Nick Nicolas, Times Journal, 1985

"Till We Meet (Cinderella) Again

"Till We Meet Again" is a delightful fantasy about romantic love and filial relationships. It is also a film one rejoices; in emphatizing with. What a pleasantly vicarious experience it is to practically be an integral part of the relationships among Guy (Nora Aunor), Pip (Tirso Cruz III), Armida Siguion Reyna, and Dina Bonnevie.

Being a deliberately simple melodrama scripted by Rolando Tinio and Joey Javier Reyes, "Again" is the story of a very determined and strong woman who tackles adversity without resorting to hysterics and despair.

Except for a few scenes, one seems no to notice that "Again" is straight melodrama. This may be due to the fast pacing given the film by Rolando, Joey and Elwood Perez, director.

One would think that melodrama connotes sorrow and suffering but in Perez's film there's a sprinkling of humor --- not sophisticated humor, to be sure, but simple Filipino humor. Not slapstick, either, but humor which the audiences can readily relate to.

There's also a bit of nostalgia with the reunion of Guy and Pip. I suggest that they star in one or two more films. Their fans haven't forgotten them. At the Greenbelt Theater in Makati where I saw "Again" on its first day of showing, it was SRO and I had to sit on the aisle. But it was worth it, the audience clapping with pure rapture during some scenes showing Guy and Pip together. As I looked around, even in the semi-darkness of the cinema, I could easily perceive nearly tearful smiles. I got carried away by it all, and before long, I too, was clapping loudly and I felt fine, velvety and light.

Then, too, Guy's and Pip's acting abilities have vastly improved since their early films. Of course, Guy has now become a diamond as big as the Ritz, a true superstar, the only typical Filipina to have achieved such stature. Pip's artistry has also matured considerably. He is no longer the youngster brimming with sports and dance and youthful shenanigans.

In "Again," he's capable of expressing deep, complex emotions, as a man caught between two loves. He is compassionate when Dina Bonnevie, the liberated woman whom he later marries, feels confused about the direction her life is taking --- aimless, purposeless.

Armida, is perfectly cast as Pip's rich, arrogant mother who wishes to run his life. had the audience been a nest of vipers, they would have hissed and hissed at her, or probably bitten her to death.