Thoughts on “The Lovers” animated short film
I just watched THE LOVERS on Youtube, and wanted to jot down some of my thoughts about the animated short film.
If you want to check it out for yourself too, you can watch it here:
(Baka di siya mapakita sa embed kasi age-restricted, so baka better to watch it na mismo on YouTube rin)
From this point onward, will be talking about stuff from the film! So if you don’t want spoilers just go watch it it’s free haha
Initial thoughts
Saw this being shared by art friends and thought it was interesting enough. Plus the fact na it’s highlighting Filipino related stuff, I wanted to see more of it. Di ko siya napanood nung first launch, though I saw snippets of it online sa feed ko; alam ko lang na it would focus on two girls, and na it may be yuri? (like actual confirmed canon and not just shipped by fans pero di acknowledged nung source material) and na it would feature the Philippines, pero di ko lang alam where.
The art looks really polished, and what you would expect from an indie animated studio na medyo uso na these days. (Happy to see that development btw, at least dumadami na rin yung mga choices ng tao and it can cater to many interests 😁)
Since it was just available online and I had nothing set this morning, I figured I’d check it out na.
Reflections
The header is just an excuse to separate this from the before I watched it to after :))
First off: ganda ng art! Super love it, ang linis, ang polished. Happy rin to see more Filipino themed art in general, as alam ko rin maraming mga super talented na Pinoy artists out there 😄
For the voice acting, initially I thought it was a bit strained for some bits? But the fact na it is conversational Filipino for the most part was still nice to hear. I think having the captions or subtitles turned on threw me off a bit as the translations weren’t really 1:1 with what was being said, like technically tama siya pero wala yung bigat or yung tone na meron when things are spoken in Filipino. I guess it’s the usual lost-in-translation moment there, but it doesn’t really take away from the overall film.
The fact that the sirena also speaks in deep Tagalog makes more sense rin, as pointed out in the YouTube comments too: technically “otherworldly” being siya, so parang far removed siya sa the rest of the people na living in what I assume is present day.
Then overall, I like that the story just unfolded itself and left it to the viewer to interpret or understand ano nangyayari. Di siya explicitly spelled out na, ay, eto yung nangyayari now, character is gonna do this next, etc. Instead time just passes and you see things unfold and be explained through showing or through action, or by reading or understanding between the lines.
There were some bits that felt too rushed, but I chalked that up to this being a short film. They don’t really take away from enjoying the overall outcome, and the fact that at the end, it wasn’t actually doomed yuri in the traditional sense (yayy!!), but just Sara and the sirena parting ways… it’s a nice touch. Bittersweet, technically di pa rin siya yung expected—whether you expected they’d either get together or na may isang mamamatay sa kanila—pero I think they closed it off well.
They didn’t get together for long, but the time they did spend with one another changed at least one of them, in a way… my interpretation of Sara’s looking out sa horizon or sa beach is na she’ll try to change her life and choose what makes her happy. Di natin sure ano mangyayari dun sa sirena—and if I apply too much realism malulungkot lang rin ako—pero at least for now her life has been spared, and she can be back to where she is from, which are the open seas.
Ayun, I initially wrote a whole lotta more stuff here but I trimmed it down kasi I basically just did a play-by-play reaction-and-reflection combo for each of the scenes that happened. I dunno if future me would wanna read those if I look back at my posts (and whoever else would wanna hear about that) so ginanito ko na lang muna 😆
Mostly also writing this to help share it in the not-so-traditional places! Normally this would be shared on social media networks, but maybe having blogs or websites post about it would be good for reach, too. 😄
Looking forward to more things from Studio Heartbreak! 💔❤️
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