The Pearl of the Orient Movie: About the Film

ABOUT THE STORY

Trivia
The Philippine Islands were named in honor of King Philip II of Spain in the second half of the 16th Century. The chain of 7,107 islands have since dazzled and inspired colonizers and visitors, who have coined the title "The Pearl of the Orient Seas" to capture its mysticism and beauty - as though forming an exquisite string of pearls in the South China Sea.

Genre
Romance / war drama.

Tagline
Some secrets must be told.

Logline
Inspired by real people and events, The Pearl of the Orient is an epic tale of a missionary preacher's inability to remain neutral during the brutal Japanese occupation of the Philippine Islands during WWII. He becomes involved in the resistance against the Japanese campaign of terror and falls in love, in spite of his marriage, with a headstrong aristocratic Filipina whom he tries to save.

Story Synopsis
The story takes us on the remarkable journey of Elizabeth Delgado, a headstrong young woman of Spanish-Filipino ancestry who is unable to come to terms with her mother’s death or her own identity. She sets into motion a plan to escape from her sheltered, dysfunctional life in the Philippines at all cost. Her yearning for adventure as a liberated woman is matched only by her disdain for her own Filipino blood. She’s held in check by her father and wealthy Spaniard, Don Emilio, until she befriends a mysterious American minister, Dr. Timothy LePage, who arrives in town to revitalize the old mission.

Their plans are jeopardized when invading Japanese forces plunge the Philippines into chaos and darkness only hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Narrowly escaping with their lives, Dr. Timothy, Elizabeth, her loyal servants, and a handful of Filipino guerillas must elude the relentlessly pursuing Japanese Imperial Army. The adventure opens her eyes to a world unlike anything she had ever imaged. For the first time, Elizabeth develops a deeper admiration for the courage and loyalty of her fellow Filipinos in the face of indescribable atrocities. But time is running out, and she must make the most difficult decision of her life – to escape to freedom with the man she has come to love, or to remain behind out of new found love for her Filipino countrymen who have selflessly sacrificed so much for her and her people. That fateful decision changes their lives forever.

The Real Elizabeth: The Woman Behind the Character
Elizabeth lives today in Northern California at the healthy age of 96. Despite the affects of age, she is as feisty and proud now as in her youth. Her ordeal, as with many Filipino war survivors and veterans, has left a lasting impression on her. Even to this day, conversations about her true experiences and the portrayal of that in the screenplay bring out the deepest of emotions. Some wounds never heal - even after 60+ years.

"Flash forward to Elizabeth today at age 96, and we can still imagine her sitting at a dressing table, applying lipstick perfectly. We pull back to see that she is blind, but her hair and clothes and surroundings are elegant. We pull back further to see the supplies she will flee with, the next time Japanese imperial soldiers are at her door -- canned foods, first aid supplies, valuables -- and of course, lipstick."

The producers of "The Pearl of the Orient" owe our deepest appreciation and gratitude to Elizabeth for sharing her story with us. Some secrets must be told...

A History in Perspective: Survival in the Face of Inhumanity
The story behind “The Pearl of the Orient” is as intriguing and controversial in real life as it is in fiction. Inspired by true events, the story transcends the literal events of the time. It challenges us to ponder how intelligent human begin can be driven to commit such evil towards another in the name of honor and glory. How might we have reacted under similar circumstances? Could we imagine ourselves as a soldier of the Japanese Imperial Army faced with the decision of murdering a woman and her child in the name of Bushido – or resist and be called a coward only worthy of bringing shame to his family?

Japanese military forces carried out a campaign of terror during World War II that is unsurpassed in bestiality and savagery in modern times. On top of combat losses, Asian and Allied nations lost millions of non-combatant dead to all causes: bombardment of cities, slave labor, massacres, summary executions, medical experiments, germ and gas warfare, beheading, beating and rape, stabbing, gun shot, hanging, torture, boiling alive, impaling on bayonets, burning alive, starvation, medical neglect, etc. Only the U.S.S.R. treated POWs with the same brutal indifference as Japan. In 1945, Japanese leaders ordered the death of all remaining POWs, "leaving no trace".

The Japanese military had an intense idealism and a lust for power that convinced them of their "Divine Mission" to lead all of Asia. This "Divine Mission" led to the many Japanese imperialistic campaigns throughout Asia including the Philippines.
Japan launched a surprise aerial attack on the Philippines on December 8, 1941, just ten hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. On December 10, 1941 Japanese forces landed in Northern Luzon and in the Southern Mindanao Islands in the Philippines. This invasion sparked the first battle of the Philippines which lasted from December 10, 1941 until May 5, 1942, and resulted in Japanese victory over American forces. The 76,000 starving and sick American and Filipino defenders in Bataan surrendered to the Japanese on April 9, 1942. The Japanese led their captives on a cruel and criminal Death March on which nearly 10,000 died or were murdered before arriving at the internment camps ten days later. The 13,000 survivors on Corregidor surrendered shortly thereafter on May 6, 1942. Thus was the beginning of Japanese imperialism in the Philippines.

Incredibly, the great majority of the Philippine people mounted a remarkably effective resistance to the Japanese occupation. Investigations after the war showed that 260,000 Filipinos had been actively engaged in guerrilla organizations and an even larger number operated covertly in the anti-Japanese underground. By the end of the war, the Japanese had effective control in only twelve of the country's forty-eight provinces. The story of “The Pearl of the Orient” in many ways is also their story.