Die Beautiful

Die Beautiful is a Filipino LGBT comedy-drama film produced and directed by Jun Robles Lana and co-produced by Ferdinand Lapuz and Perci M. Intalan, from a story by Jun Lana and screenplay by Rody Vera. 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 on living as a Filipina transgender as well as controversy in her family.

The film had its premiere at the 29th Tokyo International Film Festival on October 27, 2016, in Tokyo, Japan and it became an official entry to the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival.

Plot
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. Everyday during her wake, Trisha transforms into a different female celebrity through Barbs' skills in putting makeup. When Trisha was alive, the two enjoyed doing makeup transformation 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' disapproval. Couturier Eugene 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, study in the same school with 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 on 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.

Trisha stayed at Barbs' house, with Barbs' mother's approval. She adopts an orphaned child named Adora, giving her a new name as 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 monthsary, Jesse fails to arrive. A month after, 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. Jesse is urged by his conscience 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 joined Binibining Gay Pilipinas and picks 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. At 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.

In the morgue, Trisha's father and sister arrive. Her father orders to have Trisha's breast implants removed. Beth disagrees. Their father ends up having Trisha dressed in a barong Tagalog, a garment traditionally worn to a deceased male. Barbs, Paola, and Erica are disappointed at the sight of their friend and asks for Beth's help to sneak out Trisha's corpse and give her the burial she wished for.

In the last day of her wake, Barbs announces that the final makeover of Trisha is what she really is: the Trisha they knew who lived a glamorous life. The movie ends with Trisha's final walk message, showing a younger version of herself.

Other celebrity transformations of Trisha during her wake are Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé.

Main cast

 * Paolo Ballesteros as Trisha Echevarria / Patrick Villar
 * Christian Bables as Barbs

Supporting cast

 * Joel Torre as Papa
 * Gladys Reyes as Beth
 * Luis Alandy as Jesse
 * Albie Casiño as Migs
 * Faye Alhambra as Shirley Mae
 * Inah de Belen as teen Shirley Mae
 * IC Mendoza as Paola
 * Cedrick Juan as Erika
 * Lou Veloso as Flora
 * Mimi Juareza as Mommy

Guest cast

 * Iza Calzado as herself
 * Eugene Domingo as herself
 * Mel Martinez as gay parlor owner
 * Jade Lopez as Diana
 * Adrianna So
 * Kokoy de Santos as Michael Angelo

Production
Die Beautiful is a film funded by Hong Kong – Asia Financing Forum and produced by Regal Entertainment, The IdeaFirst Company, and Octobertrain Films. The film was directed by Jun Robles Lana and produced by Lily Monteverde, Roselle Monteverde and Perci Intalan.

Release
Die Beautiful was selected in the Main Competition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from October 25, 2016, to November 3, 2016.

The film is an official entry to the 2016 Metro Manila Film Festival, and was screened at the 2017 Luang Prabang Film Festival.

Reception
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.

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, were in competition.

Sequel
It was announced that a sequel was in production to be a 12-part spin-off television series to be aired on Cignal Play entitled Born Beautiful with Paolo Ballesteros reprising his role and Martin del Rosario picking up the role of Barbs which was originally portrayed by Christian Bables. Instead, the producers decided to make it into a full-length film with majority of the story focusing on Barbs.