Die Beautiful

Die Beautiful is a FilipinoLGBTcomedy-drama film co-produced and directed by Jun Robles Lana and written by Rody Vera from Lana's story concept. It stars Paolo Ballesteros as Trisha, a trans woman who suddenly died after she was crowned winner of a gay beauty pageant, and her friends, who transform her into a different person on each night of her wake in a different location as a way to avoid being buried as a man by her father. It also tackles her whole life when she felt and dealt with problems and successes in living as a Filipina transgender, as well as controversy in her family.

Produced by Octobertrain Films and The IdeaFirst Company and distributed by Regal Entertainment, the film premiered in Tokyo, Japan, on October 27, 2016, as a competing entry for the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival.^[2] It received a domestic theatrical release on December 25, as an official entry to the 42nd Metro Manila Film Festival.^[3]

Trisha Echevarria is a trans woman whose sexuality is greatly opposed by her father, causing her to leave their house and live with her best friend, Barbs.

The film starts at Trisha's wake. She died after she was crowned as Binibining Gay Pilipinas. Every day during her wake, Trisha transforms into a different female celebrity through Barbs's skills in putting makeup. When Trisha was alive, the two enjoyed doing makeup transformations together.

Iza Calzado, who crowned Trisha during her final pageant, visits the wake at the time when Trisha is wearing makeup that depicts her. During Trisha's transformation as Miley Cyrus, the funeral parlor owner, Flora, takes a selfie with her and uploads it online. The photo goes viral, inadvertently making Trisha's wake an attraction, much to Barbs's disapproval. CouturierEugene Domingo also visits the wake and brings a white gown for Trisha to wear during her transformation as Julia Roberts from Runaway Bride.

Throughout the film, several flashbacks of Trisha's life are shown. During her teenage years, Trisha, then using the name Patrick, studied at the same school as Barbs. Patrick has a crush on Migs, a basketball player, and goes out with him one night after Barbs' encouragement. There, he is gangraped by a drunk Migs and his friends, causing anal bleeding on Patrick. His father visits him in the hospital together with his sister Beth, and finds out about what happened. Enraged, Patrick's father slaps him.

Patrick's relationship with his father is further strained as Patrick begins entering gay beauty pageants in secret. This leads his father to disown him. As he leaves, Patrick announces his new identity: Trisha Echeverria.

With nowhere else to go, Trisha moves in with Barbs, with Ruby, Barbs's mother's approval. She adopts an orphaned child named Adora, giving her a new name, Shirley Mae. Jobless, Trisha and Barbs continued to enter different pageants. Trisha often loses during the question-and-answer portion of these pageants. She then gets breast implants, thinking that it will help her win pageants.

Trisha dates a young gay club dancer named Miko. She even pays for Miko's rhinoplasty, but soon learns that Miko is having an affair with a gay beauty parlor owner, ending their relationship.

Trisha meets Jesse at a bar. Although Jesse is married, they start dating. On their sixth monthiversary, Jesse fails to arrive. A month later, Jesse's wife Diana, invites Trisha to the hospital where Jesse was confined due to leukemia. Jesse tells Trisha about his condition and confesses that their meeting was not accidental. His conscience urges Jesse as he was part of the group who gangraped Trisha during their teenage years. Although he tells Trisha that he grew to love her, Trisha is left distraught by the revelation and promptly leaves.

Trisha then joined Binibining Gay Pilipinas and picked a question she had encountered before. She delivers her memorized answer well: saying that if she dies and gets to live again, she would choose to be nobody but herself. While backstage, Trisha jokingly tells Barbs that if she won the pageant, she is ready to die. She further envisions her wake to have a makeover as different celebrities every day. Trisha finally wins but dies shortly of cerebral aneurysm.

En la morgue, llegan el padre y la hermana de Trisha. Su padre ordena que le quiten los implantes mamarios. Beth no está de acuerdo. Al final, su padre hace que vistan a Trisha con un barong Tagalog , una prenda tradicional masculina. Barbs, Paola y Erica se entristecen al ver a su amiga y le piden ayuda a Beth para sacar el cadáver de Trisha a escondidas y darle el entierro que ella deseaba.

En el último día de su velatorio, Barbs anuncia que la transformación final de Trisha la muestra tal como es: la Trisha que conocían, la que vivió una vida glamurosa. La película termina con el último mensaje de Trisha al caminar, mostrando una versión más joven de sí misma.

Otras celebridades que transformaron a Trisha durante su velatorio fueron Angelina Jolie , Lady Gaga y Beyoncé .

Die Beautiful es una película financiada por Hong Kong – Asia Financing Forum y producida por Regal Entertainment , The IdeaFirst Company y Octobertrain Films. ^{[ 5 ]} La película fue dirigida por Jun Robles Lana y producida por Lily Monteverde , Roselle Monteverde y Perci Intalan. ^{[ 3 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ]}

Die Beautiful fue seleccionada para la Competencia Principal del Festival Internacional de Cine de Tokio, que se llevó a cabo del 25 de octubre de 2016 al 3 de noviembre de 2016. ^{[ 8 ] [ 9 ]}

The film is an official entry to the 42nd Metro Manila Film Festival, and was screened at the 2017 Luang Prabang Film Festival.

At the awarding ceremony at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which was held on November 3, 2016, at the Toho Cinemas in Roppongi Hills in Japan, Paolo Ballesteros was named the festival's Best Actor. The film also won the Audience Choice Award.^[10][11]

The jury was headed by French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, and included Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung, U.S. producer Nicole Rocklin, Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea, and Japanese director Hideyuki Hirayama.

A total of 16 films, with Die Beautiful being the only one from the Philippines, competed.

Se anunció que una secuela estaba en producción para ser una serie de televisión derivada de 12 partes que se emitiría en Cignal Play titulada Born Beautiful con Paolo Ballesteros retomando su papel y Martín del Rosario asumiendo el papel de Barbs, que originalmente fue interpretado por Christian Bables . ^{[ 25 ] [ 26 ]} En cambio, los productores decidieron convertirla en una película de larga duración con la mayor parte de la historia centrada en Barbs. ^{[ 27 ]}

Una adaptación musical de la película, titulada Die Beautiful: The Musical , está programada para estrenarse en 2026. ^{[ 28 ]} Las ex participantes de Drag Race Philippines, Maxie Anderson y Viñas Deluxe, comparten el papel principal de Trisha. ^{[ 29 ]}

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