''Bayaning 3rd World'' (English: ''3rd World Hero'') is a 2000 Philippine mockumentary film directed by Mike de Leon, with a screenplay written by de Leon and Clodualdo del Mundo Jr. Shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

, the film stars

Ricky Davao Frederick Charles Abiera Davao (May 30, 1961 – May 1, 2025) was a Filipino actor and television director. Career Davao began his career in the entertainment industry in 1978 as a dancer for the Vicor Crowd group. Later in the year, he had h ...

and Cris Villanueva as two filmmakers discussing how to go about creating a film on

José Rizal José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda (, ; June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896) was a Filipino nationalist, writer and polymath active at the end of the Spanish colonial period of the Philippines. He is popularly considered a na ...

. The film was a return for de Leon after a near eight-year hiatus from filmmaking. It was well received by critics upon release but failed to impress at the box office. The Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Filipino Film Critics) included ''Bayaning 3rd World'' on their list of the Ten Best Films of the Decade. In 2000, the Department of Education, Culture, and Sports (DECS), under Secretary Andrew Gonzalez, called it an innovative film and endorsed it to schools, teachers, and students for the "invaluable lessons that can be learned from the story."

Plot

Two filmmakers (Ricky Davao and Cris Villanueva) are absorbed with the idea of creating a film about the life of presumptive Philippine national hero José Rizal. In particular, the filmmakers are interested in the controversy of whether Rizal retracted his anti-Catholic sentiments before his execution. The filmmakers investigate Rizal's life by "interviewing" key individuals, i.e recreating scenes as they go through Rizal's historical correspondence and other documents. The interviews are done with his mother Doña Teodora, his siblings Trining, Narcisa, and Paciano, his love interest and alleged wife Josephine Bracken, and the Jesuit priest who supposedly witnessed Rizal's retraction, Padre Balaguer. Over the course of the investigation, the filmmakers are unable to reconcile conflicting testimonies, their own personal biases, and the doubts and uncertainties that plague accounts of Rizal's life, writings, and beliefs. Eventually, the filmmakers give up on creating a definitive account of Rizal and uncovering the truth about the retraction controversy, instead concluding that every person has their own concept of the national hero ("kanya-kanyang Rizal").

Cast

Production

Development

In 1996, Mike de Leon and frequent collaborator Clodualdo del Mundo Jr. were in talks with

GMA Pictures GMA Network Films Inc., trade name, doing business as GMA Pictures (formerly Cinemax Studios and GMA Films), is a Philippines, Philippine film studio, film, television production company, production and distribution (marketing), distribution c ...

, then called Cinemax, to work on a film on the life of

, to be played by

Aga Muhlach Ariel Aquino Muhlach"Aga Muchlach biography"
''IMDB''. Retrieved June 13, 2014. (; born August ...

. Both the director and star left the project during the pre-production stage. GMA Pictures eventually got director

Marilou Diaz-Abaya Marilou Correa Diaz-Abaya (née Diaz; March 30, 1955 – October 8, 2012) was a Filipina multi-award winning film director. She was posthumously conferred the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022, sh ...

to make the 1998 biopic ''

'' starring

Cesar Montano Cesar Demontaño Manhilot (born August 1, 1962), known professionally as Cesar Montano (), is a Filipino actor, film producer, film director and aspiring politician. Montano started in show business as a commercial model. Nevertheless, according to del Mundo, both he and de Leon were still interested in pursuing a Rizal related film project, although one conceptually different from the original proposal.

Filming

The film was shot at the ancestral home of de Leon in San Miguel,

Bulacan Bulacan, officially the Province of Bulacan (; ; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Central Luzon Regions of the Philippines, region. Its capital is the city of Malolos. Bulacan was established on ...

, where in 1976 he shot his directorial debut '' Itim''. Nonoy Marcelo, who directed the first animated film ''

Tadhana () is a Philippine television drama anthology series broadcast by GMA Network. Hosted by Marian Rivera, it premiered on May 20, 2017 on the network's Sabado Star Power sa Hapon line up. The series is streaming online on YouTube. Premise ...

'', participated as an animator in Noli and Fili parts of the film.

Reception

Based on a pre-release screening, the film received the first "A" rating of the Film Ratings Board. Members of the Film Ratings Board exclaimed that the film brought them hope that the local film industry would see improvement at the start of the new millennium. They noted that de Leon managed to tackle the difficult subject of Rizal in a "accessible, comprehensible, and even exciting" manner that younger audiences could relate to. Noel Vera, writing for ''

BusinessWorld ''BusinessWorld'' is a business newspaper in the Philippines with a nationwide circulation of more than 117,000 (as of March 2014). Founded in 1967 as ''Business Day'', it is Southeast Asia's first daily business newspaper. History ''Busin ...

'', considered ''Bayaning 3rd World'' better than the 1998 ''José Rizal'' film. Praising the unique and imaginative approach to Rizal's life, Vera concludes: "This may not be a Rizal film, but it's a remarkable Rizal film nevertheless." There were similar, positive reviews by Nestor Torre of the ''

Philippine Daily Inquirer The ''Philippine Daily Inquirer'' (''PDI''), or simply the ''Inquirer'', is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines. Founded in 1985, it is often regarded as the Philippines' newspaper of record. The newspaper is the most awarded broad ...

'', Zenaida Amador of ''

Manila Bulletin The ''Manila Bulletin'' () (also known as the ''Bulletin'' and previously known as the ''Manila Daily Bulletin'' from 1906 to September 23, 1972, and the ''Bulletin Today'' from November 22, 1972, to March 10, 1986) is the Philippines' largest ...

'', and Ricky Gallardo of the ''Philippine Post'', among others. In a mixed review, however, Boo Chanco of ''

The Philippine Star ''The Philippine Star'' (self-styled ''The Philippine STAR'') is an English-language newspaper in the Philippines and the flagship brand of the Philstar Media Group. First published on July 28, 1986, by veteran journalists Betty Go-Belmonte, ...

'' found that although it was an "interesting, smart alecky film," it failed to offer an idea of what a national hero should be. In 2004, the New York-based film magazine ''

Film Comment ''Film Comment'' is the official publication of Film at Lincoln Center. It features reviews and analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world. Founded in 1962 and originally released as a quarterly, ''Film ...

'' included ''Bayaning 3rd World'' on their "Terra Incognita" list of "unknown pleasures that made our 10 Best." The critic Olaf Moller found the film "an ironic, wickedly playful modernist epic."

Accolades

The film was nominated for 11 of the 13 awards at the 1999 Gawad Urian, winning six: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Joel Torre), Best Cinematography, Best Sound, and Best Music. The Young Critics Circle Film Desk Citations awarded ''Bayaning 3rd World'' with Best Film, tied with '' Tanging Yaman'', along with Best Achievement in Cinematography and Visual Design, Best Editing, and Best Achievement in Sound and Aural Orchestration.

References

Works cited

* * * *

External links

* {{Mike de Leon 1999 films Cultural depictions of José Rizal José Rizal 1990s mockumentary films Philippine black-and-white films Philippine documentary films Philippine satirical films 1990s Tagalog-language films Films directed by Mike De Leon