Publisher's Note

Publisher’s Note
It was 22 years ago when I arrived in Canada and chose Calgary, Alberta to be my home. Leaving my family and friends behind, it was a new adventure for me to be in a new country without knowing anyone. That was the time I looked for a Filipino community paper and never found any, [...]
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Movie Review: Northern Lights: A Journey to Love

I was pleasantly in awe with what I watched. Shot mostly in a picturesque town in Alaska, where spectacular display of Northern Lights can be seen frequently, thus, the movie took its name. This is a natural phenomenon that results from collisions of gaseous particles in Earth’s atmosphere, more popularly known as the Aurora Borealis. It can be observed in North America and parts of Europe.

‘Northern Lights: A Journey To Love’ is a romantic drama film starring Piolo Pascual, Yen Santos, and Raikko Mateo. Directed by Dondon Santos, Northern Lights tells the story of people who are looking for something and someone in their lives, who crosses their paths in Alaska.

Charlie Jr, Raikko Mateo, was sent by his mom (Maricar Reyes) to Alaska to spend the school vacation together with his father, Piolo Pascual. Here we’ve seen how brave the kid was, to fly alone to Alaska just to see his father for the first time. From the moment, mother and son scene; you could tell that there is something wrong with her. Where in the world could you find a mother who will let her child travel alone to the other side of the world?

Angel (Yen Santos), an HRM student who is also flying to Alaska for training, happen to be sited next to a young Charlie. She served to be his travelling partner and guardian for the trip. They easily connected like they knew they’ll become family in the future.
Charlie Sr and Angel bumped each other at the airport. Charlie is immediately drawn to Angel – love at first sight might have been. Soon enough, Angel happened to book in an Airbnb house which is owned by the family of Charlie. Yes! What a small world it is.

We’ve seen the hardship of Charlie on how to accommodate and be a real father to his son of 8 years. Despite of not having communication at all, no father can hide his love to his son, he managed to give twinning branded shoes each time he will have a new one.

Charlie Jr, eavesdropped and learned that his father had nothing to do on the process of him flying to Alaska, that it was just his grandparents and mother. You sure how an innocent child would feel. This apparently straightforward father-son bond gets a little complicated when Charlie Sr falls in love with Angel.

Angel is having a side trip looking for her runaway mother after her training. She believed that his father just let her mom go away. With no one to come along with, she let Charlie Sr to accompany her in finding her mom. The revelation wasn’t good enough to break a daughter’s heart whom half of her life spent looking for answers.

Flashes of past memories made us stopped agonizing what conflicts have Charlie and ex-girlfriend gone through. Charlie worked as an OFW and moved to Alaska with his parents, he left behind in the Philippines his already pregnant girlfriend. He promised to come back for her that he did after two years, unfortunately finding out that his girlfriend met another man.

Moving on to the conflicts arising from both parties, the answer were dealt with by the end of the film. A little cheesy pickup lines were thrown to Angel in the hopes of a romantic love story. Just the right blend of drama with well written characters. Lastly, this film deals with death, love, forgiveness, and change. It was such a beautiful movie that had far more drama than romantic moments.

What I loved about the film was the cinematography. It looks visually stunning that it sets the expectation of movie-goers first time to hear the title of the movie. This movie felt like it had a high budget, well in fact. Every scenery was beautiful. The mountain’s beauty was wonderfully displayed well.

You’ll surely enjoy watching the film because of its beautiful location that was fully utilized. Not just the heart of Piolo that was bulls-eyed by it but also the hearts of those who have watched it. The film’s good cinematography help to boost the emotion of the characters, knowing too well that Filipino has a soft heart when it comes to family.

Would I watch this film again? Yes, I would. And would I recommend it? Absolutely, and most specially to those who are dreaming of seeing Aurora in person.

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Movie Review: Northern Lights: A Journey to Love

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