Kita Kita

Lucky Blanco, one of the film's producers, was responsible for initiating the concept for Kita Kita. It was originally intended to be a romance story involving three people characterized as unattractive. Blanco forwarded a script to director Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, who then decided to give focus to only two characters that would be later portrayed by Empoy Marquez and Alessandra de Rossi.[15] The concept was revised to a romantic-comedy story involving a "not so good-looking" man in a film which will be shot "in a beautiful place". Kita Kita was green-lit for production after the script's second draft was reviewed.[16]

Bernardo said that she wanted Kita Kita to focus on the concept of "falling in love even if you don’t see the person" and added that its story also focuses on the life of Overseas Filipino Workers, particularly on their experiences of entering into romantic relationships during their stay outside the Philippines.[16]

Spring Films, an independent film production outfit founded by actor Piolo Pascual and director Joyce Bernal,[17] made Kita Kita with a budget of ₱10 million[3] (approximately US$211,000). It was co-produced by Viva Films.[18]

De Rossi chose to do the role because she wanted to portray a character being courted instead of her previous roles of someone who would steal the boyfriend of another character. She describes the film in relation to her role as her "lightest film" and remarks that she was used to roles which involved heavy drama which she did not like due to restrictions she experienced.[1]

Director Sigrid Andrea Bernardo described Marquez as "a discovery" for his portrayal as Tonyo remarking that the actor is not only good in doing comedies but also "has a heart for acting". She says that Marquez's portrayal of his character will make the audience see beyond his physical attributes.[16] Bernardo also wanted the audience to see Marquez, who has a reputation as a comedian, to see his "serious side", saying that she wanted to show a balance of Marquez's serious and comedic sides through the film.[1]

The characters of de Rossi and Marquez was characterized by Bernardo as two lonely Filipinos in Japan who were brought together due to their shared isolation. According to the director, the story of the film would not have worked well had it been set in the Philippines.[15]

Pascual did a voice role as the narrator.[1]

The Fortune Bell in Mount Moiwa.

Boy Yñiguez was the cinematographer of Kita Kita.[19] Principal photography was done in Hokkaido, Japan.[20] Among the shooting locations in Sapporo are Odori Park, the Sapporo TV Tower, Susukino, the Sapporo Clock Tower, the Historical Village of Hokkaido, Fushimi Inari Shrine, Mount Moiwa, and Moerenuma Park. In Otaru, scenes were filmed at the Otaru Music Box Museum and the Otaru Canal. Scenes were also shot in the Shikisai Hill flower park of Biei town in Kamikawa Subprefecture and on Mount Asahi in Higashikawa.[21]

The film was intended to be submitted as an entry to the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival. It was pulled out from the film festival because of a rule that all entry films are to be picture lock or barred from further editing once they are submitted to the film festival organizers. Spring Films saw the need for re-editing. One of their decisions was to trim the 85-minute runtime for its theatrical run.[22]

In March 2017, a promotional teaser video showing a scene between the characters of Empoy Marquez and Alessandra de Rossi having a romantic conversation while eating ramen was released.[23]

An advance screening of Kita Kita was held at the University of the Philippines Cine Adarna on March 12, 2017 which led to the promotion of the film through word-of-mouth marketing in social media. The actors and producers made use of the radio and television platforms as well as made mall appearances to promote the film.[24]

The full trailer of Kita Kita was released on May 16, 2017.[25] On July 4, 2017, the trailer recorded 6.4 million views in Facebook.[16]

Kita Kita premiered at the 12th Osaka Asian Film Festival which ran from March 3–12, 2017 and vied for the Grand Prix and Most Promising Talent awards. It was one of the three Philippine films competed for the honors aforementioned alongside Jerrold Tarog's Bliss and Borgy Torre's Tisay.[26] The screening schedule of the film in the film festival was on March 10 and 11, 2017.[2]

Kita Kita was submitted to the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival as a candidate bidding to be selected as one of the eight films to be shown during the run of the film festival but Spring Films decided to pull out from the film festival before the official eight entries were announced.[22]

The film premiered in the Philippines on July 19, 2017 and had a special screening attended by Filipino celebrities and filmmakers four days prior.[27] It was also highly anticipated in social media by the viewers.[18]

Director Bernardo expected that the film will be pulled out from theaters the day after its premiere and the producers only hoped for the gross receipt would break even with the ₱10 million budget.[15] Defying expectations, the film opened to ₱90 million in its first week across 120 locations.[18] On July 27, 2017, it has already screened in 150 locations.[3] In August 2017, the gross receipt went to ₱230 million [28] and ₱240 million later on.[29] Three weeks later, it reached ₱320 million , surpassing Heneral Luna's ₱257 million as the highest-grossing Philippine independent film.[5]

Kita Kita was given an "A" grade by the Cinema Evaluation Board[28] and was met with positive reviews from critics.[30] Oggs Cruz of Rappler praised the film's lovable characters and the plot which did not rely heavily in romantic-comedy tropes; he said: "Kita Kita pursued its novelty of molding captivating characters out of unexpected leads while creating around them a droll and exotic world where both hard heartaches and fast hope collide. It is buoyant, without being too eager."[31] Wanggo Gallaga of Interaksyon offered similar commentary on the plot and characters, arguing that it is "a charming film that gives us a fresh look into the rom-com genre. It doesn't rely on prefabricated chemistry or overly complicated plots".[32] Ro Manalo of Cosmopolitan Philippines gave praise to its visuals and cinematography, and found the plot and characters endearing.[33] Fred Hawson of ABS-CBN News scored it 8/10 and commended the on-screen relationship between Marquez and De Rossi, saying: "It was this unlikely pairing of De Rossi and Marquez that made Kita Kita work so well to engage its viewers to laugh and cry."[34]

Writing for Esquire Philippines, Angelica Gutierrez opined that while she found the film essentially favorable, she argued that it is a "stalker's fantasy", citing Empoy Marquez's character to be downright sinister for "tak[ing] advantage" of De Rossi's character's blindness throughout. She said:

Why do we encourage persistence? Why isn't it enough when a woman says 'no' the first time? (And no, it's no different whether the guy in question is handsome or not). If Tonyo had really just happened to live across the street, approached Lea with no ulterior motives, and fallen in love with her, then it could have made for a beautiful film.[35]

The film's complete version had been leaked on Facebook by the first week of August 2017. One of the site's registered users reportedly posted it on August 4, garnering almost 2,000 views and was subsequently shared 70 times at 3:40 p.m.; it got taken down the following day at exactly 5 a.m.. Production outfits Spring Films and Viva Films denounced the leak in a joint warning, while co-producer Piolo Pascual and director Sigrid Andrea Bernardo through Instagram and Facebook.[36]