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Beautiful Boxer

2003, Movie, R, 118 mins

Beautiful Boxer: Review

BEAUTIFUL BOXER | BEUTIFUL BOCKSER
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"It's ROCKY in mascara!" shouts an excited sports commentator, and the description couldn't be more apt. This fanciful biography of transgendered Thai kickboxer Nong Toom works both as an underdog-makes-good sports drama and an affectionate tribute to a gender-bending pioneer who became a national hero while remaining true to himself. Divided into three distinct acts, the film begins with the now-adult Nong Toom (nicely played by the real-life Muay Thai champ Asanee Suwan) remembering the moments when, as the poor child of itinerant farmers in the northern Chiang Mai province, he realized he was destined to be first a girl, then a boxer. Sickened as a child by the sight of a kickboxing match staged at a local temple fair, effeminate, bullied Nong Toom is instead enraptured by an operatic performance in which a young woman vows to fight like a man rather than be intimidated as a "gentle girl." Nong Toom's lifelong love affair with makeup begins that night, when he performs the same number for his shocked parents (Orn-Anong Panyawong, Nukkid Boonthong) — in full lipstick. Believing that her son's nascent transvestitism is the result of bad karma, his mother arranges for Nong Toom to enter a monastery, but not before making her son swear he'll never allow himself to be bullied again. Despite the monks' prohibitions against any kind of embellishment, Nong Toom's love for lipgloss persists, as does his aversion to boxing. It isn't until he's a teenager that Nong Toom, while finally facing up to a bully at another temple fair, steps into the ring and discovers his own facility for the sport. Thrilled by his nascent ability to protect himself, Nong Toom begins training with kickboxing master Pi Chart (Sorapong Chatree) at a local Muay Thai school and soon begins making a name for himself on the provincial circuit. After Pi Chart's wife, Pi Bua, discovers this boxing prodigy's secret, Nong Toom boldly enters the ring in full makeup — a tactic that shocks the very traditional world of Muay Thai and propels Nong Toom to national notoriety. Saddled with a trite wraparound sequence in which Nong Toom is interviewed by an initially indifferent reporter, the film's impact is further diluted by a few too many symbolic interludes in which Nong Toom comes face-to-face with different versions of his ever-evolving self. Nevertheless, the film is heartfelt and spectacularly conceived, especially the exciting fight sequences and gorgeous production design. Like his intrepid hero, theater-turned-film director Ekachai Uekrongtham never misses an opportunity to brighten an otherwise ordinary palette with just a bit more color. leave a comment --Ken Fox
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