My Ex and Whys Movie Review PDF

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Summary

My Ex and Whys Movie Review including Technical Elements, Literary Appreciation, Rating System....

Description

SENIOR HIIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT School Year 2019 - 2020

A Movie Review

In Partial Fulfillment in English for Academic and Professional Purposes STEM

December 2019

Introduction

My Ex and Whys is a 2017 Filipino romantic comedy-drama film, directed by the legendary Cathy Garcia-Molina, starring Liza Soberano and Enrique Gil. The film was released on February 15, 2017 to commercial and critical success, grossing over ₱400 million worldwide. My Ex And Whys is the highest-grossing film to be starred by Soberano and Gil to date. It didn’t really make that indelible mark in a market that is overcrowded with all sorts of love stories. In the end, it is just another romance that mouths the same old motto that love wins, even against the stereotypes it doesn’t try to break and instead it boldly reinforces. TFC released My Ex and Whys internationally around the same time the film was released in the Philippines. In North America, the film earned $434,000 on its first 3 days. Then, on its fourth day, it was estimated to have earned $630,000. On its 3rd weekend, the film earned an additional $110,000, summing up its 3-week North America gross to $1,300,000. On February 26, My Ex and Whys registered total earnings of $5 million worldwide. This is composed of $4 million opening week gross in the Philippines and $1 million opening week gross from screenings in the Middle East, Europe, U.S. and Canada. The film’s commercial run has been extended in the U.S., Middle East, Canada and Southeast Asia. My Ex and Whys capitalizes on gender stereotypes, whether true or not, to separate the two former lovers, allowing love to conquer them.

Character mapping

Calista Ferrer. She is the main character of the story. The story is her story, meaning everything circles around her. In the present, she works as a call center agent. It is said that she worked hard even though she faced a lot of problems after her heartbreak. She dreams of becoming a social media influencer and owns a blog-on-the-rise called The Bakit List. She slowly made her way to fame as her ex approached her using an account called The Dahil List. She got a lot of advertising offers after that and she accepted one that happens to be unexpectedly

with her ex. She got too obsessed with her heartbreak before that it made a scar on her heart that is why she tried to be really professional by accepting the offer even with her ex. Gio Martinez. A guy who came from a family of playboys. He used to be a playboy too until he met Cali. He stuck to her until one day, someone broke them off. Gio tried apologizing to Cali a lot of times. He then soon discovered that her ex became a blogger and he used it to try and apologize to her again. He made an account called the Dahil List. He instantly became famous as both her ex and him kept fighting back with their comments. With that, he got an offer from a company. He ended up working with her ex that he didn’t hurt intentionally. He tries so hard to get her back but he always fails.

Plot

The film follows the story of Cali, a blogger who owns the up and coming blog, "The Bakit List," and her ex Gio who will return to her life unexpectedly and surprisingly after breaking her heart. She dreams of becoming a social media influencer. This is why when an exchange of blogs with a user, @DahilListBoy goes viral and she gets the opportunity of a lifetime, she decides to meet him. It turns out this boy is her ex, Gio who wants to get her back. Cali is determined not to fall for him again, so although a career deal forces them to work together, she convinces herself not to trust Gio again. But when Gio starts answering all her whys, Cali's walls break and she starts asking her most important why: Why can you still love someone who hurt you? All her whys were answered by her ex. The story ended as Cali was about to launch her ‘The Bakit List Book’ but instead took the opportunity to apologize publicly to Gio for the humiliation brought by some video from stag party of Lee. Meanwhile, Gio had been given an opportunity to work as an IT in Korea and was about to fly. Through a live video feed, Cali received a comment where exactly Gio was stuck in traffic.

Theme

The story goes in the context of reasons behind the betrayals of men and challenges of women surpassing the heartbreaks. In the beginning of the story, different sides of bitterness have been shown to reveal the conflict of the story. This conflict directs the reality and feelings of Filipinos who are afraid to love again. The value of trust is the big issue for each character.

Just like other movies of the director, it has only one message that sums it all up. That message says that love conquers all. It makes the viewers love how the story goes and all the lessons to be learned there. It made a great impression with that. Another factor is how it showed us the true feelings of someone where each of us could relate. The film gives reasons for restoring the love we have. It will make you realize the true meaning of love.

Technical Elements

Direction. Garcia-Molina starts the movie by shaping her protagonists’ camps whose being relentlessly at odds with each other is mined for comedy, with Gio and Cali’s ruses to upend each other providing the film some humor. The purpose of the movie is really obvious but there are points that really gets you interested so much plus it also has more lessons than you think. The direction is really good as it was really entertaining until the end. The message of Cathy Garcia-Molina’s My Ex and Whys is nothing new. It’s the same message that she has been repeating over and over again. The message tells us that love conquers all. It is really obvious while watching the film. It will make you realize a lot of things. Cinematography. It uses a very simple cinematic art yet it still gives you the perfect vibe for the movie. The charm of LizQuen only proves that the spark of their tandem is still there along the maturity from having conservative roles in previous years. Blame Star Cinema for producing a film so clever and on point that it pinches our hearts, but at least it has the courage to make us arrive at some life changing decisions, ones that allows us to return to what was left on us.

Literary Appreciation

My Ex And Whys is a rom-com about bloggers, cheaters, and the power of online haters. Add a dash of bitter exes, several comedic one-liners, and some drama. The film will make you realize that you are dwelling in the nightmare of the past. There is no formula for moving on. There is no shortcut way to heal the pain. There is no reason why we love someone. The only thing you need to bear with is the process of acceptance. You have to hit the turning point of real happiness in the midst of sadness. Overall, the movie was really entertaining. There wasn’t a part where you’ll get bored. In watching the movie, you’ll feel different emotions like happiness, sadness and mostly “kilig”. Everything that you have to feel in a romance comedy film was shown there.

The movie just takes it in a really bizarre, toxic direction. It essentially has its female protagonist go to borderline illegal lengths in order to prove herself right, the movie apparently unable to conceive of a way to display the pain that she went through without resorting to ludicrous antics. After that, it’s hard to buy into why this relationship needs to happen. The film, like so many of these romcoms, just takes the pairing for granted.

Rating System

The movie has the general set up to become a potential, typical romantic comedy but it doesn't. To be honest this Filipino romantic comedy was a pleasing experience as it lived up to a nice story and fulfilling ending. The acting was good, a lot of characters so it does get hard to keep up on the supporting cast but the leads were good. They had chemistry and kept me interested with their story. The dynamics worked. The cinematography was okay. Some shots seemed very different in a lot of scenes, which at times breaks the flow and pacing of the movie. Although, the shots in South Korea were pleasing to the eye. An overall fun romantic comedy. Relatable and not terrible. A big 7 out of 10. Maybe a longer running time would add more to the supporting characters and fix the pacing a little but overall I enjoyed this movie....