Die Beautiful

Trisha Echevarria is a trans woman whose sexuality is greatly opposed by her father, causing her to leave their house and live with her best friend, Barbs.

The film starts at Trisha's wake. She died after she was crowned as Binibining Gay Pilipinas. Every day during her wake, Trisha transforms into a different female celebrity through Barbs's skills in putting makeup. When Trisha was alive, the two enjoyed doing makeup transformations together.

Iza Calzado, who crowned Trisha during her final pageant, visits the wake at the time when Trisha is wearing makeup that depicts her. During Trisha's transformation as Miley Cyrus, the funeral parlor owner, Flora, takes a selfie with her and uploads it online. The photo goes viral, inadvertently making Trisha's wake an attraction, much to Barbs's disapproval. Couturier Eugene Domingo also visits the wake and brings a white gown for Trisha to wear during her transformation as Julia Roberts from Runaway Bride.

Throughout the film, several flashbacks of Trisha's life are shown. During her teenage years, Trisha, then using the name Patrick, studied at the same school as Barbs. Patrick has a crush on Migs, a basketball player, and goes out with him one night after Barbs' encouragement. There, he is gangraped by a drunk Migs and his friends, causing anal bleeding on Patrick. His father visits him in the hospital together with his sister Beth, and finds out about what happened. Enraged, Patrick's father slaps him.

Patrick's relationship with his father is further strained as Patrick begins entering gay beauty pageants in secret. This leads his father to disown him. As he leaves, Patrick announces his new identity: Trisha Echeverria.

With nowhere else to go, Trisha moves in with Barbs, with Ruby, Barbs's mother's approval. She adopts an orphaned child named Adora, giving her a new name, Shirley Mae. Jobless, Trisha and Barbs continued to enter different pageants. Trisha often loses during the question-and-answer portion of these pageants. She then gets breast implants, thinking that it will help her win pageants.

Trisha dates a young gay club dancer named Miko. She even pays for Miko's rhinoplasty, but soon learns that Miko is having an affair with a gay beauty parlor owner, ending their relationship.

Trisha meets Jesse at a bar. Although Jesse is married, they start dating. On their sixth monthiversary, Jesse fails to arrive. A month later, Jesse's wife Diana, invites Trisha to the hospital where Jesse was confined due to leukemia. Jesse tells Trisha about his condition and confesses that their meeting was not accidental. His conscience urges Jesse as he was part of the group who gangraped Trisha during their teenage years. Although he tells Trisha that he grew to love her, Trisha is left distraught by the revelation and promptly leaves.

Trisha then joined Binibining Gay Pilipinas and picked a question she had encountered before. She delivers her memorized answer well: saying that if she dies and gets to live again, she would choose to be nobody but herself. While backstage, Trisha jokingly tells Barbs that if she won the pageant, she is ready to die. She further envisions her wake to have a makeover as different celebrities every day. Trisha finally wins but dies shortly of cerebral aneurysm.

In the morgue, Trisha's father and sister arrive. Her father orders Trisha's breast implants removed. Beth disagrees. Their father ends up having Trisha dressed in a barong Tagalog, a traditional men's garment. Barbs, Paola, and Erica are disappointed at the sight of their friend and ask for Beth's help to sneak out Trisha's corpse and give her the burial she wished for.

On the last day of her wake, Barbs announces that the final makeover of Trisha is who she really is: the Trisha they knew, who lived a glamorous life. The movie ends with Trisha's final walk message, showing a younger version of herself.

Other celebrity transformations of Trisha during her wake are Angelina Jolie, Lady Gaga, and Beyoncé.

Main cast

• Paolo Ballesteros as Trisha Echevarria/Patrick Villar
• Christian Bables as Barbs Cordero, Trisha's best friend and make-up artist

Supporting cast

• Joel Torre as Mr. Villar, Patrick's father
• Gladys Reyes as Beth Villar, Patrick/Trisha's older sister
• Luis Alandy as Jesse
• Albie Casiño as Migs
• Faye Alhambra as Adora/Shirley Mae - Ella's daughter and Trisha's adoptive daughter
• Inah de Belen as teenaged Shirley Mae
• IC Mendoza as Paola
• Cedrick Juan as Erika
• Lou Veloso as Mama Flora
• Mimi Juareza as Mother Celine

Guest cast

• Iza Calzado as herself
• Eugene Domingo as Maumau Zaldriaga, a famous couturier
• Mel Martinez as gay parlor owner
• Jade Lopez as Diana, Jesse's ex-wife
• Adrianna So as Malak, Migs’ girlfriend
• Lao Rodriguez as Badong, Maumau Zaldriaga's security guard
• Kokoy de Santos as Michael Angelo or "Miko", Trisha's ex-boyfriend
• Lui Manansala as Ruby Cordero, Barbs's mother
• Erlinda Villalobos as Aling Vargie, Ella's mother and Adora/Shirley Mae's grandmother

Die Beautiful is a film funded by Hong Kong, Asia Financing Forum and produced by Regal Entertainment, The IdeaFirst Company, and Octobertrain Films. The film was directed by Jun Robles Lana and produced by Lily Monteverde, Roselle Monteverde and Perci Intalan.

Die Beautiful was selected in the Main Competition of the Tokyo International Film Festival, which ran from October 25, 2016, to November 3, 2016.

The film is an official entry to the 42nd Metro Manila Film Festival, and was screened at the 2017 Luang Prabang Film Festival.

At the awarding ceremony at the Tokyo International Film Festival, which was held on November 3, 2016, at the Toho Cinemas in Roppongi Hills in Japan, Paolo Ballesteros was named the festival's Best Actor. The film also won the Audience Choice Award.

The jury was headed by French director Jean-Jacques Beineix, and included Hong Kong director Mabel Cheung, U.S. producer Nicole Rocklin, Italian actor Valerio Mastandrea, and Japanese director Hideyuki Hirayama.

A total of 16 films, with Die Beautiful being the only one from the Philippines, competed.

Accolades

It was announced that a sequel was in production to be a 12-part spin-off television series to be aired on Cignal Play entitled Born Beautiful with Paolo Ballesteros reprising his role and Martin del Rosario picking up the role of Barbs which was originally portrayed by Christian Bables. Instead, the producers decided to make it into a full-length film with the majority of the story focusing on Barbs.

A musical adaptation of the film, titled Die Beautiful: The Musical, is scheduled for release in 2026. Drag Race Philippines alumni Maxie Anderson and Viñas Deluxe are double-cast to star as the lead Trisha.