In the name of good fortune, some people rely on a four-leaf clover, a rabbit’s tail, rituals, invocations, superstitions, lucky charms, auspicious colors, or propitious numbers. Others even pin their hopes on a life charm who has to be by their side in order to attract success and activate prosperity. But do these things really work?

Instead of having a relatable story that revolves entirely around love, this romantic comedy starring Jericho Rosales and Bela Padilla takes it a notch higher by adding an element of fantasy — the concept of luck, particularly finding out that your life charm is a stranger.

Joma (Rosales) and Diane (Padilla) are up against the wall in their respective dilemmas. Joma is drowning in debt and all he can resort to is gambling while Diane has to manage her family’s struggling pharmacy store and pay for her father’s ballooning hospital expenses. 

Extremely desperate to stumble upon luck quickly, Joma heads to a charms store where he purchases the pricey Eye of the Mountain Buddha. The charms store lady declares that it will help him find his much-needed life charm. 

As he crosses paths with Diane, Joma realizes that he becomes lucky when they are together, more so when they have physical contact whether by holding hands or putting one’s arm on the other’s shoulder. They enter into an arrangement to try their gambling luck together in order to earn big money easily. 

"Luck at First Sight" (2017)

Directed by Dan Villegas

Available on iflix and Netflix

Padilla, on top of being the lead actress, shares story credits with one of the film’s producers, Neil Arce. In an interview with Inside Showbiz Weekly in April 2017, Padilla told me that she thought about the story concept after listening to a conversation about luck on the radio.

She recounts, “I said, 'What if we have a movie and the title is Luck at First Sight instead of Love at First Sight?’ I was thinking since we've come to an era na puro hugot films and all the local films I've been watching recently are all hugot films close to reality, why not come up with something really far out and try to make the people believe in magic again?”

Indeed, the film makes you believe in the impossible as you wish for the luck of Joma and Diane to never run out. Although the film tackles the many aspects of good fortune, it does not look down on those who use lucky charms. It just shows that ultimately, a person’s life still depends on his or her will. 

Rosales and Padilla make an endearing tandem. They effectively make you root for their lucky streak even if they are both non-believers in luck in real life. The two seasoned actors choose to put a premium on perseverance and hard work when pursuing life goals. 

Meanwhile, Padilla disclosed that the “Luck at First Sight” team was praying for director Dan Villegas, also a cinematographer, to accept the project because great lighting is crucial for a film that mixes realism and magic. Villegas, who is a writer as well, even encouraged Rosales and Padilla to do many scene improvisations that added genuineness and sincerity to the film’s simple flair.