Relating "Third World Romance" to Philippine's Current Societal Issues by Nelica Casupang

Third World Romance is a Filipino romance-comedy film, directed by Dwein Baltazar, starring Charlie Dizon and Carlo Aquino who are now married in real life.

It is undeniable that Third World Romance was a highly anticipated film of 2023 by local audiences not only for its great casting but mainly for its fresh and unique narration of Filipino blue-collar workers. This film does not only touch the hearts of the hopeless romantics but beautifully portrays the struggles and reality of underpaid employees in a Third World country.

In the film, Charlie Dizon plays the character of Britney who is looking for a job, who bumped into the character of Carlo Aquino, Alvin, who works in a grocery store. All throughout the film, Alvin helped Britney around to get the job. 

The film did not waste any time in giving representations and real-life scenarios in what it looks like to be an employee in the Philippines. The two met at the grocery store where Alvin works at. It exposed the amount of work that a normal employee has to do for a little pay; doing twice the amount of work and working overtime with no compensation. Their boss even collects money from them for his birthday party and makes the employees feel bad for not contributing any. We cannot deny that these kinds of scenarios are what our Filipino working-class have to endure just to be able to earn money in a righteous way. There are still many corrupt and tyrant employers who prioritize their personal gain rather than the well-being of employees.

In the film, there came a major conflict that challenged Britney's resolve. She was wrongly accused of breaking a product that a customer was about to buy. Alvin, witnessing everything, confronted the customer and stood his ground; someone took a video and it went viral. It is no surprise that their unsupportive boss tried to cover what happened by firing Alvin and just doing what the supervisors told him. During all these, Britney did not say a word creating a tension between them. But then, Britney redeemed herself and her principles by exposing all the wrongdoings of their opportunistic boss. She stood with the other employees and left the grocery store.

From the scene above, we can more visualize and witness specific situations that the employees have to deal with— they deal with a lot of privileged customers, accusations, and little to no protection at all while not being regular workers. These kinds of events eventually force the workers to remain silent and just do what they are told to be able to continue earning money.

Third World Romance was a perfect blend of romance, comedy, but most especially a solid representation of the truths in our society, as well as the hope that love can still be around amidst this economy. In reality, our dear citizens who make up the workforce may not have enough resolve, platform, or opportunity at all to stand up for themselves and against the faulty system that we have, that is why it is very important for our filmmakers to mirror the situation of the society and make it very well known to the privileged and silent.