Beautifully Imperfect Boxer Still Scores a Knockout

The tagline, “He fights like a man so he can become a woman,” basically is everything you need to know about Thai import Beautiful Boxer. The true story of Parinaya Charoemphol, this rough and ready sports melodrama isn’t the classiest or best constructed social commentary ever made. But then, a movie about a conflicted transsexual feeling forced to make leaving in the brutal sport of kickboxing probably shouldn’t be. Its heart is very much smack dab in the right place, and despite a lot of corny sentimentality and unfocused moralizations, it’s still as an emotionally absorbing journey you’re likely to see this year.

Growing up effeminate, Parinaya, Nong Toom (Asanee Suwan) to her parents, new she was always different than the other boys. She longed to try on makeup, wear pretty clothes, keep her hair long and enter beauty pageants. But her family was from the country and bitterly poor, unable to give their children the things others took for granted and the thought their youngest son was going to be a transvestite deeply worried them. Her father, in particular, is deeply conservative and this thought in regards to his child enough to keep him up at night.

These worries are set aside when Nong takes up kickboxing, attending a school run by former professional Pi Chart (Sorapong Chatree). At first, even though she shows potential, the idea of putting in the long hours of sweat and toil necessary to become a Muaythai Boxer doesn’t appeal to Nong. But when Pi Chart challenges Toom to imagine what her heart truly desires at the end of each and every task, the burgeoning fighter begins to master the complex and dangerously aggressive moves at the very center of the sport knowing that with each victory she moves one step closer to the ultimate goal: Womanhood. Soon, Nong is fighting in Bangkok’s sold-out sports arena wearing waterproof makeup and kissing opponents as the fall to the mat in defeat. Yet, even as money, notoriety and success stream in, the transgender youngster can’t help but wonder that if in pursuit of her dream she’s unwittingly allowed herself to be turned into a punching-jumping freak show.

I actually know a bit about the true story on which this is based, and as far as the nuts and bolts are concerned co-writer Desmond Sim Kim Jin and co-writer/director Ekachai Uekrongtham get the basics pretty much right. It’s incredibly simplistic, however, the duo using the tired device of a clueless and insensitive reporter interviewing Parinaya to bookend the story. They also muddle much of the familial events, it never being entirely clear by the end exactly what Parinaya’s parent’s feelings are towards their new daughter and her decisions. Thai culture, itself deeply divided (on one hand celebrating their Ladyboys with lavish pageants, on the other treating them like second class citizens forcing many into prostitution) on the subject of transgenderism is hardly given mention. Passing references are made, but the filmmaker’s opinions are decidedly clouded, refusing to make a statement one way or the other in regards to their country’s own moralistic duplicity.

Other things don’t work very well, either. The musical score is overbearing and obnoxiously repetitive, the same theme played over and over again and again to almost nauseating effect. The performances range from the sweet and sincere to over-the-top and preposterously self-indulgent while the look of the film as shot by cinematographer Choochart Nantitanyatada borders on the stagnant. The whole movie reeks of being haphazardly thrown together, shuffled together as if its bits and pieces were spliced to one another without any grand design guiding their placement.

On a positive note, none of this ends up mattering. Suwan is melodiously intoxicating as the central character, delicately balancing both of Parinaya’s masculine and feminine sides. The story itself is never less than fascinating, this true story of womanhood achieved completely entrancing basically from start to finish. In fact, as magnificent as Boys Don’t Cry and Soldier’s Girl both were, it is stories like this that need to be told to really understand and comprehend what it means to be transgender. While those two award-winning and awesomely powerful tragedies were modern cinematic gifts, the uplifting messages at the heart of Beautiful Boxer are welcome antidotes to the downbeat conclusions reached by those two.

In fact, what I liked most about this movie is how deeply it gets inside Parinaya’s headspace. Many transsexuals become so consumed with becoming who they want to be they end up refusing to acknowledge the person they once were or any of their past experiences. While it is safe to assume most transgender people unfortunately spend much of their lives living in closeted misery, not every moment in any person’s life is completely devoid of any happiness whatsoever. Parinaya never shies away from where she wants to go, but she’s also just as willing to embrace and understand where it is she’s come from. In a quest to be female she climbed to the top of one of the most masculine sports Thailand – or any country for that matter – has ever produced, her willingness to not only talk about but also celebrate this past is wondrous and very much a cause for celebration.

In fact, much like Calpernia Addams (the central figure in Soldier’s Girl), Parinaya’s ultimate triumph in the face of heavy adversity is awe inspiring. For those unfamiliar with transgender issues and content to treat such people as social outcasts and/or pariahs, both movies should be considered required viewing. For those dealing with such issues themselves, desperately searching for answers as to why they long to inhabit the body of the opposite gender, these women aren’t just role models, they’re heroes. Beautiful Boxer may not be perfect, but for those simple reasons alone it can’t help but score a knockout.

Film Rating: êêê  (out of 4)