Click to play videoBased on a true-life story, the film I'm recommending today, Beautiful Boxer is the uplifting and inspiring story of a penniless Thai teenager Parinya who discovers he's a naturally gifted kick-boxer.
But Parinya is also hiding a secret. Parinya is a cross-dresser, a transvestite who wants to become a woman. Now if he were to reveal this information, his boxing career would be finished. So Parinya decides to fund his sex-change operation with the money he earns from professional Thai kickboxing.
The most lovely thing about this film and this story really, is the whole paradox of the identity crisis. He fights like a man to become a woman.
Eventually Parinya is encouraged to come out with his secret and to go public, so to speak. You can imagine how difficult that must be -- to enter the ring with make-up on.
He's taunted and mocked and laughed at, but that's also the film's best scene because it converges both streams of his life - glamour and combat. With time, he becomes a legend in the ring, he's rechristened Nong Toom, and he goes from a nobody to an overnight celebrity.
The message of the film of course is hope and acceptance, but it's also just an immensely entertaining film because it's such a beautiful story and it's acted out so remarkably by real-life sportsman Asanee Suwan who plays the role so convincingly, you cannot believe he's acting.
This weekend, do yourself a favour and rent Beautiful Boxer on DVD, it's a film that will touch your heart and break your heart in equal measure.
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