This is
a flawed but interesting film about an even more interesting true story. Beautiful
Boxer chronicles the early life and fame of Nong Toom, a transgender
teenager in Thailand who pays for her transition surgery by joining the world
of professional Muay Thai kickboxing.
(Note: the main character’s name
is given as both Nong Toom and Parinya Charoenphol. However, she uses a variety of names in and
out of the ring, and for the sake of simplicity, I’m going to use “Toom.” That would normally give me pause, since it’s
her birth name, but even the real boxer’s Wikipedia page regularly uses it, so
I think it’s probably okay? No offense
intended.)
From a
very young age, Nong Toom realizes she isn’t a boy like everyone thinks. Due to her family’s poverty, she thinks that
having gender reassignment and “becoming a real woman” is just a pipe dream,
until she discovers an unlikely talent:
Muay Thai. She’s by no means a
naturally violent person, but the promise of quick money through competitive
kickboxing draws her in and she joins a training camp in the hopes of providing
for her parents and funding her transition.
Along the way, she becomes hugely famous for her “gimmick” of wearing
makeup in the ring.
It’s
that last part that intrigues me the most.
Toom’s trainer is anxious to discover a boxer with a “hook,” and Toom’s
secret love of makeup and female clothes seems to provide just that. She’s a sensation, gaining instant notoriety
and sparking debate over whether it’s just an act for publicity or if she’s a
real “transvestite” (that’s the word the movie continually uses, although I’m
not sure if that’s the actual concept they mean or if it’s just what they
picked for the English subtitles.) At
first, it looks like it means Toom gets to be herself in the ring, but it’s a
very limited, exaggerated “version” of herself, one that spurs scandal and
mockery. Not to mention, obviously, it’s
motivated by someone else’s need for a gimmick and thus ripe for exploitation.
The
toxic masculinity on display is both potent and ugly. The more stereotypically-feminine Toom looks
or acts in the ring, the harder her opponents kick her. They shout transphobic insults at her and
constantly try to tear her down, try to make her afraid of them, but these
actions reflect their fears, not
hers. Yes, part of it is the
self-assurance that they won’t be beaten by a “transvestite” coupled with the
paradoxical terror that they will,
just as part of it is a more general fear and hatred of what they don’t
understand. It’s so interesting that this
brusque, hyper-masculine road is the one Toom takes to facilitate her
transition.
While
the themes are really neat (if, at times, conveyed a little heavy-handedly) and
the Muay Thai is pretty cool, I’d say the overall quality of the film is a bit
middling. This is the first Thai movie
I’ve ever seen, so I can’t say how it holds up comparably from a production
standpoint, but it feels a little chintzy to me. It’s like they have a good story but not
quite the means to tell it properly, and that mutes its effect somewhat.
Warnings
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