Epitomizing an Endless Love

A Review of the Pilot Episode of Endless Love
by ex deo scientia

I guess a lot have said their piece about the pilot episode of Endless Love. Let me share my thoughts.

Cinematography. Endless Love has the best cinematography for a GMA drama, beating even Stairway to Heaven. I loved the aerial shots of the two kids as they were biking down the fields; they were reminiscent of the original. The camera angles were also very good, although I would have wanted more tracking shots; maybe in the coming days. I’m not sure if they used 24p cameras, but the first episode was undoubtedly glossy.

Acting. Great performances, notably from Sandy Andolong and Janice De Belen. The young actors also portrayed their characters very well. In particular, I liked Kathryn Bernardo and Joyce Ching. They were very effective and convincing. I am looking forward to future scenes where Kathryn will be acting alongside Sandy and Janice. I am sure they’ll make our tear ducts well up with tears. Tirso Cruz III was satisfactory; anyway, his character was not so important in the original story.

Screenplay. Because they stuck to the original storyline, there were no loopholes in the script. I just wished there was that birthday scene where Johnny gave everybody in the family their cups with their faces on them. However, the minor revisions in the plot, for example the replacement of that scene where Johnny was teasing Jenny about her having boobs, are adapted to the highly conservative culture of the Filipino where talk about puberty is almost taboo. The dialog was also well-thought of. I was thinking about whether the script was very open to adlib because the lines used by the actors were very natural, commonplace and ordinary. It was as if they were not using a script at all.

Editing. I liked the transition from one scene to another. Fast-paced scenes were connected abruptly, while slow and moving scenes were highlighted as the transition to the next scene and camera shot was very subtle.

Sound. One of the good things about the original version was its sound and background music. I hope GMA invests in dubbing instead of using the sound which was originally used in the recording. This makes speech prone to influence from ambient sources. There were scenes where wind, rain, and vehicles overpowered the dialog because ambient noise was more pronounced. This would be overcome by dubbing.

Music. I loved the background music of the original. I was happy to hear some familiar tunes–Reason (piano) and Tears (piano)–but I was clearly unhappy with the team not using the original theme song, the Tagalog version Reason, Ikaw, as sung by Faith Cuneta. One of first Endless Love’s most memorable elements was this. I am in agreement with some of the comments here; anyone who has seen the original and listened to the Filipino dub of the theme song would find Rachel Anne Go’s version disturbing, almost as if problematic with the notes and sounding pitchy. On a lighter note, I hope to hear Romance (in guitar or piano), Sincerely and Prayer in the coming days. And I really appreciated the remake’s homage to the original by using Tears for the highly emotional scenes.

Sound Editing. If the music was partly a disappointment, I found that there was a problem in the sound and music editing as well. I didn’t like the transition of the piano theme (which was clearly Reason–the main theme) to Rachel Anne Go’s Ikaw Lang in the scene where they were biking along the rice fields. That didn’t sound very well. It sounded like they were cross-fading the same song in different keys.

Props. I liked the use of props here in the remake. They were very realistic. Here are some good examples of the great use of props: Johnny showing his artistic prowess by painting a very realistic mountain scene; Johnny’s trash bin where he threw used paint; the seemingly brand new 90s car used by Johnny’s parents. That car was the best props of all; they could have just used an old 90s car since they’re very much available nowadays from various car resellers, but they chose one that looked new, at least from the timeline of Johnny’s teenage years because it symbolized their affluence in the society.

Differences from the original. One who has watched the Korean version will obviously find that the remake has taken the liberty of departing from the original in some trivial details. However, the most important departure was the scene where Jenny and Shirley were switched in the nursery. The original emphasizes that Johnny switched the names of the two girls, and in doing so, declares to the viewer that he is the cause, the person responsible for the destinies of Jenny and Shirley. The remake takes this burden away from Johnny and puts it on some good-for-nothing and forgettable nurse.

Overall, I really liked the pilot; the one-hour run-time was definitely worth watching. While there were some minor differences in the remake, they paid homage to one of the most bittersweet stories ever created for television by sticking to the overall plot and executing even some of the most trivial details.

Share

Comments