Ricky Lee

Writing

Ricky Lee

Born 1948-03-19 · Daet, Camarines Norte, Philippines

Ricardo "Ricky" Arreola Lee (b. March 19, 1948) is a profilic Filipino screenwriter, journalist, novelist, and playwright. Starting in 1973, he has written more than 180 film screenplays and collaborated with many of the Philippines' most notable filmmakers, including Lino Brocka, Marilou Diaz-Abaya, and Ishmael Bernal. Many of his films he written have been screened in international film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto, and Berlin, among others. In 2022, Lee was conferred as National Artist of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Sex Games poster
4.8

A rich couple often spices up their sexual relationship by doing their so-called Sex Games. But when they meet a new set of "playmates"- a conservative couple, their game becomes more challenging.

Sex Games

2023

Dirty Affair poster
6.6

A teenage boy befriends a starlet who is having an affair with an ambitious mayor. As the elections are coming up, the mayor's wife wants him to get rid of his mistress. The starlet agrees to stop the affair on condition that the mayor help release her boyfriend from jail. The mayor does so, but wants the former jail-bird to kill his political rival.

Dirty Affair

1990

A Special Memory poster
NR

The illness challenges the couple's love in a way they never anticipated, shifting the narrative from a sweet romance to an emotional journey.

A Special Memory

2026

A Special Memory poster
NR

The illness challenges the couple's love in a way they never anticipated, shifting the narrative from a sweet romance to an emotional journey.

A Special Memory

2026

May-December-January poster
4.8

A story about Claire a single mom and a career woman. She is aware that her son is gay and accepts this wholeheartedly. What breaks her heart, though, is finding out that they are both in love with the same man.

May-December-January

2022

Silip sa Apoy poster
5.8

Take a peek at the life of an unhappy housewife who finds passionate love from her neighbor and how their affair brings them closer to fire.

Silip sa Apoy

2022

Ipaglaban Mo: The Movie II poster
7.5

This second feature film based on the popular television series features two true legal cases. The first is of a nanny accused of kidnapping the child in her care, and the second is about how a rich family tries to cover up the murder of a poor man.

Ipaglaban Mo: The Movie II

1997

José Rizal poster
8.8

Accused of treason, Dr. Jose P. Rizal awaits trial and meets with his colonial government-appointed counsel, Luis Taviel de Andrade. The two build the case and arguments for the defense as significant events in the central figure's life prior to his incarceration unfold. Upon hearing Rizal's life story, Taviel begins to realize that the accused not just is innocent but exhibits in fact all the qualities of an extraordinary man. When the mock trial unreels, Taviel is all set to act as the prime advocate for his client as Rizal himself is about to give an earth-moving speech to defend his honor and address his countrymen. Meanwhile, the Spanish authorities have worked out the vast political machinery to ensure a guilty verdict. A revolution waits in the wings.

José Rizal

1998

They Are Mine poster
4.3

Six people living under one roof face problems that could tear them apart. Amidst this turmoil, the women of the household remain steadfast to keep the family together.

They Are Mine

2023

Daughters of Eve poster
5.0

In the remote countryside of Ilongo, various women are sexually abused by local men. Two sisters meet Simon, the most attractive man in the village, and fight over him - one constantly haunted by Catholic dogma because of the abuse she suffered previously.

Daughters of Eve

1985

Call Me Alma poster
4.4

Alma, Azi Acosta, is a high-end bar girl. She has decided that prostitution is her profession, her life, her means to achieve her dreams and her happiness. She caters to all men who can afford her price. But she favors two men: a rich lawyer and a bank executive whom she calls Tiger Joe and Kabayo respectively. Another regular customer is a student who has professed his undying love for her. Alma's routine life is disturbed when Sheila, Jaclyn Jose, an aging street prostitute, introduces herself to Alma as her mother who sold her to strangers after birth. This meeting will open the door to Alma's past that she has refused to confront. A long-lost ailing mother, the search for a father, and the truths of a painful past will test the values of these two women who have become victims of poverty and men. In the end, Alma and Sheila will make choices that will define them not only as individuals but as women.

