After watching Walang Forever, one can’t help but be utterly convinced that in a world where Honor Thy Father did not exist, it truly deserved all the awards it won and then some. It was that good.

Fans of Pinoy rom-coms can look forward to quite a lot of entertainment, even after trying to pick it apart and see how it differs from the grain. It certainly differed in numerous ways, and most of them for the better.

Here are 8 reasons why Walang Forever is such a great, even meta experience for rom-com fans.

The leads were great, but so were their respective “best friend” characters. It helps that the dialogue was snappy and avoided the many pitfalls of even the best rom-coms we have, and would only use sappy dialog when it tries to lovingly deconstruct (and reconstruct) the genre. There’s so much great dialogue in this film that it’s disappointing that there isn’t really a “quotable quote” on the level of One More Chance’s “You had me at my best, she loved me at my worst.” Or I may have just missed it.

A film script writer? After all those architects, teachers, and hacienderos, it’s good to see that they finally went with something new–and the “app developer” for Jericho Rosales is more of the same.

Despite Meryl Soriano’s performance in Honor Thy Father, it’s hard to dispute the fact that Jennylyn Mercado deserved her win as best actress in the film fest thanks to her more than capable performance. As a rom-com lead, she mixes just the right amount of cheese and class that most rom-com leads find difficult to balance out. Case in point: Sarah Geronimo.

It’s so easy to manufacture drama in a rom-com by the numbers, but Walang Forever avoided this by not dilly-dallying with the “will they or won’t they” aspect of their relationship. Even the plot points didn’t feel like they were just thrown in for the sake of conflict, but to actually prove a point about relationships.

We normally think things are more realistic if the rom-com doesn’t end happily, but this one did–just not in the way people expected. I suspect this might turn off people who were hoping for a feel-good romantic romp, but it actually pointed towards the reality of love and how happiness truly is a choice one has to make at some point.

The girl didn’t need to quit her career to please the guy. The guy never had to be emasculated over the girl’s success. You could have switched the characters around and the film would still remain just as engaging. That’s what makes for strong characters, really: relatable, smart, and downright adorable.

When was the last time Jericho Rosales wowed us with his organic acting? If you’ve never appreciated just how natural Echo was before, this film really underscored that. You knew he was having fun, and his take on being an atypical lead for a rom-com was unique.

Walang Forever didn’t just wink at you, it held you by the face and forced you to shut one eyelid in response. What’s amazing about it is that it was clearly a love letter to the Pinoy rom-com genre and it excelled at it, from the career choice given to Jennylyn Mercado’s character, to the tacit recognition of who really rule the rom-com genre in the cameo appearances they picked.

If they could have afforded John Lloyd and Bea, you just knew those two would have showed up in the film.

What were your feels after watching the movie? Catch #WalangForever while it’s still showing at the cinemas!