother who refuses to undergo chemotherapy despite her advanced stage of cancer yet aspires to have a glimpse of her K-drama idol Park Seo Joon in a meet-and-greet for fans. Baby has three children Tupe (Piolo Pacual), Brad (Joshua Garcia) and Leo (Juan Karlos Labajo) and a granddaughter named Geri (Belle Mariano) who all teamed up to try to score tickets for her and her two friends. If she gets to meet Park Seo Joon, she will agree to undergo chemo again.  That’s the deal.

And in and out of that deal is a caravan of courage, a display of love, a dissertation of the human spirit’s tenacity and a beautiful narrative of forgiveness.

The ultimate strength of the film is in its cast. So formidable is the acting of each character that you understand their strength and vulnerability.

Maricel proves that in the acting derby, she can still lead the pack. Her drama chops get better with time. The sometimes irritating, screechy timber of the voice of her youth is gone and in its place, a soothing articulation of her hurts and pains. She essays Baby Facundo with the sincerity of a mother who wants peace among her children. Her blank stares fill the screen with meaningful thoughts of love and devotion, regrets and redemption. Meet, Greet & Bye becomes her vehicle for her luster to shine anew. (I only wish she was made to wear a facemask in the film, especially in big scenes, because she has Stage 4 cancer.)

Meet, Greet & Bye is Piolo’s comeback film after a long hiatus that made many think was semi-retirement. And what a comeback it is for Piolo as the prodigal son in the movie. His maturity is seen with his controlled acting. So controlled that many of the joys and tribulations he wants to say in the film are not found in words but rest in his facial expression, in his eyes, in his meandering stares. And what a fine actor he is because he knows how to make his co-stars shine.

Joshua Garcia, with his unruly facial hair that frames his character in the movie, is hands down the rough winner of the film. An acting dynamo, Joshua’s Brad is relenting and controlling, dismissive and attentive, loathing and loving. He essays the polarity of his role with sharpness only understood by a real actor honed by experience and time. Joshua has the capacity to grown both the beast and the lamb inside him and show them both on screen. In this film, he simply mesmerizes.

A heavy drama is not without its comedic relief — to ease the tension, to diffuse pressure. Kudos to the perfect comedic timing of Juan Karlos the heaviness of Meet, Greet & Bye becomes bearable. He carries a light that illuminates the film. It is because his rendition of Leo is guided by his desire to bring peace to members of his family.

Belle Mariano has a style all her own: raw in one hand, refined in another. How someone so young can pack her heart with deep, agonizing angst is a wonder only found in Meet, Greet & Bye. You feel her longing. And she displays it with strength of character. Her acting star shines, too, in the film.

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Meet, Greet & Bye is about how each child conveys his love for his mother. The strokes and styles may be different but the bottom line is always spelled with love. The film shows that we are who we are because we were raised by a mother. (Did I miss it — no mention of why the Facundo family has no patriarch?)

The film also raises the moral issue that mothers are not perfect, but they have the power to love their children unconditionally. In Baby’s frailty can be found the strength, the power to put solution to the growing concern her family faces—aside from her health issue.

Watching how each of the Facundo siblings find ways to put a solution to their mother’s health concern is like watching God orchestrate love among family members. It also proves the point that the nature of the family is to achieve reconciliation in the end. No family is perfect. But there is always a solution to a family problem as long as each member is amenable to peace and understanding. That’s the gospel of the film.

Meet, Greet & Bye talks about a mother who teaches about kindness, resilience and what it means to be loved unconditionally.

In search of his mother

My friend J celebrated his 27th birthday the other day and his birthday wish was to find his mother.

He was only in Grade 4 when he last saw her, in a well-lighted store, somewhere in Manila. His father brought him to her. In excitement, J embraced his mom. She froze and dismissed the embrace. She hurriedly asked them to leave.

The young J was hurt and scarred, but later on, understood the situation. He had no choice, he said, but to understand it. His father had a relationship with his mom while she was already married with kids. She gave birth to J clandestinely and left him in his father’s care. J could only surmise that his Filipino-Chinese mother did not want to create a scandal. He was the “collateral damage” of the situation. He remains grateful because, “she had the option not to continue with her pregnancy, but she opted to give birth to me.”

His mother used to text him until no more SMS messages came. He remembers her face, her name, her initials. He looked her up on social media, wrote letters to all the women with her initials. And received no answer.

He grew up in the care of his loving father and uncle, who sent him to school. He found love in A, the woman who makes sure he will be loved beyond his expectations.

In almost two weeks, J will sail again to the US and Europe as part of the crew of a cruise liner. He used his scar to rewrite his life. It is the same scar that he will use to one day find his mother. *