by Hiro Hayashi
Marking the first collaboration between actors Dingdong Dantes and Anne Curtis “Sid & Aya: Not a Love Story” captures attention through its deliberate storytelling, tightly constructed script, and thoughtful cinematography. The production demonstrates that careful technical execution can make a story compelling on its own more than the hype that mainstream actors brought.
Buy This Title
by clicking on the image below
Sid (Dingdong Dantes) is a financially successful but emotionally distant stock trader, while Aya (Anne Curtis) is a working-class hustler supporting her family. Their relationship begins with an unusual arrangement: Sid rents Aya’s time for companionship during the quiet hours of the night, with no promises, no romance, and no emotional entanglements. Just shared moments.
As their nights continue, what starts as a simple transaction gradually deepens. Conversations grow more personal, silences more comfortable, and the careful boundaries they set begin to feel fragile.
As their closeness develops, their realities press in. Aya remains anchored to her family and the demands of survival, while Sid navigates a life shaped by professional success and an engagement that offers stability rather than certainty. Both characters will need to face their reality if still they can risk to continue it or risk being together romantically.
Irene Villamor both wrote and directed Sid and Aya. The film perfectly captures the reality of knowing when to take a risk amid the uncertainties that can shape a person’s life. Sid sees that everything can be bought by money, including someone’s time, such as Aya’s. On the other hand, Aya is a hustler who sees everyone and everything as a source of money in every possible way. She gambles with her workmates at a coffee shop to learn about Sid’s job, which eventually leads her to agree to be paid as his companion. Sid’s offer, while unorthodox, mirrors real-life arrangements where people pay others to share their problems, like psychologists, pushing the concept into a darkly humorous territory that highlights a cost-benefit model in human connections. Aya even “upgrades” their relationship from companions to friends at an additional 500 pesos per hour. A brutally funny yet revealing scene that shows how intimacy can blur when attractive people meet frequently.
The film is slow-paced, and the conflict is introduced subtly. Unlike most Filipino films that rely on dramatic scenes and heavy acting to convey meaning, Villamor uses restrained, monotonous conversations to immerse the audience in the characters’ dynamics. What deepens the movie is how Sid and Aya’s transactional connection becomes an unexpected emotional bond they cannot resist. The conflict intensifies as they face their own realities, making them question whether this unexpected connection is worth the risk.
Side characters such as Aya’s mother and Sid’s uncle add important context to the story by reflecting the consequences of taking emotional risks. Aya’s mother represents the weight of responsibility and sacrifice that shapes her daughter’s cautious view of love and security. Sid’s uncle embodies the cost of past choices and missed chances. Their experiences give emotional gravity to the dilemma of the two protagonists, reinforcing the question of whether risking an unexpected connection is ultimately worth it.
Dingdong Dantes’ portrayal of Sid is defined by restraint and subtlety. He shows the character as emotionally guarded but quietly conflicted. Sympathy emerges through minimal gestures and controlled delivery. Anne Curtis, as Aya, complements him with grounded physicality. Her practical, unpolished movements and subtle reactions give her character emotional depth. They create a dynamic where much is communicated through presence and nuance rather than words.
Their understated approach continues in their interactions. Small glances, pauses, and hesitations carry unspoken emotions. In the early café scenes, Sid’s restrained curiosity contrasts with Aya’s cautious calculation. The rhythm of their conversation, with soft laughter and brief silences, makes their chemistry feel natural and lived-in. As their relationship develops from a transactional arrangement to friendship and then romance, everyday actions like passing snacks or sharing routines become intimate moments. These quiet interactions reflect growing trust and understanding. The performances show that romance in the film is less about dramatic declarations and more about believable emotional progression.
One of the most striking aspects is the cinematography by Pao Orendain. The film frequently employs wide-angle shots during conversation scenes, giving the audience a sense of realism and spatial awareness, as if observing everyday interactions in real life.
These shots allow small gestures, glances, and pauses to carry weight, emphasizing how much of the story is communicated through subtext rather than overt action. The framing often positions the characters within their environment, making their isolation or emotional distance visually apparent. Cuts are precise but unintrusive, allowing pauses and silences to breathe while subtly emphasizing shifts in emotion or internal conflict. Timing is crucial with brief close-ups lingering on micro-expressions while reaction shots in mid-conversation capture the unspoken dynamics of connection and restraint.
Lighting is another tool carefully manipulated to reflect tone and tension. Morning sequences feature soft, low-contrast lighting that mirrors the routine, muted rhythm of everyday life. It reduces visual tension and places the characters in a familiar reality. In contrast, nighttime sequences employ heavier contrast and dramatic shadows with strategically placed highlights to emphasize the weight of decisions and moral ambiguity, especially the growing intimacy between Sid and Aya. These lighting choices are reinforced by color grading, which subtly shifts between scenes. The washed-out, desaturated mornings suggest monotony and survival-driven repetition. The night scenes are enhanced with vibrant, mixed palettes that reflect the unpredictability and emotionally charged nature of their interactions and midnight conversations.
The script, written by Villamor, also serves as the backbone of the film. She crafts naturalistic dialogues that explore philosophical ideas about risk, value, and human behavior. These conversations are carefully matched to character traits, such as how Sid’s precision contrasts with Aya’s practical, fast-paced wit.
“Sid & Aya: Not A Love Story” perfectly shows that a film can still be popular with casual audiences using its production values and direction more than the hype that the A-listers brought to the film.