Martin del Rosario and Paolo Ballesteros in “Born Beautiful”
The Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) on Monday agreed to change the rating of Perci Intalan’s gay-themed comedy film “Born Beautiful” from R-18 to R-16, the director announced.
Intalan said he agreed to “sanitize” the film by substituting with bleep sounds the words that the board had considered offensive.
“We didn’t have to edit out anything from the R-18 version,” Intalan told the Inquirer, adding that his team applied for reclassification only on Monday morning. “You will still understand the context. The board said it was just the words uttered that they took issue with.”
Intalan said “Born Beautiful” first applied for ratings in November 2018. Back then, the board insisted that Intalan take out one particular scene featuring lead actor Martin del Rosario and Kiko Matos, “or else the film will be classified as X (or not for public exhibition).”
“We respected their decision. We embraced it. We didn’t even talk about the board’s decision publicly,” Intalan said. “But last week, we found out that our film is the only Filipino movie that will be screened this week. This means that for the first time in history, SM malls will have no new local show to screen for a week.”
As a matter of policy, SM prohibits the screening of R-18 movies in its cinemas.
Martin del Rosario
“This has become an industry issue all of a sudden,” said Intalan. “I consulted Liza (Diño, chair of the Film Development Council of the Philippines), who suggested that I request for a reclassification from the MTRCB. But first, I said, I wanted to know how the people would react when I show them the uncut/uncensored version.” Hence, the special screening at UP Cine Adarna on Jan. 18.
“We saw that the reaction of the audience there were all positive, that the students who attended understood the film. That’s when I finally worked up the courage to write to the MTRCB to ask them to reconsider the latest version we submitted to them.”
“Born Beautiful” is the spinoff film of the 2016 comedy-drama “Die Beautiful.” It follows the story of Trisha’s (Paolo Ballesteros) best friend, Barbs Cordero (Martin del Rosario), who tries to go on with her life after the former’s sudden and tragic death.
When another friend dies, Barbs tries to start a new life as a straight man, but this decision triggers a chain of events that leads her to the arms of two men, and a woman, who all turn her life upside down again.
Barbs’ story, which will hit cinemas nationwide starting today, will now have two versions.
“The one with the R-16 rating will be screened in all SM cinemas. We leave it up to the other cinema operators to decide whether to screen the R-18 or the R-16 version,” declared Intalan.
The film also stars Lou Veloso, Chai Fonacier, Akihiro Blanco, Elora Españo, Joey Paras, Jojit Lorenzo, Gio Gahol, VJ Mendoza, with the special participation of Paolo Ballesteros. It is written by “Die Beautiful” creator Jun Robles Lana and screenwriter Rody Vera, with Elmer Gatchalian, Ian Andrew Payawal and Fatrick Tabada.