Reception of Nevertheless: A Reflection of Your Experience (23 June 22)

People who have followed my tweets on Nevertheless from the first time I started writing about it would know how much I identified with Nabi, and people who are close to me here would attest to how eerily similar my relationships were to the story.

Maybe that was why it was easy for me to empathize with Nabi and JE, and eventually make sense of Nabi’s character arc — because as I watched Nabi and JE’s characters grow and love unfold, I had a deeper understanding of what I went through years back.

Nevertheless is as real as it can get. So real and raw that some scenes felt like scratching off a scab from a wound that has been healing. And I guess this was why you could love or hate it, depending on where you are in life when you watched it.

For those who are stuck with the ideals of relationships, Nevertheless could be a difficult pill to swallow. For those who are experiencing the ups and downs of dating with uncertainty, it could be a lesson on prejudice, boundaries, and the importance of open communication.

For those who, like me, have been through the same, Nevertheless felt like liberation, or even a vindication, of the choices that our younger selves have made.

As they say, art is meant to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. And somehow I think Nevertheless did that. On the other side of the resounding hate, it opened several (albeit little) gateways to reasonable, logical discussions on young love and relationships.

But even more than that, Nevertheless was presented in through a brilliantly written, tight narrative and poetic cinematography that literature / creative writing / arthouse film buffs must not miss.

mignonxminion