Call Me Alma

2023

Curacha: The Restless Woman poster
5.6

Curacha, a torera (live sex performer), finds herself trapped in an anomalous game of association between sex, life and death, and its political equivalent of sleaze, subservicence and power in drug-addled world. Every night, she sets off to join her fellow toreras for a midnight show of fun and kitschy live sex act. In one tuning point of her life, she bumps into a long-lost friend, Myrna, a former torera, who seems to have a lost grip on life. Curacha makes it her personal mission to save Myrna as she does some soul-searching herself. In the end, we see traces of hope glimmering somewhere, somehow, in a manner that escapes the restless Curacha.

Curacha: The Restless Woman

1998

The Stepmother poster
8.0

The loving and nurturing Mariel marries Edward after his first wife abandons him and their three children. Mariel strives to win the acceptance and affection of her new stepchildren, even as she tries to define her role in the family.

The Stepmother

1996

Manila by Night poster
7.2

The hidden nightlife of ordinary people living in Manila unveils. Lovers and families conflict with each other as they live on the streets, which are rampant with drugs and prostitution.

Manila by Night

1980

Celestina: Burlesk Dancer poster
3.0

Set in the Philippines during the 1940's, Celestina is a story about a woman, a burlesk dancer, who struggles to provide for her family while her husband is a gambling and womanizing drunkard. Despite the hardships, Celestina perseveres and finds strength in her love for her son.

Celestina: Burlesk Dancer

2024

Isabel Aquino: I Want to Live poster
5.0

Based on the life story of Isabel Aquino.

Isabel Aquino: I Want to Live

1991

Labs Kita...Okey Ka Lang? poster
8.6

Bujoy and Ned are childhood best friends. They stick with each other like a family. However, as time goes by Bujoy fell in love with Ned, who she thinks is the only person who accepts her imperfections that even her own family does not accept. Bujoy’s hobby which is clay sculpture is all dedicated for Ned. Ned, on the other hand finds inspiration in songwriting, to which he dedicates to the girl of his dreams, Marry Anne. Ned inherited his passion for music from his father Canor, who is a frustrated musician. However his mother Cora thinks that music will not help with their financial constraints. As Ned and Marry Anne became a couple, Bujoy started going out with Cenon, the newest member of Ned’s band.

Labs Kita...Okey Ka Lang?

1998

Once Before poster
5.8

After a tragic car crash, Gabby finds herself in a love triangle with the ghost of her fiancé and a friend seeking more than a platonic relationship.

Once Before

2020

Nerisa poster
5.5

Misfortune starts to happen on an island when a beautiful maiden is washed ashore. She falls in love with a local fisherman who eventually disappears after a sea accident. She commits to do and to give everything, even her body, in order to find him.

Nerisa

2021

Twilight Dancers poster
6.5

Current most popular performer at a gay club in the Philippines (though it’s patronized by an awful lot of ogling straight women), Dwight (Tyron Perez) has a crush on a collegiate girl and an eye on better prospects working abroad. But he unwisely gets involved with boytoy-hungry Madame Loca (Cherry Pie Pichache), a ruthless, corrupt businesswoman. Her disillusioned ex-dancer bodyguard Bert (Lauren Novero) tries in vain to warn Dwight. Meanwhile, past-prime-at-28 Alfred (Allen Dizon) struggles to find legit work to support his wife and child.

Twilight Dancers

2006

Midnight Dancers poster
5.4

Joel, Dennis and Sonny are three poor, handsome brothers who support their parents by working as "macho" dancers in the lively gay club scene of Manila in this dramedy that was originally banned in the Philippines.

Midnight Dancers

1994

Macho Dancer poster
6.8

Pol moves to Manila for better opportunities after his American lover leaves. However, he gets drawn into the gritty world of gay prostitution and sexual slavery.

Macho Dancer

1989

Lauriana poster
NR

Orphan Carding befriends Army Captain Samuel Corazon, who’s stationed in his town to root out the remaining Huk guerrillas. At the dance hall, Corazon woos dancer Lauriana, and they soon move in together. The two become sort of surrogate parents for the orphan Carding, with Corazon teaching him the ways of men. But the soldier has a dark side, and Carding becomes witness to the violence occurring in their home, and a heinous act committed by the soldier on his common-law wife.

Lauriana

2013

Moral poster
7.4

The episodically connected lives of four college friends unfold throughout the incipient martial law years, as they struggle to define their sexual and professional desires and how best to attain them.

Moral

1982