Ten years of JoshLia. Thirty years for Apollo and Luna.
That contrast sits at the heart of Always Yours, Never Mine, the latest big-screen reunion of Joshua Garcia and Julia Barretto, who are marking a decade as on-screen partners with a romantic drama built around time, change and the choices people carry with them.
The Star Cinema film opens in Philippine cinemas on September 30, with Garcia playing Apollo and Barretto portraying Luna.
But this is not a romance confined to one chapter of their characters’ lives.
Always Yours, Never Mine follows Apollo and Luna across three decades, allowing audiences to encounter them at different points as their circumstances—and the people they become—change over time.
The long timeline gives Garcia and Barretto new territory to explore together just as their own screen partnership reaches a milestone.
Their pairing dates back to Vince & Kath & James in 2016. They went on to appear together in projects including Love You to the Stars and Back, Unexpectedly Yours, I Love You, Hater and Block Z.
After spending several years pursuing separate projects, the two returned to the big screen in Un/Happy for You in 2024.
Now comes another reunion, but with a different question driving the story.
Instead of focusing only on whether Apollo and Luna will end up together, the film examines what happens when love has to exist alongside changing ambitions, circumstances and versions of oneself.
Screenwriter Vanessa R. Valdez has explained that the movie deals not only with romance but also with life and the choices people make. Among the ideas raised by the story is whether loving someone can sometimes keep that person from becoming who they are meant to be.
It is a theme suited to a film that refuses to keep its characters frozen in one period.
Behind the project is director Cathy Garcia-Sampana, who previously worked with Garcia and Barretto on Love You to the Stars and Back and Unexpectedly Yours.
The movie’s story is credited to Olivia Lamasan, Trishtan Perez and Valdez, with Valdez writing the screenplay.
Bianca Umali also joins the project, marking her first Star Cinema film. The ensemble includes Chanda Romero, Ina Raymundo, Franco Laurel, Karen Reyes, Migs Almendras, Paulo Angeles, Joy Barcoma, Bob Jbeili, Reign Parani and Jan Silverio.
Music also plays into the movie’s treatment of time. Ice Seguerra recorded a version of the OPM song “Kumusta Ka” for the film, adding a familiar Filipino love song to a story concerned with