Beautiful Boxer

Very entertaining and also moving film based on the life story of Parinya Charoenphol, the famous transvestite/kick boxer. Charoenphol, better known in Thailand under his nickname Nong Toom, is played by a real kick boxer (Asanee Suwan) who was taught the art of acting by the director. Apparently the opposite – teaching an actor to kick-box – was not an option. This choice certainly had an important advantage for a boxing film: there can be no complaints about the boxing scenes. The director was apparently determined to make the fights look realistic and he certainly succeeded. Nong Toom grew up in a poor family. At a very early age, he discovered that he really felt like a woman and was trapped in the wrong body. There was nothing wrong with the body from a male point of view, so he was able to use it to earn a lot of money by boxing – not only to escape poverty but also to pay for an expensive sex-change operation. A striking paradox: a man who becomes a woman by practicing an outspokenly macho sport such as hard and aggressive Thai boxing. The film shows his difficult road to fame and the jeering and humiliation he was subjected to when he decided to enter the ring dressed as a woman. The real Nong Toom is now a model, actress and boxing coach in Bangkok. She doesn’t enter the ring any more, because women are not allowed to box in Thailand. (GjZ)