Dahil Mahal na Mahal Kita

Wenn V. Deramas's 1998 Filipino film follows two students who could not be less alike. When a rule-abiding young man and a girl everyone keeps away from begin dating, the people around them cannot make sense of it. Having built the relationship on contrast, the film then tests it. It becomes clear that physical attraction is not enough; the narrative does not shorten the arguments and misunderstandings and shows that both have to change. Claudine Barretto and Rico Yan lead, a pairing repeated often in Filipino cinema at the end of the nineties. The tone is light and the music foregrounded. Who it's for: those who like Filipino teen romance of the nineties. Who it's not for: viewers expecting an original structure; the film follows the familiar pattern of its period.