在这部起义者动作/剧情片中,Jose Rizal's gothic masterpiece, magnificently adapted by one of Philippine cinema's finest filmmakers, with a towering performance by Pancho Magalona as the dark and brooding Simoun. Gerardo De Leon pushes the novel's social and political details into the background
and brings the characters' humanity to fore; Magalona's Simoun isn't just some symbol of social dissatisfaction and revolution but a man haunted by the tragedy of his former life. His mind wavers-- sometimes breathtakingly so--between a determination to execute his plans for bloody vengeance and a sense of horror at the evil he has become.
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra has changed his name and identity to a rich jeweler named Simoun. In disguise, he travels the world amassing wealth, which he intends to use to topple the corrupt and abusive regime in his native land. But Simoun's real motive is personal. He wants to rescue his beloved, Maria Clara, from the convent and avenge the death of his father. In a forest on Christmas Eve, Basilio, a medical student recognizes Simoun's true identity as the man who helped bury his mother Sisa more than ten years before, under a tree. Simoun is in the forest to retrieve the gems he buried near Sisa's grave. As the film progresses, all the secrets and intrigues are revealed, and the plotters' plan fails. A good Filipino priest throws Simoun's jewels away, thereby eliminating the greed, violence and other evils they might have provoked.
