1st Ko Si 3rd

In Real S. Florido’s 1st Ko si 3rd time plays two roles: one that creates a void and another that fills it. The case of Cory, an ageing woman compelled to rekindling an old flame, is curious and endearing, yet touches something deep and true: time is an eternal debt we owe.

The climax of the film, shot in slow-motion, is very telling of Cory’s revisit to her first romance. Time is frozen for almost-forever; her heart, thumping out her chest; all that surround her, an endless collision – the same feeling of falling in love for the first time. But then, just as the feeling of it sets in, everything is shot back to the mundane – a feeling indeed alien to Cory (Nova Villa). A different kind of high. It is not the ecstatic rush she had shared before with Third (Freddie Webb). It is not the same. She drives back home wallowed in her defeat, shot awake of her reverie.

It is an affecting finish, if only for Villa’s committed portrayal. The story preceding Cory and Third’s reunion, on paper, is somewhat muddled, propelling from one listless day after the next. There is plenty room to explore the relationship in fact most central to the film: that of Cory and her husband Alejandro (Dante Rivero). Yet the film opts to reflect back to Cory’s ‘great love’ in dreamy, sepia-toned flashbacks, when Cory and Alejandro’s arc is far more interesting.

The film feels dragging as a result, but the excellent performances from the cast push the story to being a snapshot of the lives of the elderly and how they continue to love and all. Rivero is particularly terrific, grounding his performance to skillful restraint and giving us the sense of listlessness we share with Cory. He goes about his days tinkering on his ‘Mercedes Benz’ – his way of expressing affection to Cory, which, in close inspection, is enough.

Ruby Ruiz as Cory’s best friend is beyond comic relief; in fact instrumental to the film’s partial success. Ruiz and Villa make the film so much lighter – from having their dresses tailored, learning to Facebook chat and joining Sumba classes – which is how exactly the film is set. How the film is should be.