Film Review for Jose Rizal

First Romance of Rizal was Segunda Katigbak a pretty fourteen-year old Batangueña from Lipa.In Rizals own words, she was rather short,with eyes that were eloquent and warm, rosy cheeked, with an enchanting and provocative smile that revealed very beautiful teeth and her entire self diffused a mysterious charm.

Unfortunately, his first love was engaged to be married to a town mate- Manuel Luz.
His second romance was Leonor Valenzuela who was a tall girl with a regal bearing. He send her love notes written in invisible ink.This ink consisted of common table salt and water. It left no trace on the paper .Rizal taught orang(pet name of Leonor Valenzuela) the secret of reading any note written in the invisible ink by heating it over a candle or lamp so that the words may appear .

But as with segunda, he stopped proposing marriage to Leonor.

Rizal’s next romance was with another Leonor-Leonor Rivera. Leonor born in Camiling, Tarlac on April 11,1867 was a delicate pretty girl, tender as a building flower with kindly wistful eyes. Unfortunately, Leonor’s mother disapproved of her daughter’s relationship with Rizal. She hid all the letters sent from Rizal.Leonor thought that rizal was already forget her so she marry the Englishman Henry Kipping.

Rizal’s fourth romance was Consuelo Ortiga y Perez, the prettier of Don Pablo’s daughters, fell in love with him.He was attracted by consuelos beauty and vivacity. He even composed a lovely poem dedicated to her entitled A la Senorita C.O. y P., which became one of his best poems. He expressed his admiration for her because he found comfort and joy in her company.

Unfortunately he suddenly backed out before the relationship turned into a serious romance, because he wanted to remain loyal to Leonor Rivera and he did not want to destroy his friendship with Eduardo de Lete who was madly in love with Consuelo.

Rizal’s fifth romance was O-Sei-San a twenty-three years old Japanese girl. He was attracted by her regal loveliness, charm, beauty, modesty, and intelligence. No wonder he fell deeply inlove with her. She also helped Rizal improve his knowledge of Japanese language. O-Sei-San beauty and affection almost tempted Rizal to settle down in Japan.

Rizal’s next romance was Gertrude Beckett a blue-eyed and obedient girl was the oldest of the three Beckett daughters and fell in love with Rizal. He boarded in the house of the Beckett family at that time.

But Rizal suddenly left London for Paris to avoid Gertrude, who was seriously in love with him. Before leaving London, he was able to finish the group carving of the Beckett sisters. He gave the group carving to Gertrude as a sign of their brief relationship.

Rizal’s seventh romance was Nellie Boustead.He was a guest of the Boustead family at their residence in the resort city of Biarritz, he had befriended the two pretty daughters of his host, Eduardo Boustead. Rizal used to fence with the sisters at the studio of Juan Luna. Antonio Luna, Juan’s brother and also a frequent visitor of the Bousteads, courted Nellie but she was deeply infatuated with Rizal. In a party held by Filipinos in Madrid, a drunken Antonio Luna uttered unsavory remarks against Nellie Boustead. This prompted Rizal to challenge Luna into a duel. Fortunately, Luna apologized to Rizal, thus averting tragedy for the compatriots.

Rizal’s next romance was Suzanne Jacoby .In 1890, Rizal moved to Brussels because of the high cost of living in Paris. In Brussels, he lived in the boarding house of the two Jacoby sisters. In time, they fell deeply in love with each other. Suzanne cried when Rizal left Brussels and wrote him when he was in Madrid.

Rizal’s last romance was Josephine Bracken an 18-year old petite Irish girl, with bold blue eyes, brown hair and a happy disposition. Rizal was physically attracted to her. His loneliness and boredom must have taken the measure of him and what could be a better diversion that to fall in love again. But the Rizal sisters suspected Josephine as an agent of the friars and they considered her as a threat to Rizal’s security. Rizal asked Josephine to marry him, but she was not yet ready to make a decision due to her responsibility to the blind Taufer. Since Taufer’s blindness was untreatable, he left for Hon Kong on March 1895. Josephine stayed with Rizal’s family in Manila. Upon her return to Dapitan, Rizal tried to arrange with Father Antonio Obach for their marriage. However, the priest wanted a retraction as a precondition before marrying them. Rizal upon the advice of his family and friends and with Josephine’s consent took her as his wife even without the Church blessings. Josephine later give birth prematurely to a stillborn baby, a result of some incidence, which might have shocked or frightened her.| |