Lasting Moments (2025) draws viewers into the seemingly picture-perfect world of Aki, a devoted history teacher, and Pia, an ambitious corporate marketer — a couple on the brink of marriage. Their love story unfolds like a meticulously crafted scrapbook of shared dreams: vision boards filled with plans for their future home and wedding, and the comfort of a well-worn, romantic routine. Aki treasures the past, recording their everyday life with an old camcorder, convinced that memory gives meaning to the present. Pia, by contrast, lives for what’s next — driven by ambition and a relentless urge to escape the poverty she once knew.
As Pia’s career soars under the guidance of her supportive boss, Carlo, her world expands with new promotions and possibilities. Meanwhile, Aki begins to slip — forgetting lessons, missing bills, losing track of even the simplest things. The gulf between Pia’s rising trajectory and Aki’s quiet unraveling widens, transforming their once effortless intimacy into an unspoken struggle. What began as a love built on shared dreams becomes a bittersweet meditation on memory, ambition, and what happens when two lives, once perfectly in sync, begin to move in opposite directions.
This article contains spoilers.
Lasting Moments (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with Aki and Pia waking up next to each other. They are dating and madly in love. Soon, Aki and Pia will get married. While Pia works in a corporate company as a Marketer, Aki is a history teacher. At work, Pia’s boss Carlo is impressed with Pia’s work, so he gives a big project to Pia. In school, the students are shocked by Aki’s memory. One student thinks Aki has a lot of patience to become a history teacher, as one needs to dive deep into the past. At home, Aki is fiddling with a camcorder, so Pia asks Aki to buy a DSLR. Pia also urges Aki to get rid of old things, but Aki says it’s nice to look at the past, as it gives meaning and sense to the present.
To prove it, Aki plays a video of the couple that beautifully captures their relationship. One of the clips is of the time Aki proposed to Pia by playing the ‘How did you know’ song on the piano. Now, Pia asks Aki to play it for her. After dinner, Pia creates a vision board and hangs it in the room, as that will drive them both to achieve their dreams. First, Pia puts up a vision board of a dream house.
One day, the couple visits a home that fits the vision. The next vision board is to have a dream wedding. The couple then goes shopping for a bridal dress, where Aki rehearses taking Pia as his lawfully wedded wife. Later, they visit a venue and make a booking, even though the wedding is going to be the following year. In the dream house, Pia hopes to bring her mother and brother to live with them.
Why was Aki fired?
The next vision board is their honeymoon in Singapore. One day, Aki finishes classes and is heading out when a student says he missed Aki in class the previous day. Turns out Aki forgot to go to school. At home, Aki tells Pia that maybe the stress from wedding planning is making him forgetful. However, the couple continues to have a romantic life. It’s Pia’s birthday, so she plans to have dinner with her mum, brother, and Aki later that day. Even though it’s a Sunday, Aki is getting ready to go to work, only to be reminded by Pia that Aki does not have classes. Suddenly, Carlo calls Pia to meet for some work. So, Aki drives Pia to the restaurant. Outside, Aki feels a little jealous of Carlo and Pia’s closeness.
During lunch, Carlo does not do any work talk as he just saw a group text that it is Pia’s birthday. At home, Aki remembers his father abandoning him when Aki was a child. In that sad state, Aki starts to drink. At night, Pia reaches her mother’s house, where Pia’s friend Fel surprises Pia with a cake. However, Aki does not show up nor receive Pia’s call.
When Pia reaches home, she is angry with Aki for not coming to her birthday dinner. The anger escalates when Pia sees a drunk Aki mindlessly looking for his phone. When confronted, Aki says he forgot about the dinner, but he is soon forgiven by Pia. At school, Aki is struggling to remember facts, numbers, and dates. The principal calls Aki to her office to say that for the last six months, Aki has been missing classes, which is affecting the students. The parents are complaining, so Aki gets fired.
What happens between Pia and Carlo?
At the same time, Carlo and the management are impressed with Pia’s work, so she gets a promotion with a salary hike. Now, Carlo takes Pia out for dinner to celebrate. There, Carlo asks Pia to drop all the honorifics and be like a friend with him. At home, Aki is drinking through the pain. When Pia gets home and tells Aki the good news, Aki does not react the way Pia had hoped. Now, Aki reveals getting fired. This upsets Pia deeply. However, Aki promises to find a new job to help pay the bills. So, Pia reminds Aki to pay the electricity bill, which is already past due. Soon, Pia meets with Fel, who is a wedding planner, to have a chat. At home, Aki surprises Pia with a home-cooked meal. A chicken dish that Pia loves. However, Aki has forgotten to add the chicken.
The next day, it is raining heavily, and Pia is waiting for Aki to pick her up from work. However, Aki does not show up. At that time, Carlo offered to drop Pia off at home. In the car, Carlo says he is going to drop by his friend’s bar. At the bar, Carlo and Pia get drunk, and they almost kiss. However, Pia stops Carlo before anything can happen.
At home, Aki wants to tell Pia something, but she dismisses it as she is disturbed and tired. Thanks to Pia, Fel has been given a gig at a wedding for Aki. The next day, the owner of their dream house calls Pia to say the down payment has not been paid. Carlo overhears and offers to help; however, Pia declines. Now, Carlo says he is going to be transferred to Singapore. The hope is that Pia can join him there, as it is a great opportunity. For now, Pia tells Carlo that she needs to think about it.
What does Carlo do in Manila?
