REVIEW: 4.5/5
Happy Teacher's Day! We may have watched a number of films with a plot involving a student-teacher relationship. And Teacher, Teacher I Love You has a unique telling of how a student falls in love with a teacher, with a slice of magic. It is usually shown on Viva Cinema and SolarFlix.
Teacher, Teacher I Love You follows the life of Raul (Redford), a Physics professor from Cebu who moves to Manila for a teaching job and stays with his uncle Ponso (Berting). Upon arriving, he becomes the witness of Jeffrey (Richard) getting killed by the henchmen of an attorney (Efren), whom he works for as a hitman. After he is possessed by Jeffrey's soul, including his telekinesis, he experiences a slew of mishaps and gets bothered by Jeffrey. Meanwhile, affected by Jeffrey's death, his girlfriend Rose (Donita) refuses to enroll for the following semester. Raul, who accidentally visited her home through Jeffrey's soul, encouraged her to come back to college where Raul teaches Physics in a troublesome section. With the help of Jeffrey's soul, the two become close friends. He develops a good relationship between the class, leading them to have a field trip after an exam. After Raul's field trip with the class, he is accused of kidnapping his students, leading him to be fired by the college president (Leo). Little did he know that one of his students (Dan) is a close friend of the attorney. After the attorney's henchmen invade their home, he and Ponso were saved by Rose, who brings them to her family's resthouse. After confessing her love for Raul, she later sees Jeffrey's soul in Raul, expressing her disappointment with the latter. Raul then realizes that Jeffrey is using his body to solve the crime and bring justice to his death. The next day, Rose's classmates go to the resthouse, followed by the attorney, his henchmen and the policemen. After some misunderstanding, the policemen ends up arresting the attorney. On the day when Raul resigns from the college, he reconciles with Rose, telling her to prioritize her studies over love life, and, with the encouragement of the students and faculty members, takes back his resignation.
The film is an improvement over Felix Dalay's directorial debut Mukhang Bungo, a spoof of Markang Bungo which contains mostly gags and lacks ideas for a typical spoof for the 1992 elections. The script from the story by Dalay is spot on. Divino Reyes and Woodrow Serafin managed to come up with a unique plot with ideas which include lessons involving love life and the use of telekinesis. The movie isn't without a handful of gags, including the exchange of banters between Redford and Berting; some of them are witty enough, including the use of "footprints in the sand" in one of the scenes. The editing done by Ning-Ning de Leon is competent enough, especially when it comes to the scenes of Redford and Richard.
Most of the performances are commendable enough with literate dialogue. Redford White, whose serious acting is a rarity in his movies, is effective in his portrayal as Raul. Donita Rose, who occasionally bagged kolehiyala roles during her teen years, is very convincing as a toned-down kolehiyala looking for love. Richard Reynoso is no slouch when it comes to comedy with his portrayal as the soul who gets in Raul's way. The characters of Leo Martinez and Berting Labra added more fun to the movie. However, Efren Reyes Jr. is less effective as the main antagonist. He looks like more of a caricature and less energetic, compared to his other villainous roles.
Overall, the film is worth the watch. There are a lot of lessons in this film that anyone can learn from. Felix Dalay continued to direct successful films, whether action or comedy. One of these includes the Cezar Mancao biopic.
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