The Hard Way To Yourself

Society gives us guidelines for gender roles; boys look and act like this, girls look and act like that. For the most part people seem to accept the guidelines as is. But there are always those that feel transposed. Meet one of them.


Beautiful Boxer
Nong Toom is simple boy growing up in a small town in Thailand. He's a boy but would rather not be. He's quiet, shy and cringes at the violence of Muaythai, the national kickboxing sport. He cringes until one day, while defending the honor of one of his friends, he discovers that he has a deadly knack for Muaythai. He also discovers that it is a good source of income and could pay for the surgery to come. Over a period of time he becomes so good at the sport that he is eventually sponsored. At the same time he decides to glam up his appearance in preparation for switching genders, entering his fights in full makeup. Eventually his winning streak allows him to be paired in the ring with the national champion in front of a huge Bangkok audience. That's about as big as you can get for a Muaythai boxer.

Technically, Beautiful Boxer is a good film on all fronts but not great. Ordinarily I would give it a 7/10, which means I wouldn't take the time to write about it. The reason I give this one an 8/10 is because its a true story. The real life Nong Toom still lives in Thailand, but now he is a she and she is a boxer turned model.

Many of us have closets full of pretty, perception-altering masks to suit life's expectations and situations, so I think its applause-worthy to see anyone truly be themselves, even if it involves something that I, personally, might never understand.

8.0/10

Beautiful Boxer

(Yes Jason, The Departed review is coming :)