The late 19th century figure Jose Rizal is a national hero of the Philippines. He was a renowned artist, but he is better known as the spiritual leader of the national movement against the colonial domination of Spain and the Catholic Church. He was executed for treason in 1896. He was 35 years old. Mike de Leon’s 3rd World Hero is a unique film about two young filmmakers who plan a film about the life and times of Rizal. While doing so, they start to interview Rizal and those around him (or more accurately, figures that are imagined by them) and start to unravel the mysteries that surround Rizal’s life. The two filmmakers wish to see the real Rizal instead of the ‘national hero’ who is now a legend, a myth, and even a religion. What were Rizal’s thoughts on the Philippine national movement, or the European woman that he loved? And more than anything else, did Rizal repent and become a Catholic, the very thing that he abhorred, right before his execution? But the interviewees do not give satisfactory explanations about the mysteries that surround Rizal. Is it possible to convey the past through movies? And does this have any meaning? These questions seem to confuse even the two filmmakers. The intentional commotions and casual talks that surround the film are some of the tools used by the director to find out about ‘film as history in the third world’ and ‘the contemporary meaning of myth’. (Kwon Yong-min)