Other Loves That Aren’t Enough

How exactly can the tandem of Joee and Joey in ‘Single/Single’ withstand the demands of modern living? The filmic take on Pepe Diokno’s mini-series attempts to provide that continuation.

MANILA, Philippines — The television series couldn’t have been enough.

Joee (Shaina Magdayao) is about to give birth when the Pepe Diokno-directed mini-series ends its three-season run. Joey (Matteo Guidicelli), Joee’s erstwhile house-mate and on-and-off boyfriend, decides that he loves Joee so much that he is willing to take responsibility for the baby even if the baby isn’t his. Single/Single, within three full seasons, gives an insightful glimpse into the lives of two individuals maturing in life and love. However, its conclusion, a celebration of the power of love over adversity, begs for a continuation. How exactly can the tandem of Joee and Joey, bonded together by their affection for each other but still wading through pertinent life choices, withstand the demands of modern living?

Veronica Velasco and Pablo Biglang-awa’s filmic take on Diokno’s mini-series attempts to provide that continuation. The film’s crux, however, isn’t provided by either Joee or Joey. In one scene, Benny (Brian Sy), Joee’s flamboyant gay friend, tells Ranee (Anna Luna) something.

“Wag mo sasabihin kahit kanino na inamin ko to, na tumatanda na tayo, na mahirap na mag-crossover.”

In a single sentence that is both humorous and emotional, the film relays its perception that the pervading feeling among the youth today is a general hesitation to grow up, to mature. Situations, whether planned or accidental, force them to acknowledge the fact that they are now adults, that they are now burdened with responsibilities, that they can no longer wing it, that love isn’t the finish line.

The film isn’t shy about its intentions. It seeks to dispel the fantasy that love cures all. In fact, it brandishes its thesis in its title. Love isn’t enough. In the film’s constellation of issues that Joee and Joey are faced with, it becomes more apparent that romance’s role in their tried and tested relationship diminishes with every realization. There are bills to pay. Businesses fail. Personalities clash. Sexual desires aren’t quelled. Reality is much more a mess than the mini-series’ courageous but overly optimistic finale proposes.

This, however, isn’t a new thing in Philippine cinema.

Even in commercial films, romances are tempered and tested with real-life dilemmas that have more to do with growing up than stubborn plot devices. In Olivia Lamasan’s Sana Maulit Muli (1995), it is not just the distance that abruptly separates the two lovers, played by Aga Muhlach and Lea Salonga, but the fact that love has become more of a liability in surviving the pressures of a demanding diaspora. In Jose Javier Reyes’ Kung Ako Na Lang Sana (2003), the individual careers of the would-be lovers played by Sharon Cuneta and Muhlach have stopped them from actually acknowledging that there is already love forming between them.

There is also Reyes’ Till My Heartaches End (2010), where Gerald Anderson’s character turns into a successful condo unit-salesman, to the detriment of his taciturn girlfriend played by Kim Chiu. What marks Till My Heartaches End is that it foresees the end of an adored romantic pairing through a narrative that simply mirrors lovers growing up and maturing. In that same vein, Antoinette Jadaone’s Never Not Love You, which is top-billed by James Reid and Nadine Lustre, sees a love team graduate to embrace not just the sweetness of falling in love but also the ambivalence and numbing of feelings the abundance of attraction breeds. Love, when thrown into a pool of other duties and obligations, can get tiring.

By the end of Single/Single: Love is Not Enough, exhaustion becomes an understatement. With the myriad of concerns and consequences, not even a love song or a flashback to the good old times where loving was enough can stop Joee and Joey from realizing there is still a lot of growing up needed for their relationship to work.