The Cheating Game is a Thai romance directed by Rod Marmol, which is currently streaming on Netflix. The amazing cast, including Julie Ann San Jose, Rayver Cruz, and others, along with their natural acting skills, draw us along in the screenplay, making the film quite relatable. The story revolves around the tragic breakup of Hope after a sex tape of her boyfriend gets leaked. She is trying to find Mr. Perfect when she comes across a young man who keeps many secrets from her that are later revealed. Will the secrets have a debilitating effect on the newly formed relationship? Will Hope be able to overcome her trauma from the past relationship?
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens To Hope’s Initial Relationship?
In the very first scene, Hope is seen breaking up with Brian over the fact that he cheated on her. It is revealed that Hope had been working for his company, as she sent him a resignation letter saying that she was resigning from the post offered to her at his company and also from the post of being his girlfriend. She is seen maintaining an excel sheet of the phases of her relationship with Brian,in which, over the course of time, the love is seen to be slowly diminishing. She sends him a video of him cheating on her with another woman as proof. Despite Brian’s attempts to keep her in his life, she leaves him. Within a few days, the video of Brian went viral, making him think that Hope had leaked it to take revenge on him. The NGO that he had been running had been shut down after the scandal, making many people lose their jobs in his company. Brian keeps following Hope and asking her to take down the video, and she keeps telling him that she was not the one behind the leakage of the video. After her breakup, Hope feels the presence of Brian everywhere near her. She becomes desolate and cries to vent her sorrows on her own, but she never shows her pains to her family even once. Audiences get to know the strong will of Hope to manage situations on her own.
What Changes Are Brought About In Hope’s Life With The Arrival Of Miguel?
After her breakup, Hope desperately seeks a job and finally manages to land one at Hashtag Media. Just as she was on her way to the office one morning, she crashed into a handsome young man who tried to take her out on a date. Even though Hope was initially reluctant, she later matches on a dating website with him and gets to know him better. Miguel and Hope start spending time together and help each other rebound. The warm and kind nature of Miguel makes Hope think that he is nothing like his ex-boyfriend. After spending a lot of time together, Hope wants Miguel to meet her family, and when he makes up an excuse and leaves, her mind again gets crowded with doubts. She keeps going over the possibilities of Miguel not being a genuine guy. She thinks about the odds of their first meeting and why Miguel was there at the bridge when that was not in his route. Why did she meet him again when her phone got snatched away on the road? She was wondering if all of these could be mere coincidences.
How Was Hashtag Media Involved In The Leakage Of The Video?
On investigating the case of Brian’s leaked video footage, it was revealed that the girl whose face was blurred in the video was Vanessa. It was evident that someone was trying to protect the girl while trying to only defame Brian. Later, Hope sees Miguel with Vanessa and is sure that he is up to something fishy. When nothing was going right in her life, a woman from another team in her office came up to her and informed her that her company, Hashtag Media, was somehow involved in secretly leaking the video of Brian. On Hope’s birthday, she invites Brian, Vanessa, and Miguel together to find out the truth. There was a lot of altercation at the meeting, and Miguel finally accepted that it was him who had actually leaked the video. He revealed that Vanessa was his ex-girlfriend, and he was so mad at Brian for stealing her from him that he had planned all of it. He also stated that making Hope fall in love with him was just part of his plan. He said that he pitied Hope in the beginning, but later, as they spent more time together, he started falling for her. He had intentionally gotten Hope a job at Hashtag Media after offering to sponsor them to keep a close tab on her. He confessed that the company was indeed involved in leaking the video of Brian, out of which it made an immense profit.
What Was Hope’s Reaction To The Events In Her Life?
Hope was devastated after Miguel’s confession. She felt immensely cheated and used by him. She lost all the faith that she had in herself that she would someday find the right guy for herself. Miguel said that he saw himself in her and wanted to care for her. Hope, however, managed to gather her senses and walk out of the relationship, making it clear to Miguel that she could not stand being pitied by someone. Later, Hope resigned from her job and walked away from his life. Miguel had later confessed in a video that he was the one who had leaked Brian’s video, which was a cybercrime. He also publicly apologized to Hope, saying that he had manipulated her and broken her trust. The scene later shifts to a year later, where Hope and Miguel meet again at the same spot where they met for the first time. We see a spark again being ignited between them both after Miguel apologizes to her, saying that he was guilty of his actions. He shares with her a spreadsheet where he will update the points that he should be working on in the relationship so that the progress can be kept tabulated by Hope.
Final Words
Even though Miguel was wrong in his actions, he did not intend to hurt Hope’s feelings. He was respectful of women, as he did not even reveal Vanessa’s face in the video. He had also clipped the video short so that the conversations that Vanessa and Miguel had after being intimate did not hurt Hope. The way Brian cheated on Hope by sleeping with another woman and saying the same words of love to her had broken her. Miguel, on the other hand, had tried his best to give Hope the best time. From the kind of love that Miguel gives her, it is evident that new comforts from the right person can make us forget about all our traumas. The Cheating Game has been beautifully executed by the able director, along with a wonderful screenplay, with no scope for us to find a single gap in the narrative. The lighthearted love story makes us all believe that love can again be rekindled if we have faith in ourselves and are determined to find the right person!
