What Happened to Marital Faithfulness?: A Comment on Two Recent Filipino Movies

This September, two movies were released and it bothered me. These movies, My Neighbor’s Wife and No Other Woman, have one thing in common: Adultery. So I ask myself, “What is going on these days?” Oh yeah, we are in the last days, where godlessness reign, and where people “will be lovers of self…unholy…without self-control…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:2). I won’t be surprised if more movies like these two come out in the cinemas.

My Neighbor’s Wife is about two couples Jasmine and Bullet (Carla Abellana and Jake Cuenca), and Giselle and Aaron (Lovi Poe and Dennis Trillo). Bullet, an owner of a bar, flirts with other women, and Jasmine isn’t comfortable with it. Giselle and Aaron are having issues. Coming from arguments with their respective spouses, Bullet and Giselle had a one night stand. Eventually, the affair was discovered, and what follows is trouble. Jasmine and Aaron also found themselves in one another’s comfort, as they share the same experience.

No Other Woman is about a husband and a furniture supplier named Ram (Derek Ramsay) who is strayed away by a client (Anne Curtis) into committing adultery. His wife (Cristine Reyes) soon fights for the love of her husband.

The Bible is full of warnings against adultery. Some are:

“You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14; see Deuteronomy 5:18)

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. (Leviticus 20:10)

He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. (Proverbs 6:32)

Jesus even had to go beyond adultery to address its root—lust (see Matthew 5:27-30). Clearly, adultery defiles a person (Mark 7:20-23).

In light of this, I deeply condemn the two movies for inviting adultery and devaluing marital faithfulness.