A Luta Pela Beleza

I rarely see films twice, but Beautiful Boxer continues to be a remarkably evocative film even on a second viewing. I saw it last summer at Outfest, and took several friends to see it this weekend, because I knew that they wouldn't see it on their own. It was a third choice film when I first saw it at the festival. I'm not a fan of boxing, and have seen my share of documentaries on the transsexual experience, so I was not particularly interested. Since I hadn't seen a Thai film, I decided to go. What a gratifying surprise the film turned out to be! Beautiful Boxer transcends time, culture, ethnicity, and gender identity to illuminate the humanity of the characters. Asanee Suwan the lead actor who plays Nong Toom is amazing. At the first viewing I thought that there was a very similar looking stunt double who did the fight scenes. Yet in the post film discussion with the Director Ekachai Uekrongtham we learned that the Asanee is an actual Muay Thai professional boxer. This was his first acting role. That makes his performance even more remarkable. He communicates the full range of Toom's being, seamlessly integrating the feminine and masculine dimensions of his/her personality.

In Iron Ladies and in other trans-gender themed films, the transvestites are usually in your face, over the top characters. The gender themes are either campy and/or played for laughs. Beautiful Boxer on the other hand conveys the inner life of the Toom's struggle to assert her identity. I was very moved by Toom's dignity, steadfast courage, and perseverance in coming to terms with who she is. The film is poignant and ultimately inspiring. Yet it is also very entertaining. The film provides a window into Muay Thai boxing, both its beauty and violence, the socio-economic conditions in Thailand, and aspects of Thai culture. It was a most rewarding experience. BTW my friends agreed. GO SEE IT!

Beautiful Boxer a coming of age story about a man who wants to be female. In order to earn a living and save enough money, he starts to kick box on a dare at a temple festival. As time goes on, it shows how he is finally accepted by his group of friends who are also boxers. Yes, there were several missteps by his friends, but overall they accepted him for he is, and who they wanted him to be.

It is refreshing to see a third gender represented in another culture, without the shame and stigma attached to it. In this culture we are so obsessed with being perfect and correct that we sometimes alienate ourselves from our friends and families.

Jules

Rising even higher than the greatest expectations engendered by the International Press when it became a favorite of the film festivals, BEAUTIFUL BOXER is one of the more poetic, sensitive, luxuriously vivid and colorful films to come out of Thailand - and that is saying a lot, given the extravagant epics that yearly grow in popularity. This work of art is simply stunning in content, in direction, in acting, and in heartfelt simplicity of message. This is a great one! Writer/director Ekachai Uekrongtham based his first film on the true story of Parinaya Charoemphol AKA Nong Toom, a famous Thai athlete Muay Thai boxer (better known as 'kick boxer' - a demanding, dangerous sport) who entered the world of Muay Thai to garner enough money to help his family and pay for his ultimate sex-change surgery. A tough story to offer general audiences, perhaps, but Ekachai Uekrongtham presents this edgy biography with such cinematic finesse and care that it becomes a film that should appeal to a very wide audience. And much of that success is due to the towering performance by Asanee Suwan in his acting debut: Suwan is in life a professional kick boxer who won the title role after extensive auditions by many practitioners of Muay Thai.

BEAUTIFUL BOXER takes us through the life of Nong Toom, his childhood in a family of loving accepting parents who respect his love of beauty and things feminine, his brief period of being a monk who must leave the monastery because of his inclinations, through his introduction to makeup and play-acting women's roles in the Thai theaters, his ridicule as being more girl than boy (a fact that results in his parents' incarceration!), and his devoted friendship with a girl who supports his desire for femininity and a young man who stands up for him in the boys' camp for learning sports. Gradually Nong Toom realizes that the only way he can make enough money to achieve a sex change operation is to become a successful kick boxer and he aligns himself with a trainer Pi Chart (Sorapong Chatree) and with much commitment and practice becomes Thailand's most famous Muay Thai. His self-respect is further established when he openly wears makeup in the boxing ring, causing many to believe his act is a gimmick and not the manifestation of his true transsexualism. He fights the toughest opponents and wins consistently until he at last arrives in Toyko for the 'big purse' of fighting female wrestler Kyoko Inoue (who plays herself). With the money from the fight he is able to have his surgery and becomes the famous actress and model now living in Bangkok.

Under less sensitive eyes and minds this story could have become audacious, but instead the film elects to be sensitive to the transsexual conviction that Nong Toom is a woman trapped in a man's body, and it is the journey of self acceptance and personal victory that makes the story so deeply touching. Asanee Suwan, as a fine athlete, does all of his own fighting in the film and it is more choreography than brutality. He is amazing to watch and coupled with the fact that he is so wholly convincing in his fine acting that he makes this young transsexual utterly credible in movement, emotional density, and purity of vision is an extraordinary achievement.

Yes, the film has a few flaws of editing and other minor aspects, but the overwhelming power of the story more than compensates for those 'first film' learning curves. Highly recommended for ALL audiences, especially for those who fear there will be gratuitous physical scenes that might offend. There are none! Grady Harp

"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 recently watched this movie in my Anthropology class. I honestly had no idea what it was going to be about. My first assumption, was that the boxer was a beautiful person and that he turned thai boxing into an art rather than "a violent sport." Than after it was over, I thought it was a great movie. It was even better because it made in Thailand and gave a realistic take on Thai culture. I don't know how accepting people would be here in the United States with a transsexual boxer fighting in makeup. But then again we have the WWE who have an array of different types of characters, so then again it just might be okay. I really enjoyed how he was fighting to help support his family back home and not just for fame and glory. I definitely would recommend this film.

Sylvia Torres Milwaukee, WI