The Time That Remains doesn’t chase scares or melodrama. It builds tension the old-fashioned way: with memory, obsession, and the creeping suspicion that the love story you’re watching may also be the motive. Set in the Philippines and told through a woman’s recollections, the film moves between intimacy and dread as an inspector closes in on a pattern of deaths that refuses to stay in the past.
Now streaming on Netflix, the 2025 drama blends romance, fantasy, and crime into something stranger than a typical love story. The hook is simple and unsettling: an older woman looks back on a lifelong relationship with a man who never seemed to age, while investigators circle a secret that could explain everything. Here is everything you need to know about The Time That Remains – from the plot and cast to reviews. The trailer is at the bottom of the article.
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The Time That Remains: All the key details
- Title: The Time That Remains
- Original title: The Time That Remains
- Format: Movie
- Runtime: 116 minutes
- Genre: Drama, romance, fantasy
- Country: Philippines
- Original language: Filipino
- Release date: October 16, 2025 (Netflix)
- Director: Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr.
- Lead cast: Carlo Aquino, Bing Pimentel, Beauty Gonzalez
- Produced by: Netflix
What The Time That Remains is about
The Time That Remains follows Lilia, an elderly woman left gravely injured after a violent home invasion and confined to a hospital bed during her recovery. There, she forms an unexpected bond with Isabela, a nurse quietly struggling with unresolved emotional wounds of her own. What begins as casual companionship gradually turns intimate as Lilia starts recounting the defining love of her life.
Her story reaches back to the time of the Japanese occupation, when she met Matias, a man who never seemed to age and whom she describes as capable of transforming into a cat. At first, Isabela dismisses these recollections as folklore or the fragile imaginings of an old woman shaped by trauma. But as details begin to align in unsettling ways, it becomes increasingly clear that Lilia’s memories may not be stories at all.
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As Matias reappears in the present, desperately seeking blood to save the woman he loves, a police officer grows obsessed with tracking him down, convinced he is responsible for a string of murders stretching across decades. For the investigator, Lilia is no longer just a victim or a witness — she may be the only living link to a killer who may not be entirely human.
Blending romance, mystery, and Filipino folklore, the film treats the supernatural not as spectacle but as an extension of its central themes: ageless love, moral consequence, and the unsettling idea that some desires — and some debts — refuse to die.
Who is the director of The Time That Remains
Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr. directs with an emphasis on atmosphere and restraint, letting scenes play out with a moody patience rather than pushing constant twists. In this film, that approach matters because the tension isn’t only about what happened, but about when the truth finally catches up to the people who lived it.
The Time That Remains cast: the main characters
Carlo Aquino plays the film’s ageless romantic figure, giving the story its central paradox: intimacy that feels genuine, paired with an existence that can’t be explained. For Netflix audiences, Aquino may also be familiar from Goyo: The Boy General, which is available on the platform in many regions.
Bing Pimentel anchors the story as the older woman whose memories shape the narrative, balancing tenderness with the unease of someone who knows she’s being watched and judged. Beauty Gonzalez adds another crucial perspective as Isabelle, an ER nurse who becomes a listener, a witness, and an emotional mirror for the story being told. The supporting cast includes Jasmine Curtis-Smith and Bembol Roco, among others, adding further emotional texture and generational contrast to the film’s layered narrative.
Is The Time That Remains based on a true story?
No. The Time That Remains is a fictional story built around vampirism and a romance that stretches across decades.
What reviews say about The Time That Remains
Critical response has been mixed but engaged. Rotten Tomatoes lists a small number of critic reviews and positions the film as a romance-drama-fantasy hybrid. Common Sense Media describes it as a Filipino vampire story and argues the film prioritizes style and mood, with a slower pace and heavy darkness in its staging. The overall takeaway is that if you connect with its gothic tone and long-range romance, the film works best as an atmosphere-first watch rather than a tightly plotted thriller.
Why watch The Time That Remains
If you enjoyed Only Lovers Left Alive or Interview with the Vampire, this fits naturally into that space, blending romantic fatalism with vampire mythology and a mystery structure that treats memory like a crime scene.
The Time That Remains release date on streaming
Available now. The Time That Remains is already streaming on Netflix. Release date: October 16, 2025. Watch on Netflix.
