Best Filipino history movies

A Filipino general who believes he can turn the tide of battle in the Philippine-American war. But little does he know that he faces a greatest threat to the country's revolution against the invading Americans.

With this film (the second war trilogy set during the Filipino-American war in the early 1900s), the revolution marches on against the Americans after the bloody death of General Antonio Luna. The conflicted philosophies behind the heroic struggle continue and become personified in the colorful character of General Gregorio "Goyo" del Pilar.

A powerful and moving historical drama that tells the courageous story of three Filipino Catholic priests: Mariano Gomez, José Burgos, and Jacinto Zamora.

Accused of treason, Dr. Jose P. Rizal awaits trial and meets with his colonial government-appointed counsel, Luis Taviel de Andrade. The two build the case and arguments for the defense as significant events in the central figure's life prior to his incarceration unfold. Upon hearing Rizal's life story, Taviel begins to realize that the accused not just is innocent but exhibits in fact all the qualities of an extraordinary man. When the mock trial unreels, Taviel is all set to act as the prime advocate for his client as Rizal himself is about to give an earth-moving speech to defend his honor and address his countrymen. Meanwhile, the Spanish authorities have worked out the vast political machinery to ensure a guilty verdict. A revolution waits in the wings.

A disillusioned and suicidal Rizal, a cross-dressing Bonifacio gripped with paranoia, an ex-Katipunero who joins the US army to save his own neck, and a widow whose sex-for-food errands lead her to become the first ever Makapili. These are the historical mosaics that will form a singular hypothesis as to why we are like this as a people and up to now still reeling from our damaged culture.

An adaptation of Sinai Hamada's short story. A Japanese farmer living in the Cordilleras hires a Bontoc woman to work at his farm, and eventually marries her.

This film reenacts the martyrdom of the Gomburza, high-lighting the events and occurrences prior to their execution. The movie focuses on the story of Fr. Jose Burgos and his involvement in the Cavite Mutiny of 1972.

Decades before the rise of liberalism in Spanish-era colonial Philippines, a young charismatic preacher leads a movement for equality and religious freedom for his fellow native Filipinos. He is hailed as the Christ of the Tagalogs, but is sentenced to death for heresy by both Church and State.

The true story of Andres Bonifacio, a man who rose as a leader in the fight against the Spanish oppressors, and would gain the enmity of even those fighting for the same cause.

A short film about Antonio Luna’s aides-de-camp Jose and Manuel Bernal during the aftermath of Luna’s assassination.

“Sequel na, series pa? It’s just a suggestion.” Watch as Eugene Domingo comes full circle as she completes the saga in this third installment of Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank. Witness her in a new light as she tells the real untold story of Josephine Bracken in this iWant original series.

Heneral Rizal uncovers the story of Paciano Rizal, usually regarded as the ever-supportive elder brother of the Filipino National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal. Unknown to many, Paciano was a proficient general who fought the colonizers, together with Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. He was instrumental in liberating Calamba during the Philippine Revolution.

In 1898, a band of Spanish soldiers heroically defended Baler against Filipino forces for 337 long and grueling days. The battle, now referred to as the Siege of Baler, is the setting of a forbidden love between a Mestizo soldier and a Filipina lass who lived at the end of the 19th century.

In the final days of the Japanese occupation in the Philippines, a young Filipino seeking to provide for his family by identifying traitors, finds a young insurgent living in his home, leaving him to choose between his family or dignity to survive the Second World War.

A short animated film about Martial Law in the Philippines.

After surviving the Death March, Martial Law and the loss of his legs, Justino became an atheist. But when his wife dies, a part of him is yearning to believe in life beyond death; just for a chance to be with her again. Searching for parts of her he can still hold on to, he devours her diaries for information into their past --opening a Pandora's Box of secrets.

1901, Balangiga. Eight-year-old Kulas flees town with his grandfather and their carabao to escape General Smith's Kill & Burn order. He finds a toddler amid a sea of corpses and together, the two boys struggle to survive the American occupation.

This play unpacks many events chronicling the Victory at Mactan in 1521.

The film centers around Philippine President Manuel L. Quezon and his plan to shelter Jews in the Philippines who were fleeing from Nazi Germany during the World War II era.

A sequel to Maid in Malacañang. The film explores the assassination of Ninoy Aquino on August 21, 1983, three years before the events of Maid in Malacañang, and how the Marcoses were accused of as those responsible for killing him.

Felix Yzagun Manalo is a sprawling historical epic that traces the origin of Iglesia Ni Cristo (The Church of Christ) which is established in the Philippines from its humble beginnings in 1914 through the present day.

