Beautiful Boxer (2003)

This was the first time I had watched a Thai movie, and I figured it was going to be a corny melo drama with not much depth to it. However this movie turned out to be the complete opposite. I was also surprised to see how the main character was not actually an actor, but real life thai kick boxer. The acting was truly believable and almost had me in tears through out the movie.What I found really interesting to see was how the people of Thailand was not accepting of transgendered people and gays. I always imagined Thailand to be one of the only countries that did not have biased views on different sexualities and open to transvestites/ transgendered people. Therefore it was shocking to see how the main character had to deal with the harassment as he grew up to become a kick boxer. The movie filmed kick boxing in a beautiful, artistic way. Although I imagined it to be an aggressive, violent, cruel sport, the movie showed kick boxing to be a choreographed, stylized art instead. The scene where the main character wakes up early to peak at the practices done by the chosen, high level kick boxers was shot beautifully. The use of light from the back, making the fighters figures look more like shadows was great and intesified the story.Overall this movie was a heartbreaking, touching movie that really moved me and helped me understand how biased our culture is. There is no such thing as "normal", even the ones that fit in that category have a difficult time trying to achieve that state of "normality". This movie helped me see that the education and religion needs to be adjusted so that everybody can live comfortably in their own body and their sexuality.

"A Beautiful Boxer" tells a touching story of a girl born into the wrong body, and who, through boxing, would eventually be able to become one through surgery. It's a story about overcoming one's fate.Nong Toom was interested in dancing, putting on girl's makeup, and wearing woman's clothes from a very early age. His mother comments at the very beginning of the story that it was "just a fad", but it soon becomes clear that this isn't a phase; it's just the story of boy who should have been born a girl.The writing and filming is solid and so is the pacing with the exception of a few moments. But what makes this film rise above its technical merits is its heart. The acting is superb. At some points, you forget that you're just watching a movie because it's clear that the actors, especially Nong Toom's Asanee Suwan, are really becoming their characters. Thanks to this, we get a plethora of heartfelt moments and really get a feel for a subject area that is relatively untouched, transsexuals. Sometimes transsexuals get a bad rep, but the fact is that these are real people who have to overcome the exceptional struggle of coming to term with their own gender identity while the people around you despise you, bully you, and at times make your life a living hell because they don't really understand.Overall, Nong Toom is an exceptional movie with a psychological edge that is harshly realistic. I recommend it to everyone, because I believe it's a story that everyone should be familiar with. Transgenderism isn't as rare as people think.

I suppose many non-Thai action film fans have their first exposure to the Thai martial arts of Muay Thai through movies like Ong Bak or Tom Yum Goong, both starring Tony Jaa. But the Muay Thai scene in Thailand was set abuzz in the 90s when transvestite warrior Nong Toom took to the stage and battled it out with other gladiators, while at the same time battled the prejudice he faced because he was different. Nong Toom was big at one time, with many media around the world following his exploits, as he wore makeup into the ring, and planted kisses on his defeated opponents.Beautiful Boxer is director Ekachai Uekrongtham's first feature film (he also did the movie about our Geylang scene with Pleasure Factory), and the movie is a biography of Nong Toom (played by real kickboxer Asanee Suwan) and his dream of being a woman. Born to poverty and without means to fulfill his dream, he takes on the sport of Muay Thai for its lucrative awards, in part to provide for his family, and also as a means to save up for his sex change operation. His coach Pi Chart (Sorapong Chatree) sees the potential of his protégé, and while he doesn't chide Nong Toom for his feminine ways, had only one request, that he fights like a man in the ring.Similar to various fight sports biopics like Rocky and Cinderella Man, Beautiful Boxer charts the ups and downs of the protagonist, except that it ups the ante with Nong Toom's personal struggles, which present themselves as a bigger challenge with prejudice and misconceptions to fight, instead of the usual fight-against-poverty storyline. And like the movies in the genre, the battle in the ring is a sight to behold, as they get choreographed expertly, yet maintain a romantic, sexy look at the form of the sport. While Nong Toom does battle with various exponents, the filmmakers took great pains to ensure the fights differ from battle to battle, to make it interesting to watch without being repetitive, and we do see certain ancient moves that we've yet to see with the Tony Jaa movies.Asanee Suwan, a first time actor who auditioned for and gotten the role of Nong Toom, played the character with great earnestness, and was extremely convincing in his role as a man who struggles to find a way to bring the inner woman out in him. He made Nong Toom very humane, and you can really feel his pain and triumphs in and outside the ring. Nong Toom in any case was an interesting person to begin with, especially the way he handles discrimination. There were many poignant moments in his story from childhood, and what I thought was quite affecting was how he had to fend for himself in the ring especially - Fighters will find it a lost of face if they lose to someone "less than a man", and this led to fighting Nong Toom more intensely, which of course made Nong Toom fight back even harder. While he couldn't do much about people laughing at him, he had to learn to feed off these negative energy to spur him on to win.It's a movie that works on both the emotional level and the physical side with its fight action sequence, and one of the better sports-fight biopics I have seen. Look out too for a cameo by the real Nong Toom (now known as Parinaya Charoemphol after his sex-change operation). It brought to mind an adage which I shall paraphrase - the person might be different, but the struggles faced are the same.

I had never heard of "Beautiful Boxer" when I started watching it, but what I saw blew me away. Portraying a Thai transvestite getting into boxing, you get a feeling of just how hard it must be to be a transvestite (especially in the macho sports world). And among other things, this is the sort of movie that will probably make you want to go to Thailand (the military coup and New Year's Eve bombings notwithstanding).Anyway, I certainly recommend this movie. It may shake you, mesmerize you, or otherwise, but it's sure to move you. See it if you can. And I would hope to see more Thai movies.I wonder whether it had the same title in Thai.