Fridae

Based on the true story of Thai kickboxing sensation Parinya Charoenphol who is also known affectionately as Nong Toom, Beautiful Boxer is a stunning portrait of a transsexual youth who fought like a man so he could become a woman. In the increasingly crowded genre of ladyboy cinema [including Iron Ladies (2000) and Iron Ladies II (2003)], the film's funny yet probing observations about gender identity crisis and sensitive treatment of the subject matter puts it in a class of its own.

Directed by veteran playwright and first-time filmmaker Ekachai Uekrongtham from a script he wrote with Desmond Sim Kim Chin, the touching drama efficiently maps Nong Toom's rite of passage starting from childhood through to the threshold of adulthood. From a very early age, Nong Toom was convinced that he was a girl trapped in a man's body. His fascination with frills, make-up and pageantry remains a permanent fixture in his colourful childhood landscape and endures through his teenage years as a travelling monk and trainee kickboxer in a Thai boxing camp. There, he meets his coach and mentor Pi Chart who is willing to overlook the paint on his face as long as his fights like a man in the boxing ring.

Real-life kickboxer and first-time actor Asanee Suwan was handpicked from nation-wide auditions to play Nong Toom. He had to adhere to a strict skin and body care regime which included numerous body scrubs and hair removal sessions to perfect his role of the tortured kickboxer who flounced his opponents while decked out in full make-up. He also had to lose a substantial amount of weight and muscle to make himself physically more feminine. His sacrifice was rewarded with a Supannahongsa Award (Thai equivalent of the 'Oscars') for Best Actor. However, one feels that Asanee never quite locks into the role of the angst-ridden transsexual torn between social conventions of masculinity and his private dreams of femininity. As the teenage Nong Toom, he is too apologetic and coy about his femininity, let down by a script which glosses over the transgender subtext with an overdose of face powder and crimson lipstick.

The child actor who plays Nong Toom in her boyhood is more successful and convincing in this regard - at once tugging at our heartstrings and drawing laugher from the audience for his affected mimicry of Thai dancers, unmasked glee over the discovery of lip gloss at the monastery and other clumsy yet endearing antics. Asanee only matures into his role towards the end of the film when he's beset by world-weariness and questions whether he's admired for his kickboxing prowess or exploited for his comic potential. He decides it's time to swap boxing gloves for sash and to fulfil his lifelong ambition of becoming a woman. The final scene where he bids farewell to his old self in the cabaret dressing room is touchingly portrayed. We are convinced that the shy yet lethal kickboxer still lies beneath the layers of magenta clothing the new Nong Toom and gives her the strength to carry on.

The most enchanting scenes of the movie are framed in nature. Be moved by the verdant forests, fertile valleys and hidden brooks that nourish the lives and hopes of Nong Toom, her family, childhood friends and fellow villagers. I found the energetic scenes of Thai kickboxers practising their moves at the break of dawn strangely moving and uplifting. Perhaps nature is where Nong Toom draws her strength from, and nature is what makes her parents so forgiving and tolerant of her unusual aspirations. Her mother barely raises an eyebrow over her girlish mannerisms even though her father mutters one line - just one line - about how he does not wish his son to grow up to be a katoey. Thereafter, no further objections are raised and Nong Toom is permitted to kiss and kick her way to womanhood. Her parents' tolerance and nuturing attitude have probably given Nong Toom the confidence to be who she is today and allowed her to develop an acute awareness of the distinction between intrinsic and feigned femininity.

In an oneiric scene where the sexually reassigned Nong Toom is borne on a palanquin to grace a boxing match, she notices one of the child artistes looking distinctly ill-at-ease as he performs her trademark pre-match dance ritual. She pulls him aside and asks if he enjoys what he's doing and if he's a real katoey. The child mumbles that he's not. Nong Toom gives the child an understanding smile, gently wipes away his make-up and advises him never to let anyone force him into doing what he does not wish to do again. This scene does more to debunk the myth that one's transsexualism or "katoeyness" is socially conditioned than any literature that has been written.

Secure in her womanhood, Nong Toom has finally transcended the paradox of her youth and found her true calling in life.

Leona Lo is the author of 'My Sisters, Their Stories', the first pictorial documentary that chronicles the daily challenges transsexual women face in Singapore and Thailand. She was awarded the York Trust Settlement Prize in her final year at University of York, United Kingdom for her role in raising gender awareness. 'My Sisters, Their Stories' is available at http://www.leonalo.com.