What follows is a black-and-white silent film set in the 1890s during the brewing Filipino revolution against Spanish colonialism. A series of tragic and comic sequences tells the Three Ages of an Indio (“common man”) as he progresses from boy bell ringer in a village church to teenage revolutionary to adult theater actor rehearsing a popular Spanish play.

Andrés Bonifacio is celebrated as the father of the Philippines Revolution against Spanish colonial rule. This eight-hour epic examines this myth, undertaking an expedition into history through various interwoven narrative threads, held together by an exploration of the individual’s role in history.

A man named Jesus takes on the ruling military junta.

Andrés Bonifacio, the freedom fighter known as the father of the Philippine revolution, was executed by rival revolutionaries in 1897. His wife, Gregoria de Jesus, searched for his body in the mountains for 30 days. It was never found.

Two filmmakers try to create a film venturing on the life of Jose Rizal. Before they do that, they try to investigate on the heroism of the Philippine national hero. Of particular focus is his supposed retraction of his views against the Roman Catholic Church during the Spanish regime in the Philippines which he expressed primarily through his two novels Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. The investigation was done mainly by "interviewing" key individuals in the life of Rizal such as his mother Teodora Alonso, his siblings Paciano, Trinidad, and Narcisa, his love interest and supposed wife Josephine Bracken, and the Jesuit priest who supposedly witnessed Rizal's retraction, Fr. Balaguer. Eventually, the two filmmakers would end up "interviewing" Rizal himself to get to the bottom of the issue.

A musical tale about two impoverished sisters' anguish over whether or not to sell the final masterpiece of their recluse father days before the second world war, in Manila.

The film covers the life of Filipino patriot and hero Macario Sakay, who was declared an outlaw and a criminal for continuing hostilities against the United States after the "official" end of the Philippine Insurrection.

Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio is the untold story of the trial of Andres Bonifacio under the Revolutionary Government of Pres. Emilio Aguinaldo. Two leaders, Andres Bonifacio, Supremo of the Katipuneros, and Emilio Aguinaldo, president of the Revolutionary Government, made their way to fight for freedom for the Filipinos against the dominant rule, fought for a cause and for a reason to be one nation. Yet only one should rule. This was the start of Philippine politics. Ang Paglilitis ni Andres Bonifacio is a film documentation of Philippine history put to screen and megged by Mario O’Hara. And now, let the people be the judge whether Andres Bonifacio is guilty or not guilty of treason

The film begins with his capture by Philippine and US forces under Frederick Funston's command in 1901, then flashes back to 1886, when an old woman gives Aguinaldo and his childhood friend Candido Tirona cryptic prophecies. Ten years later, Aguinaldo is inducted into the Katipunan and later assumes leadership of its Cavite chapter while becoming mayor of Cavite El Viejo. When the trouble breaks out in Manila in late August 1896, Aguinaldo tries to assure the Spanish provincial government of non-interference and covertly marshals his forces despite a lack of weapons. Learning that the Spanish mostly put their forces in Manila, Aguinaldo finally mobilizes his troops and take the command of the Katipunan forces in Cavite

The untold true to life story of Leonardo M. Manecio of Malagasang, Imus, Cavite, who possesses an amulet which renders him invisible whenever he is in the mud, as well as the modern day Robin Hood of Cavite

Gerardo de Leon's great revisionist film about one of Jose Rizal's most memorable characters, Sisa.

Dr. Jose Rizal was exiled in Dapitan from 1892-1896. These were his last four years. Dapitan served as his prison cell. He always compared it to “a beautiful cage” where he is imprisoned. This was the longest imprisonment Rizal ever had. He became so lost by those times, but still he did not lose his mind. Even there, he continued studying and discovering things. He continued his conversation with his friends, scientists and doctors outside the country.

Jose Rizal: Ang buhay ng isang bayani: Directed by Butch Nolasco. With Joonee Gamboa.

The Battle of Tirad Pass was fought between Filipino revolutionary forces and Americans of the 33rd Infantry Regiment in Ilocos Sur. Brigadier General Gregorio del Pilar led the Filipinos, while Major Peyton March led the Americans. The battle resulted in the death of Del Pilar, along with 51 Filipino soldiers.

Based on the life of Walter Dempsey Jr., also known as Markova, this film sees his journey from adolescence to adulthood as a female impersonator during the Japanese occupation, then shows his struggles as an elderly gay man in the present.

A young Filipina is taken from her village to a Japanese military camp to serve as a sex slave during WWII. She endures abuse but finds solace in a friendship with a Japanese soldier.

On a storm-ravaged island that has seen its share of tragedy, a person who had been assumed dead reappears and ignites a frenzy of reactions, ranging from ecstatic religious fervor to fear.

