If this mail appears in your inbox it means you have been subscribed to my dormant TinyLetter account, which started in 2014. As some of you might know, TinyLetter is shutting down in two months. I’m supposed to write a farewell, given it’s been a beloved site and my go-to platform for almost a decade, but I figure, why not just move house? Why not settle into a new apartment, grab new furniture, delight in a new interface? That’s how you got here.
But I also got new subscribers after the first post, so yay. Welcome. Please sit anywhere. No need to take your shoes off. This is just a quick hello.
I’m writing on the fly to share a recent episode I recorded with my friends Cj de Silva and Wincy Ong of Telebabad Tapes about a topic close to Cj’s and my heart: love teams. The KathNiel breakup (or KimXi, to a lesser degree) triggered this, obviously. Talking to them via Zoom really took me back to the 90s, holding the receiver close to my ear, my skin getting warm after hours of conversation. Classic telebabad. The actual recording ran for over three hours, and they had to cut it down to two. Best to listen to it while you’re doing the dishes or laundry, or during a commute.
It’s my third invitation from their show (the love is mutual) and I say this with affection to Fleabag and Barbie that it’s by far my favourite. I listened to the episode earlier—I usually couldn’t stand hearing my voice, but I wanted to know if I said something cancelable, lol—and I noticed that we started calm then it got rowdier and rowdier. Cj and I had talked about these topics (love teams, romance films, comedy, masculine and feminine, pop culture, etc.) way too often in private. In fact, this is the reason we are close!
Not only did we articulate our affection for love teams as a cultural phenomenon and partly as film history, we also chose our favourite love teams and love team movies.
Random bits that made me scream:
“Greatest tragedy nila na hindi ikasal.”
“We need more stupid people representation!”
“Dapat halikan ako sa hallway pa lang.”
“Yes to malaway na halik. Pero kay Piolo lang.”
“I’m not denying it, Wincy, I’m just saying it’s deeper than that!”
“Hindi interesting pag matalino ang characters.”
Wincy is a cool mediator, allowing us to talk our ears off, sharing “outsider” insights that enrich and challenge our arguments. Yes, John Lloyd yarn!!
Cj and I would say “katangahan” or “kabobohan” (read: stupidity) a lot and we truly mean it with endearment. “Katangahan” in relation to character decisions and its impact on film narrative is what makes watching these films fun.
Over the years I’ve written about the subject of Filipino love teams. You can find them in Plaridel Journal here and here, versions of which appear in my second book Nothing Deep. In Break It to Me Gently you will find my reviews of It Takes a Man and a Woman (2013) and She’s Dating the Gangster (2014). My violent reactions to One More Chance (2007), A Very Special Love (2008), You Changed My Life (2009), among others, were documented on my film blog Lilok Pelikula (thankfully they’re no longer online). I forgot to say during the recording that one of my favourite films is Won’t Last a Day Without You (2011), directed by Raz dela Torre.
Here’s the link to the episode (which is mostly in Tagalog and Taglish):
As a parting gift, here’s the NCCA booklet of Cinema Paraiso - Mga Kuwento ng Pag-ibig (pdf) I was talking about that was formative to my interest in Pinoy love teams. It canonised “the 8 Love teams.” As far as PH film memorabilia is concerned, this is priceless.