2019 | 1h 45min | Written by Crisanto Aquino, Janica Mae Regalo, and Ays de Guzman | Directed by Crisanto Aquino
“A wonderful comedy that can be cheerful and energetic… while incorporating serious themes.”
—Osaka Asian Film Festival
“Yes, as a writer, I enjoyed watching the process of my work showcased so accurately on screen, but you don’t have to be a writer to enjoy this film. If you’ve known love or pain, by any degree, then this film will speak to you.”
—Wanggo Gallaga, screenwriter
Synopsis:
Two young writers with different styles must work together to write a romantic film that eventually enmeshes them in their own troubles and those of their fictional characters.
Cast:
Miles Ocampo (Female Screenwriter), Rocco Nacino (Male Screenwriter), Joem Bascon (Marco), Yeng Constantino (Joyce), Che Ramos (Bernadette), Mosang (Ate Beth), Felix Roco (Chad), Chai Fonacier (Aly), Romnick Sarmenta (Robert), Harlene Bautista (Nanay Rose), Cecile Guidote-Alvarez (Lola Baby)
Producers: TBA Productions
Awards:
| Metro Manila Film Festival | Special Jury Prize; Best Screenplay, Supporting Actor (Bascon), Supporting Actress (Constantino), Editing, Song, Musical Score |
| Osaka Asian Film Festival | ABC (Asahi Broadcasting Corporation) Award |
About the Director
While working toward a journalism degree, Crisanto Aquino joined some friends in his college theater group for excursions as walk-on extras for TV and film dramas when he got the idea that he wanted to work in film instead. He eventually worked his way up the industry over a decade from Production Assistant to Script Continuity Editor to Assistant Director. As Assistant Director, he has worked on over 25 films with major indie and commercial directors, including Chito Roño, Cathy Garcia-Molina, Mae Czarina Cruz, Rory Quintos, Chris Martinez, Veronica Velasco, Jerrold Tarog, and Antoinette Jadaone. (The list indicates the prominence of women directors in the mainstream film industry.) He co-directed the romcom, My Rebound Girl, with Emmanuel dela Cruz, before making his solo directorial debut with Write about Love. In order to make some good use of the time during the covid lockdown, he created Connect: A Lockdown Anthology, a digital omnibus of shorts made with his theatre friends via Zoom.
About the Film
For the better part of a decade before his directorial debut with Write about Love, Crisanto Aquino worked as Assistant Director on over 25 films for some of the busiest directors in the Philippine film industry. The majority of the films were glossy mainstream romcoms or horror films centered on celebrity stars. However, he also worked on a few indies that were not fettered by the obligatory tropes of mainstream Philippine cinema, for directors like Pepe Diokno (a winner of the Orizzonti Golden Lion at Venice), Joel Ruiz, and Jerrold Tarog. For Tarog and TBA Studios, he worked on Bliss, an off-beat psychological thriller, and the historical epic Heneral Luna.
In addition to being a much sought-after First Assistant Director, Aquino got credited as co-director for the mainstream romcom My Rebound Girl that, in the ways it would occasionally try to escape the stickiest traps of the genre, betrayed the indie roots of its lead director, Emmanuel dela Cruz. Thus Crisanto was aware of the tensions between mainstream and indie romcoms and this was a subject he eventually developed for his maiden film as solo director.
Working behind the scenes and from the ground up, he noted that screenwriters were unjustly ignored co-creators of films, and this led him and his co-writers, Janica Mae Regalo and Ays de Guzman, to focus their story on a couple of writers trying to finish a screenplay. The film starts with an unnamed young female writer (Miles Ocampo) pitching her first script, “Just Us,” to the screening panel of a production company. The panelists deem the screenplay too mainstream and they propose, as a condition of continued interest, that she work on developing it with a more experienced male writer (Rocco Nacino). Its story revolves around a couple, Marco (Joem Bascon) and Joyce (Yeng Constantino), whose relationship is on the rocks. The clashing personalities of the writers lead to an impasse on the screenplay, but in the process the writers begin to face the personal ordeals and traumas that they have been projecting, however indirectly, on their characters. Eventually, the film speaks to the ways that we use art to both evade and reflect our contingencies and insecurities.
Write about Love provides a window into the contemporary world of young middle-class creatives in Manila and other Philippine urban centers. They are savvy in the ways of the world and switch on a dime between equally fluent Tagalog and English. However, like most young people anywhere, they often find themselves grappling awkwardly with the puzzlements of love, a growing awareness of death, and the persistent need to create.
—Gil Quito
Behind the Scenes
The following are behind-the-scenes pieces with Write About Love writer and director Crisanto Aquino:
https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/write-about-love-philippines-interview-crisanto-b-aquino
Stream the Movie
In coordination with its producer TBA Studios, Sulo has ensured that Write about Love will be available on the TBA Studios’ YouTube Channel from April 30- May 6.