A while later, Fel calls to tell Pia that Aki didn’t show up for the gig. At home, Pia fights with Aki as she is tired of his drinking, not having a job, and now Aki has bought a DSLR on impulse. Furthermore, Aki questions Pia about their wedding plans when she mentions the Singapore transfer. So, Pia says she can’t be the only one holding it together. Unfortunately, love is not enough to hold onto the relationship. Now, Aki gets angry, saying Pia is overly ambitious. However, Pia says she grew up in poverty and does not want to live that kind of life anymore. The next morning, before Aki wakes up, Pia has packed her stuff to leave for Singapore. With this move, Pia has also ended her relationship with Aki.
A while later in Singapore, Pia wakes up next to Carlo, happy and in love. With Aki, Pia made vision boards, and with Carlo, Pia puts up pictures of them on the table to remember the memories. In Manila, Pia buys her old dream house for her mother and brother. Soon, Carlo wants to meet Pia’s family. They have been dating for five years and are happy.
However, things start to fall apart for Pia, which Carlo overlooks. Since they work in the same company, Carlo is unable to separate his relationship with Pia from work, which infuriates Pia. One day, Carlo plans a vacation for the couple to visit Manila. During this time, Pia misses Aki. In Manila, while having dinner with Pia’s family, Carlo proposes. This time, Pia says she isn’t ready. Soon, Pia breaks up with Carlo and moves in with her mother.
Lasting Moments (2025) Movie Ending Explained:
The first thing Pia does is look for Aki, but she is hesitant to go to the house. In a pharmacy, Pia bumps into Aki’s cousin Rekrek, who is buying medicines for Aki. Now, RekRek takes Pia home. There, Pia is heartbroken as Aki does not remember who Pia is. In the basement, Pia finds a video Aki has made about his condition. In a flashback, we see Aki visit a doctor who says Aki has Alzheimer’s. With Aki’s condition, he will forget what certain objects are used for and also engage in impulsive buying. The day Aki didn’t pick up Pia, it was because he didn’t know how to start a car. Even though Aki knew of his condition, he refused to say anything to Pia, as Aki was afraid he would be a burden on Pia.
Immediately, Pia visits the doctor and learns there is no way Aki will remember everything. However, Aki may recall his hobbies from time to time. After this, Pia decides to take care of Aki until the end. So, Pia quits her Singapore job. The initial days are hard as Aki does not like this stranger touching him or helping him. Eventually, things get better.
Slowly, Pia starts taking Aki to the places they would go, eat things they liked. Furthermore, Pia also recreated the proposal scene. One day, Carlo comes to visit Pia, asking to get back together as well as offer Pia a VP position in his own company. Additionally, Pia will be a shareholder as well. However, Pia declines the job as well as Carlo’s proposal to date again. One night, Aki wakes up crying, but he does not know why he is crying. So, Pia consoles Aki. The film ends with Aki playing the piano, and Pia sits beside him like she used to when they were dating.
The film ends with Aki and Pia back together again as they once were, despite all that happened between them. When Pia was dating Aki, she was fighting her trauma of having been poor, so she became ambitious, where work and a comfortable life were a priority. Later, through Carlo Pia could see what happens when you focus only on work all the time and forget the little things that make life beautiful.
More than anything, this is what made Pia miss Aki, and she came looking for him. Since Pia was ambitious, even though Aki knew of his condition, he didn’t say anything, afraid of holding her back. In the end, Aki’s trauma multiplies by being abandoned by the people he loves. The way Aki cries towards the end for no reason is such a good example of what your body remembers, even if your mental memory fails. The sadness that was deep within Aki came forth in the form of tears. In the end, love wins over everything else.
Lasting Moments (2025) Movie Review:
Lasting Moments (2025) begins with promise. It tells a story about a couple whose seemingly perfect life slowly unravels. At its heart, the film wants to explore the balance between love and work, and the meaning of the wedding vow “in sickness and in health.” Yet despite its heartfelt premise, the film falters in execution. When we first meet Pia and Aki, they’re engaged and planning their wedding. Amid the flurry of invitations and vision boards, Aki begins to show signs of forgetfulness — symptoms that later reveal an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. However, he keeps this from Pia, not wanting to disrupt her growing career ambitions.
Here lies the film’s first major flaw: realism gives way to convenience. If you live with someone whose behavior changes drastically day after day, would you not seek help? For a story that aims to portray a “realistic” kind of love, the absence of such a basic human response undermines its authenticity.
If the film truly wanted to explore how love endures illness, Aki’s diagnosis should have collided directly with Pia’s success. Imagine Aki revealing the truth just as Pia receives her promotion and the offer to work in Singapore — a moment charged with conflict, choice, and emotional stakes. That’s where the screenplay could have examined love’s limits and sacrifices.
Instead, the narrative takes the easier route. Pia leaves Aki before learning of his condition, begins a relationship with her boss Carlo (who’s shown interest from the start), and only returns when guilt and nostalgia set in. Upon finding Aki’s deteriorated state, she decides to stay. The film frames this as loyalty, but the journey to that point feels unearned. Even more troubling is the subplot involving Carlo’s advances, which Pia never questions or confronts. It sends a disquieting message — that professional success must come at the cost of personal boundaries.
Dialogue, too, suffers from excess. The word “love” appears so often that it loses all meaning. Yet, there are moments of genuine strength, particularly in Aki’s portrayal — his transformation from tender, patient boyfriend to a man slipping into the aggression and confusion of Alzheimer’s is compelling and deeply felt.
Unfortunately, the supporting characters exist merely to fill scenes rather than shape them. Each could have deepened the central conflict, but the script opts for convenience over complexity. In the end, Lasting Moments is a film with noble intentions but shallow execution. It’s a story that wants to speak about devotion and endurance, yet never allows its characters to confront those truths with honesty.
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