Since I first knew of Rizal in a book of Asian history, I have had a question. Why is Rizal the National Hero, not Aginard, nor Bonifacio? Rizal did little except writing two novels. Why? Watching the movie, I thought I had an answer. Historically, his books and his death triggered the revolution activities. But true reason is, I suppose, that Rizal had a universal view on humanity and freedom. I was impressed by the following two lines: 1) In a Madrid pub, he says "Unless we first learn self-respect, we will not be respected by any other peoples." 2) After having death sentence, his barrister says he is ashamed as a Spanish. Rizal says, "No, we are the same human beings." He was not a perfect man, nor his ideas. But he left something everlasting, that Filipinos can be proud of.

The next question I had was: His death triggered the revolution activities. Was it beyond his will, or did he want it to happen? The night before execution, the ghost of Simoun came out in his room, and urged him to rewrite the story. At last Rizal says "Let me have a rest. To know who I am." Then he rewrites the story so that the lamp explodes to kill many suppressors. So, what Abaya wants to say?

Jose Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, known as Jose Rizal, the greatest hero of the Philippines was indeed the pride of Malayan race. He is also known as a many-splendored genius. He was richly dowered by God with superb intellectual, moral, and physical qualities. He was an anthropologist, botanist, businessman, cartographer, dramatist, economist, educator, engineer, essayist, entomologist, ethnologist, farmer, folklorist, geographer, grammarian, historian, horticulturist, humorist, lexicographer, linguist, musician, novelist, painter, physician, poet, philologist, philosopher, polemist, psychologist, satirist, sculptor, sportsman, sociologist, surveyor, traveler, and zoologist.
Rizal was also a lover, loved Leonor Rivera, who was his cousin, but despite that fact, he was forced to go to Europe to stud medicine, ordered by his brother Paciano, in order to fight against the Spaniards. He became a traveler, and each country he visited, there were always important events that occurred.
Rizal wrote two novels, the “Noli Me Tangere” and the second part of it, the “El Filibusterismo”. These writings state how the Spaniards rule the Philippines, how the rights of the Filipinos were abolished. The genius, Dr. Rizal, portrayed himself in his two novels.
Rizal, a brave and a man of his word, was never afraid whatever the consequences he may suffer because of his writings that are against the friars and also to Spaniards. His goal was to free the Philippines from the unjust government of Spanish colony.
Dr. Rizal was a patriot, hero, and a martyr. He consecrated his God-given talent, and even sacrificed his own life, for the redemption and welfare of his people. Verily, a man of his heroism and versatility appears but once in the history of any nation. Anyway, it is a very good film. It is the first Philippine film put on a Japanese screen except kinds of film festivals. I hope more Philippine films are shown in Japan, especially Abaya's. ave you ever heard the word “martyrdom complex”? It is the act of sacrificing everything including life itself for patriotic or religious action. Jose Rizal had this complexity. He sacrifices his life just to attain a free or a democratic Philippines.
The movie “Rizal” is a great interpretation of the Philippines tragic history. It shows patriotism and heroism in a very peaceful way. The movie was very difficult to understand what Rizal(Montano) was saying because it was usually in Spanish. Also, the translation of what they were saying at the bottom part cannot be read sometimes because of the color of the font or the text. It also shows that Montano was not good in speaking Spanish compared to other Filipino artist. The movie was also very confusing to watch because there were too many flashbacks and you won’t know if Rizal was still in Spain or not. Some scenes also do not have a date or place.
The movie has its own complexity and some scenes of violence. There are scenes that are inappropriate for young children to watch such as the nude lady and the bed scene in the first part. Although the scene shows how abusive the friars are with their powers which include raping Filipino women, the scenes are very disturbing to watch. Some scenes also show that Rizal (Montano) has somewhat a mad glint in his eye as if he was frustrated. Maybe the director wants to show or portray that Rizal is frustrated of what is happening to his country. It’s true that Rizal is womanizer but its very improper to show that the relationship of Rizal and his cousin was purely or only sexual (maybe the director just want to commercialize the movie). The scene would completely disgrace the Filipino culture because our culture is very conservative and kissing in the sala or clinic during that time is very far from the conservativeness of the Filipinos. Although he wasn’t a teenager when he had an intimate relationship with Josephine Bracken, an out wed baby is not what you would be proud during that time.
The movie makes me sick to what is happening to Catholicism during that time. The church doesn’t really respect the people. They are talking about hell or bad actions but they too are also doing bad things. The movie also shows many realities that can be seen today such as plundering, abuse of powers, the lack of freedom of speech for the people and for the writers, and bribery. It just implies that what happens to the past has a big or great effect to the future. The movie shows that the Spaniards are racist during that time because of the scene that the Spanish student named the Filipino student a monkey or an idiot. A scene at the ending part shows that some Filipino was condemning Rizal to what he was done. How can the Spaniards respect us if we too are not respecting or supporting of what our kababayan was doing. This action was also present on these days because there are many Filipinos trying to conquer the international tilt in singing or dancing and there are also many Filipino inventors that were creating a good project proposals but we or our government was not supporting them.
Rizal’s blueprint of nationalism was for as to have a national identity and a national unity. Unlike most of his country men of his era, Rizal realizes that there could never be a country unless each Filipino recognized the need for self sacrifice and putting aside differences for the common good. Sad to say that since his death, the country has degenerated into rival political clans and families just the same way Filipinos used to be before the Spaniards arrived.