SEOUL, 19 June 2016 ? Sentro Rizal Seoul, which is housed in the Philippine Embassy Chancery, screened the critically acclaimed biographical film on Dr. Jose P. Rizal, helmed in 1998 by the late director Marilou Diaz-Abaya, on the occasion of the 155th anniversary of the national hero's birth.

The film Jose Rizal, starring Cesar Montano in the title role, was screened at the Rizal Hall, on the Embassy's 2nd floor. The nearly three-hour film, whose dialog in Tagalog, English, Spanish and German were subtitled in English, was the most expensive film in the history of Philippine cinema at the time of its release with a budget of over PHP80 million.

While just recouping its cost with PHP96 million at the box-office, the film swept all but one of the 18 awards at stake at the 1998 Metro Manila Film Festival, including Best Film and Best Director for Ms Diaz-Abaya, a prolific director and producer with 21 films who belonged to the Philippines' Second Golden Age of Cinema.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) obtained the rights to screen the memorable work from GMA Films, as the third event of Sentro Rizal Seoul since its establishment at the Embassy in March 2016.