Tanabata's Wife trailer
The film is based on the classic Philippine short story Tanabatas Wife by Baguio born author Sinai Hamada published in the 1930s.
It is the early part of the 20th century and Japanese immigrant farmers are doing well with vegetable gardens in La Trinidad Valley near Baguio, where they have pioneered the cultivation of salad greens in the region, among them Tanabata- San. Middle-aged and lonely, he hires a young Bontok woman, Fasang, as farmhand, and falls in love with her. They marry and have a son, Kato. They grow the garden, but Fasang is enamored of the city lights of an emerging Baguio. She loves the cinema. She falls for the wiles of a distant cousin, Okdo, and they elope, taking Kato with them.
With only his teen-aged aide Tiago working the farm, Tanabata is distraught. He loses his will to live and abandons the garden. He wants to go home to Japan to die, wishing only to see his wife and son one last time. Fasang falls on hard times, too. Okdo loses his job at Camp John Hay and abandons her. She goes to the work camp to dig roads. When all seems lost, Tiago finds Fasang and implores her to come home with Kato. Tanabata Sans family is restored: True love like the seasons will have its way, it is as old as the mountains.