Trisha, a Filipino(na) transgender woman (Paolo Ballesteros), suddenly dies while being crowned in a local beauty pageant. Her last wish was to be presented as different celebrity on each night of her wake, but her conservative father (Joel Torre) wants to bury her as “his son” (as Patrick Villar), to avoid public shame. So, Trisha’s friends are left with no choice but to steal her body and hold the wake in a secret location. Thus, Trisha is transformed to look like “different celebrities”, with a beautiful gown (designed by renowned Couturière Mau Mau Zaldriaga/Eugene Domingo!) they also look back at the colorful and extraordinary life that she has led – from being a son, a sister, a mother, a friend, a lover, a wife, and ultimately, a queen. So many Trishas in one person!
Die Beautiful is a flamboyant puzzle delicately (de)constructed by director Jun Lana, showing the brightest and darkest aspects of Trisha’s errand life, as she is dedicated to become a “Total Beauty Queen”, in spite of the strict opposition of her conservative father. Her life is not always a bed of roses, and she becomes a victim of her own sexual ambiguities, as seen in the gang-bang rape scene. And she is called back to reality when she visits Migs (Albie Casiño) at the hospital, without knowing he was the last one to rape her. Trisha’s “real” life lies in her own fantasies, somewhere between Julia Roberts and Angelina Jolie… In spite of her own contradictions, Patrick has indeed become Trisha, for the best and the worst of her short life.
Once again, Jun Robles Lana chooses a person with a difference as his main character, after the old gay man of Bwakaw, and the unexpected heroin of Barber’s Tale. People who don’t feel easy with their environment, but manage to lead their own life, for a price.
Says the director about his film: “I have always found it ironic that, in most cases, to appreciate a life, we have to look at it in the context of death. It’s a life filled with as much joy and laughter as it was peppered with pain and sorrow. But, in the end, I hope audiences will see that, despite many different circumstances, Trisha is not really different from the rest of us – an individual in search of happiness –, perhaps just a bit more extraordinary and a shade more beautiful.”
Max Tessier