Three periods interconnect the life experiences and teachings of Anastacia Giron-Tupas while transposing her story into the lives of her contemporary counterparts. Anna Formantes strives to uphold the personal and professional values of Anastacia Giron Tupas, sacrificing her happiness for education, better degrees and experiences, community advocacy, and advancing nursing standards.

The diaspora of Filipinos around the globe is driven mostly by the economics of supply and demand. The yearning for something better, stability, and self-validation leads a handful of sojourners from the provinces of the Philippines into the arms of one of its former colonial masters — the USA. But what happens when they finally get what they want? And how? Filmmaker Dennis Empalmado explores the musings of Filipino expatriates and hopeful immigrants in "Naglalakbay" (Travelers).

War drama set in the closing stages of World War Two. As Allied Forces are nearing the defeat of the Japanese Army in Manila, the Japanese Empire's soldiers begin attacking innocent civilians. A brutal month-long battle ensues.

Korea is a 1952 Philippine war film about the Korean War directed by Lamberto V. Avellana. Produced by LVN Pictures, the film is considered to be lost. Benigno Aquino Jr. wrote the script who based it on his experiences in the war as a correspondent.

a true to life story of Meliton Geronimo: Nicknamed "Mayor Latigo (Lit.: Mayor Whip)"

Set at the backdrop of the colonization of pre-Hispanic Philippine, this historical epic revovles around the story of Ramir, a half-caste warrior falls in love with Princess Mahalina. Ramir has to reckon with another brave native, Kiram.

Concerto is about how, in the last part of World War II, a special piano concert is held in the forest outside Davao City, in Mindanao. In these boondocks, a displaced Filipino family, lead by Military Commander Ricardo and his wife Julia, become acquainted with a group of Japanese officers, similarly camped nearby. Their son Joselito, a Japanese speaker, becomes the conduit with the neighboring Japanese. Their daughters Niña, an aspiring concert pianist and the musically gifted, Maria, who is able to play by ear, are alternately repulsed and intrigued by the officers. Family values are questioned as the family treads the thin line between enmity and friendship with the occupying Japanese. Based on true stories from the director's own family history, Concerto celebrates a family whose reverence for life, expressed through their love of music and friendship, can survive even war, and shows how beauty and compassion does grow in even the harshest of conditions. - Written by anonymous

Gabriela Silang a Filipino revolutionary leader best known as the first female leader of a Filipino movement for independence from Spain

A story about the Philippine revolutionary Andrés Bonifacio, the founder and Supremo of the Katipunan.

The true-to-life story of Miss Finland Armi Kuusela who was crowned Miss Universe in the first Miss Universe pageant held in 1952. In 1953, some nine months after she won the Miss Universe title, Armi was invited by the Philippine International Fair Committee to crown that year’s Miss Philippines, in the course of her stay, she met Virgilio Hilario, a Filipino businessman, through a blind date in Baguio, the two were eventually married in Tokyo that year. Kuusela chose to relinquish her crown shortly before her reign ended as Miss Universe

Salome, a seductive and alluring daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter to King Herodes, discovers faith and Christianity through her love for a Roman centurion named Cornelius.

Lapu-Lapu who defeated Spanish invaders on then land of Mactan.

The heartbreaking plight of the overseas contract workers is dramatized in the tragic tale of Flor Contemplacion - the Filipino domestic helper in Singapore convicted of murder and condemned to death. Accounts culled from reports of Amnesty International as well as classified info gathered in the Asian city-state itself are combined with actual footages and recreated scenes of events leading to the heroine's execution.

In the 1940s, Anna, Doris, and Ditas are patients afflicted with Hansen’s Disease (or widely known as leprosy) who live in Culion at a time when the disease is practically a life sentence. No cure has yet been found, and no one is allowed to leave.

Dedicated to the valiant Boholano hero Francisco Dagohoy, this film shows the real causes that impelled the Dagohoy Uprising.

Tiagong Akyat was one of the most famous outlaws in Philippine history. He terrorized Manila and the nearby provinces in the 1920s. Born Santiago Ronquillo in Imus, Cavite sometime in the late 19th century, Tiagong Akyat got his moniker because he simply entered homes and loot it of its wealth amidst the horrified residents (it should be noted that during the early 20th century, few homes had gates). Legend has it that Tiagong Akyat possessed an amulet that made him invisible. This amulet is called "Tagabulag" in Philippine folklore.Yet, despite Tiagong Akyat's notoriety, there was existing rumors that he was a "Robin Hood" character, helping the poor and looting the rich. In 1923, Manila Chief of Police John Fulton Green received an intelligence report that Tiagong Akyat was seen in Noveleta, Cavite. In cooperation with the Philippine constabulary, Green organized a formidable force to capture Tiagong Akyat, resulting to the kill of the latter.

A man's revolution and amnesty.