Hello, Love, Goodbye and its sequel Hello, Love, Again explore the theme of home. The subject is dear to many Filipinos, especially Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who brave new lands to find their families a new home where they can dream big together.
Such is the pursuit of Joy Marie Fabregas (Kathryn Bernardo), an OFW who always had a clear vision of her future. To Joy, home is a place where she can fulfill the dream of becoming a nurse while supporting her family. But in Hongkong, she finds herself far from her envisioned life, working as a domestic helper, in between unauthorized gigs, hoping to save enough for a new life in Canada where she believes she can be “more.”.
Then came Ethan (Alden Richards). She initially sees him as nothing more than a distraction. But over time, Ethan opens her heart to the idea that home is not always a destination but also a person.
Hello, Love, Goodbye immerses us in Hong Kong’s narrow ladder streets, where towering buildings obscure Joy’s sights of a brighter future. But Hello, Love, Again shifts the scene to Canada where possibilities stretch endlessly across its pastures and cityscapes. Joy and Ethan’s story continues but the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic forces them to confront deeper issues: diverging dreams, grief, financial struggles and betrayals.
As “Joy” rebrands herself as “Marie,” a new identity meant to help her heal and move on, she pursues her nursing dream but struggles to overcome the pain of Ethan’s betrayal. In the end, we see that Joy’s love for Ethan was never really gone, only hidden beneath the shadows of her silent heartache.
Forgiveness is not weakness
Directed by Cathy Garcia-Sampana and produced by ABS-CBN’s Star Cinema and GMA Pictures, the hit movie Hello, Love, Again explores deeper the tug-of-war between love, loyalty and self with poignant storytelling, gliding between past and present, from the tender moments Joy and Ethan are lovers to the cold periods they are strangers. It also showed the wonders of choosing to heal and be whole again.
While some view that Joy’s character was made weak for forgiving and choosing Ethan over her lifelong dream, one of the movie’s writers, Carmi Raymundo, argues that forgiveness should also be seen as a strength.
“If forgiving is a weakness to some people, I feel sad about that. When was forgiveness ever a sign of weakness? Especially when you see that person is genuinely changing for the better?” Raymundo said.
Forgiveness, Raymundo believes, is not about condoning past wrongs but about accepting that life, like people, evolves. Joy’s journey, like countless others’, unfolds in stages. At one point, her dreams were set in Canada then the United States. But as time passes, she begins to realize that home has taken on a new meaning.
“They can’t be the same people they were in Hongkong five years ago, much like us. We’re not the same people five years ago before the pandemic. It’s impossible that nothing changed. Joy and Ethan are humans and that’s what we wanted to show in the movie,” Raymundo said.
“At certain life stages, there are things in your life that can change. We are allowed to change whatever we dream of depending on our experience. It just so happened that at that point in Joy’s life stage, she realized it’s more important to her to build her own family and give herself to another person,” she added.
Martha, one of the nursing home residents, in a letter to Joy, shares her own discovery of the meaning of home. A part of the letter read: “A home that will fill you with so much love and courage until you’re all ready to face the world again, a home that embraces you for who you might become, forgives you when you fail to become.”
This resonates with Joy, reminding her that forgiveness is a gift not only to others, but also to herself. In choosing forgiveness, she frees herself from the burden of resentment and embraces a future no longer defined by pain.
Record breaking
Beyond the love story, Hello, Love, Again captures the complexities of OFW life with brutal honesty. Joy and Ethan’s journey mirrored the shared sacrifices, the resilience, the fear of failure and the joy of finding home.
For this, the film broke box office records. Latest data from Star Cinema show that it became the first Filipino movie to breach the P1 billion mark, earning a total of P1.6 billion worldwide. The film also set new records in the Philippines for being the first to achieve an P85 million opening-day gross while setting a new record for Filipino films released in North America with a $2.4 million opening weekend.
In the Middle East, where most Filipino migrant workers are employed, the film achieved the highest opening weekend gross for a Filipino film, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Qatar. It also performed very well in territories in Asia and Europe.
“We are very thankful because everybody really supported it worldwide and in the Philippines,” said Regie Sandel, head of Booking and Distribution at Star Cinema.
“We have set expectations for this film as it is a sequel to Hello Love Goodbye, which was the highest grossing Filipino movie pre-pandemic. However, Hello Love Again performed beyond our expectations. This continues to inspire us to do more films for our Filipino community and to the wide audience we have all over the world,” said Star Cinema Sales and Distribution Head Thellie Castro-Palanisamy.
Unity against piracy
Yet, behind the scenes of its box office success, piracy struck Hello, Love, Again in the same way it plagued Hello, Love, Goodbye.
On the day of premiere in November, pirated links of the film spread like wildfire, prompting Star Cinema and GMA Pictures to issue a warning. That month became one of the busiest at IPOPHL’s IP Rights Enforcement Office (IEO) as 21 netizen reports — accounting for 30% of all 2024 piracy reports received — concerned Hello, Love, Again. Immediately, the IEO alerted the companies.
During the film’s run, the ABS-CBN Content Protection and Enforcement Team alone logged over 1,500 piracy reports and successfully coordinated takedowns across various digital platforms. These actions even led to the deletion of social media accounts sharing pirated films. Enforcement measures also targeted content resellers, resulting in the blacklisting of their e-wallets.
Star Cinema owes a significant factor of the success to the fan community, which reported piracy incidents to ABS-CBN’s Kontra-Pirata team, available 24/7 to respond with immediate takedowns.
“A big part of the anti-piracy effort comes from the proactive community of fans and moviegoers who heeded the call to report piracy incidents seen in various digital platforms,” Star Cinema Head of Digital Anne Biagan said.
GMA Pictures President and CEO Atty. Annette Gozon-Valdes said it’s heartwarming that modern times show hope in the public’s greater awareness on piracy and the willingness to help fight it.
“Thanks to the awareness gained through the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines’ (IPOPHL) “Stop Piracy” campaign and the GMA’s very own “Stream Responsibly, Fight Piracy,” more fans and viewers know what they can do to show support. Beyond just watching legally, many citizens went the extra mile, calling on others to stop piracy and sending us pirated links we can take down. We are very grateful for this support,” Atty. Gozon-Valdes said.
Through the IEO, IPOPHL receives, investigates and resolves complaints and reports on counterfeiting and piracy. It also drives the development of policies to strengthen enforcement in the country. But the office has gone beyond its core functions, with an active approach to raising awareness and fostering society-wide collaborations in fighting IP rights violations both locally and internationally.
Through its success, challenges and messages of love and forgiveness, Hello, Love, Again became an icon for finding home and healing while also showcasing what the creative industry can achieve when a nation fights piracy together.
Words by Janina Lim
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