Regal Entertainment’s My Future You is the only entry in the forthcoming 2024 Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) that has been rated “G” (general patronage) by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board.

This means children below 13 years old can watch the movie even without an accompanying adult. That’s theoretical, of course, because we doubt that parents allow their children who are 13 and younger to go inside a dark movie house all by themselves. It could be dangerous to allow them to hang out there all by themselves because some nutty adults could be sitting right beside them. We never can tell, can we? 

What a “G” rating actually means is that the ticket porters would not bother to check if the children handing over their tickets are accompanied by an adult. The ticket porters will allow entry to anyone who presents a ticket for the film top-billed by the loveteam of Francine Diaz and Seth Fedelin. 

The film premiered Monday night, 16 December, at SM Megamall, and we found it more than wholesome enough for children to watch. 

Diaz and Fedelyn do not kiss at all but merely hold hands. In fact, even as their characters are seriously concerned with each other, they do not profess to being in love with each other until some strategic point of the film. 

Beyond the merry-making, Christmas is about Christ: who He is, what He came to do, and the fact thatHe actually accomplished His purpose. Had He not accomplished His purpose, life would have been empty.

Crisanto Aquino, as scriptwriter and director of the film, allows the lead characters to describe their love story as “magical” since one of them was living in 2009 and the other in 2024. If the film were not a love story, it would be called “miraculous.” Humankind’s evolved vocabulary has relegated the word “miraculous” to “circumstances that are a matter of life-and-death.”

Some shown and unshown characters in the narrative die, indeed — but none of them are the lead characters. No death is thrilling, entertaining. It is the living and loving that are thrilling -- in our evolved language and perception as humans “nakakakiliig!”

Diaz and Fedilin perfectly acted out thrilling innocence in the film. Both are in their prettiest and handsomest in My Future You. There are no traces of sensuality in their looks. Diaz and Fedelin are not like the other problematic young stars in Pinoy showbiz these days. Diaz is 20 years old and Fedelin, just 22.

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Since it is almost Christmas, kindly allow us to present here what the religious booklet “Rhapsody of Realities” say about the event. It is written by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, a Nigerian. His religious organization has chapters here in the country and distributes the booklet for free to help guide people in their relationship with God and their fellow humans, as well as with nature and the environment 

Here’s his take on Christmas:

“Beyond the merry-making, Christmas is about Christ: who He is, what He came to do, and the fact that He actually accomplished His purpose. Had He not accomplished His purpose, life would have been empty.”

That’s theoretical, of course, because we doubt that parents allow their children who are 13 and younger to go inside a dark movie house all by themselves.

Christ said in John 20:10: ‘I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance 

“... In Colossians 1:19, the Bible says the fullness of Deity resides in him. The totallity of divinity dwells in Jesus Christ: ‘For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:19). Jesus Christ is the body of God; everything that God is, is in Jesus.

The pastor went on to stress that Jesus “isn’t just with you today but in you... Christ in you is the hope of glory. This is the actual meaning of Christmas: It is the celebration of Christ in you.”

Pastor Oyokhilome goes on to proclaim: “You haven’t known what Christmas is and how to celebrate Christmas until you have the understanding that Christ literally dwells in the quarters of your heart. 

“The real celebration begins when you arrive at God’s revelation for Christmas, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. This was God’s plan from the beginning: that we be filled or replete with the fullness of God, just as Jesus was.”