Warning: This article contains spoilers.
When your love is to blame for the disappearance of others, it can be hard to find the courage and strength to love again. For Sari (Kim Chiu), she’s been experiencing this since her childhood. When her father left their family, her mother cursed her, proclaiming that anyone she loved would disappear. Now, many years later, she still has the same fear of loving, not brave enough to confront her curse. Content with watching others love around her, her long-term plans of living and dying alone are shaken due to the sudden appearance of Jolo (Paulo Avelino). Determined to win her over, Jolo does his best to break down Sari’s barriers and make her fall in love with him.
Sari is a tenacious public worker who hasn’t had the best resources or circumstances in life, but continues to try her best and appreciate the present. She looks out for her family and loved ones, and she hates the thought of hurting others. In fact, she’s so set on living her life without hurting others, that she’s decided never to fall in love with anyone ever again, just so no one has to disappear. Living in the Tahanan community, Sari is close friends with all her neighbors as they live together in the small, broken down buildings filled with laughter and joy. Although she is not rich in wealth or romance, she’s rich in the bonds and friendships that she’s forged in the Tanhanan community.
Jolo is drowning in debt, and he feels lonelier than ever. His fiance left him at the altar after finding out about his mountain of debt, and he is estranged from his family. The only person he was close with—his grandmother—passed away, and left behind her beloved Tahanan community to him. Seeing this as the perfect opportunity to settle his debts, he immediately asked his attorney about selling Tahanan, unconcerned about those who live there. Filled with hopelessness and negativity, he finds out about Sari’s curse, and he is immediately smitten with the idea of making her fall in love with him so he can disappear.
When the two finally meet officially, sparks fly immediately—fiery sparks of anger. The two butt heads due to their opposing opinions, and they clash at every step. Sari advocates for keeping Tahanan as it’s where she grew up and where her community has found their forever homes, but he suggests her life must be pathetic if this rundown house is really her home. He’s rude, and he doesn’t take her concerns seriously. Instead, all he sees is an opportunity to pay off his debts and an opportunity to disappear. However, as fate would have it, they soon find romantic sparks flying as well. Will they be able to make things work, or will Jolo be just another disappearance from Sari’s life?
Ahead of the U.S. theatrical premiere of the film, Asia Blooming spoke with actors Kim Chiu and Paulo Avelino about their characters, the film, and what makes My Love Will Make You Disappear so special.
Although Chiu and Avelino have made appearances as the famed pairing “KimPau” in dramas such as What’s Wrong with Secretary Kim and at last year’s ASAP Natin ‘To in Ontario, this project is their first film together. “Exploring a romantic comedy with Paulo has been so refreshing because Paulo’s past projects had a very different tone than what we’re doing now,” Chiu shared. “It’s exciting, and it feels a lot more fun doing this type of story to show people on the big screen!” Agreeing with his on-screen love interest, Avelino joked that his project genres have only taken on a slight change. “Before, I just did comedy. Now, they’ve added [Chiu] in and added romance, and it’s like a different planet altogether!”
The movie is engaging, but it is also predictable. This film follows the standard romantic comedy format of two people meeting each other in less-than-ideal circumstances and slowly falling in love with each other to a T. It moves at a fairly fast pace, going through an unknown amount of time within the story during its 90-minute runtime, and at times it can feel rushed. In some ways, that feels realistic. When someone is in a slump, life can feel like it’s in slow motion, prolonging the suffering. When things are going well, life can feel like it’s zooming by, and it becomes hard to keep track of the time. With so much going on in Sari and Jolo’s minds, it makes sense that things are sometimes skipped over or slower-paced.
There are silly moments when Sari is spending time with her Tahanan community or when her and Jolo are together, pretending they’re in Seoul eating tteokbokki, but there are also serious moments when they’re each confronting their insecurities and fears. Sari is traumatized, afraid of thunderstorms and afraid of being left alone, while Jolo is afraid of not being enough and being a disappointment. The two hold these emotions in until they can’t anymore, and they make poor decisions sometimes based on these emotions. In the film, however, these types of feelings and careless actions make the two protagonists feel authentic. “There are some things about Jolo that are very relatable for me because I have gone through similar personal experiences,” Avelino shared earnestly. “But I’m also quite the opposite of Jolo, though. Even if he’s been through a heartbreak, he’s still willing to love, while I think the other way around and would say I’m more on the hesitant, safe side.”
On the other side, Chiu finds herself relating to Sari even more. “When it comes to portraying a certain character, in every project I take part in, I always relate at least 20% of them to myself. For Sari, I think we’re similar in the love angle in that, when we love someone, we’re afraid they will disappear. Sari is cursed, though, and I’m not,” she finished with a laugh, before continuing. “One thing that’s different, though, is that Sari is scared to fall in love. For me, I think it’s just part of life. Experiencing pain is when you grow as a person, and when you can learn a lot of things and see that you can do what you didn’t think you could. Pain and hardships are part of growth, and Sari is quite hesitant when it comes to that.”
Sari’s curse aside, the film boils down to finding bravery and learning to love. Sari and Jolo learn to love each other, but they also learn to love themselves, flaws and all. That, ultimately, is the biggest message of the film. “The most important thing is that younger audiences have to learn to love themselves first. If you don’t love yourself, you don’t know what really matters,” Chiu began. “You will keep living to please other people, when you need to learn to please yourself first.” Chiming in with a metaphor, Avelino compared love to being on an airplane: “When something happens in a plane, you always have to put your own mask on first before you can help others. It’s very important to find contentment and happiness for yourself before you can share it with others.”
My Love Will Make You Disappear will begin screening in select U.S. theaters on March 28.
