Noli Me Tangere follows the story of Crisostomo Ibarra as he tries to bring progress to his nation and its people. But instead, he was accused of being a filibuster and ends up losing not only the love of his life, Maria Clara, but also his freedom.
Spanish exiled Philippine reformer and writer José Rizal from 1892 to 1896 for his political novels, later arrested him, and executed him for sedition; his death helped to fuel an insurrection against rule from 1896 to 1898.
José Protasio Rizal Mercado y Alonso Realonda, a polymath nationalist, most prominently advocated during the colonial era. Poeple consider him the national hero and commemorate the anniversary of his death as a holiday, called Rizal day. His military trial made him a martyr of the revolution.
The seventh of eleven children to a wealthy family in the town, Rizal attended the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, earning a Bachelor of Arts. He enrolled in medicine and philosophy and letters at the University of Santo Tomas and then traveled alone to Madrid, Spain, where he continued his studies at the Universidad Central de Madrid, earning the licentiate in medicine. He attended the University of Paris and earned a second doctorate at the University of Heidelberg. Rizal, a polyglot, conversed at least in ten languages. He was a prolific poet, essayist, diarist, correspondent, and novelist whose most famous works were his two novels, Noli me Tangere and El filibusterismo. These are social commentaries on the Philippines that formed the nucleus of literature that inspired dissent among peaceful reformists and spurred the militancy of armed revolutionaries against the Spanish colonial authorities.
As a political figure, Rizal was the founder of La Liga Filipina, a civic organization that subsequently gave birth to the Katipunan led by Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo. He was a proponent of institutional reforms by peaceful means rather than by violent revolution. The general consensus among Rizal scholars, however, attributed his martyred death as the catalyst that precipitated the Philippine Revolution.
I read this novel when I was in High School and now I got the chance to read it in graphic format which is awesome! The characters are alive thanks to the illustrator and the words that they convey are accurate thanks to the translator. Ok, some parts needed to be cut including Elias story with his lover but it gives you a lot of information about what was it like living in the Philippines during Spanish colonial rule and Rizal wanted us to be free by any means necessary by creating this novel that sparked a revolution for the freedom of our country & people. It's good and you can read it less than 40 minutes or so.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Rizal’s original Noli Me Tángere was first published in 1887, during the colonization of the Philippines by Spain. Rizal describes perceived injustices of the Spanish Catholic friars and the ruling government. This graphic novel attempts to summarize the original.
Ibarra is privileged, educated, and well-travelled. Because of his education and status, he is able to attend social gatherings with powerful Spanish officials and other wealthy Filipino civilians. Ibarra is able to realize the Philippines’ actual state under Spanish colonial rule. Whereas, most working class Filipinos are barely surviving, without basic means like food or shelter, prevented from having an education. Filipinas/os were stuck in a system that intended to keep them down. Rizal/Ibarra aimed to reveal that the system desperately needed reforms.
Though historically, it’s been said that Rizal wrote this book to advocate for peaceful reform, Ibarra seems to try to go about this peacefully, like trying to set up a schoolhouse for Filipinas/os, but finds this isn’t possible under colonial rule. Ibarra hints at a need to for a revolution in order to incite change and for Filipinas/os to reclaim their native country. So even though the character development and story line isn’t the best, it’s easy to see how the original was such an important book during its time.
I couldn’t finish this year without reading something that came from the motherland.
It was a pleasure and honour to finally read the story of Noli Me Tangere. For years I’ve tried and failed to read it in Tagalog, then in English - but I found it beyond difficult to navigate.
I owe thanks to our guide in Intramuros, Manila. This man, our guide, was an academic in Filipino history and literature. I told him of my struggles to read the original text and he told me the well kept secret: no one reads the original text. He said that they all took to reading the comic book to understand the story for college. And just like that, I was freed from suffering through another attempt at the impossible text.
I found this in National Book Store and I’ve finally read it. I’m finally seeing the names I’ve seen heard references in so many Filipino movies: Crispin, Basilio, Sisa.
3.5 stars. This comic has such nice drawings! It truly made the characters come to life and I actually like how they all look, especially the main characters. As much as I do appreciate a comic version of Noli Me Tangere, I probably would have appreciated it more if some of the important things weren’t cut off completely. Though, it is quite understandable since the novel is quite long, especially on Elias’ backstory.
EDIT: As I was looking back into the comic, I noticed that during the scene where the Alperes/Alferez receives the news about the scheme organized by the tulisans, it was drawn here that it was Padre Damaso who alerted him but in the actual novel it was Padre Salvi. I also just noticed that Padre Salvi barely had any panels, but oh well. Still, that but confuses me a bit.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Illustration are nice. I get to see the characters I read in an actual novel. But damn, capitan Tiago looks like a baby who's left in the kitchen. Very far from what I imagined during my high school days studying Rizal's works. But it's not ugly. He just looks more like a child than a dad.
The graphic novel is somewhat summarized as some details mentioned in the actual novel are not shown. An easy way of telling a bedtime story for kids coz you could finish it in half an hour or less.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
i have nothing much to say about this book. even though it only have 52 pages it is as if i am reading the whole novel. though there are events that happened in the novel that does not included in this book such as the convergence of elias and salome. but that doesn't matter for it is not that important. the art is good as well. 5 stars for this book!
Pretty engrossing, which surprised me given that I'm not usually a big fan of graphic novels. I agree with some other comments that it felt relatively brief and potentially incomplete, so will compare to the English translation of the novel once read.